The Oscars are over (and long gone, but when I started writing it, this post was a lot more topical), but movie-making isn’t. So it’s time once again to discuss that old matter of how the Jews control Hollywood and film making in general.
Steven Spielberg. Roman Polanksi. The Wiensteins. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Paul Newman (half). Adam Goldberg (aka the guy who gets stabbed in Saving Private Ryan). Woody Allen. Judd Apatow. Mel Brooks. Sidney Lumet. Alan Arkin. Stanley Kubrick. The Coen Brothers. David Mamet. Who knows how many producers. The list is virtually endless.
With this many people of one religious background involved in the creation of what is arguably the most popular storytelling medium of the modern world, you’d think we’d all celebrate Yom Kippur (or at least know what it’s about) and be able to tell you all about what a great guy Moses was. But we don’t. Actually, for the most part, Jewish filmmakers have spent most of their time making movies that aren’t about Jewish people (although, it would appear that they’re obligated to do at least one each in their careers).
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the gangster flick genre. The list of films about Italian organized crime is a long one, encompassing a great deal of Martin Scorcese’s career, owning the early 30s and 40s in filmmaking, and then turning Pacino and DeNiro into stars.
But did you know there were Jewish mobsters? And that they were some of the most powerful players in organized crime?
They basically corporatized the hell out of criminal enterprises, taking the Italian model of “trust only Italians, preferably those with family connections” and replacing it with a Board of Directors set-up. They even ran a tight ship for their enforcement/hitman operation, which the media dubbed “Murder, Inc.” Imagine those business cards: “Vice-President for Extortion – Murder, Inc.”
This is one business card no one loses
One would think with all these Jewish movie people running around, and the intense popularity with crime films, we’d get a film about a mafia that didn’t conduct business on the Sabbath.
Funnily enough, that doesn’t seem to have happened. In fact, the story of Jewish crime has been mostly told by the Gentiles. The Coen Brothers could’ve had a shot, in Miller’s Crossing, but instead they made their main character the Irish Gabriel Byrne (by the way, Miller’s Crossing is a great movie, I’m not putting that down).
The movies we’re left with portraying Jewish crime are a grab-bag. Most recently we’ve got Ben Kingsley character “The Rabbi” in Lucky Number Slevin. Kingsley, of course, is not actually Jewish, though he is a ‘Movie Jew’ (spoiler: next week’s phrase). Besides Slevin, he’s been Jewish in Schindler’s List, Elegy, Moses, and lastly, Bugsy.
Bugsy is an interesting film, in that it’s the biopic of famed Jewish gangster and “Father of Las Vegas” Bugsy Siegel, who actually worked for the aforementioned Murder, Inc. However, he is played by Warren Beatty. On a hunch, I thought maybe Mr. Beatty had changed his name from something to hide his ethnic identity, and I learned he had. He was born Henry Warren Beatty. So, while that’s not definitive proof of Hebrewness, it’s pretty darn close, in my opinion.
There are two other movies where Jewish gangsters actually star as main characters, as in Bugsy. They are Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America and Martin Scorsese’s Casino. Both star…drum roll if you please…Robert De Niro! Maybe it’s something about Italian directors liking to work with Italian actors, but this strikes me as odd. Nothing about De Niro strikes me in particular as Jewish looking.
Well, actually, now that I look again, he kinda reminds me of Mel Brooks
You know how when some big Hollywood director goes and films a movie in a different country, and he hires people of a specific background to add authenticity? Why don’t they do that for these movies? Whenever they do an Italian crime movie, all the actors are Italian. There are over five million Jewish people living in the United States today. You’re telling me you can’t find enough guys to act as gangsters? Unbelievable.
Charles
03/22/2010
Jewish Cowboys and Gangsters just aren’t given enough credit
C
03/23/2010
The movie Snatch has some Jewish gangsters in it. Although it is an ensemble film i’m not sure if these characters are the leading roles. Also the three characters I can think of are all played by non-Jewish people.
Alex - Resident Goy Writer
03/23/2010
Yeah, Snatch has Cousin Avi, Frankie Four-Fingers and Doug the Head. Of course, Doug the Head is implied to be a pretend-Jew, merely to sell diamonds. So it’s more like two and half Jewish characters. All of whom, as you point out, are played by
Also, Snatch has the unfortunate deficiency of being a British film, and I guess I was more interested in American film, and the American-Jewish Mafia (delightfully referred to as the “Kosher Nostra”).
Manuel G
07/13/2010
Well, you have Lee Srasberg (born Israël Strasberg) who plays Iman Roth in The Godfather 2… This character was Inspired by Meyer Lansky the most infamous jewish Gangster ever… One of the only three jews Israël refused to accept as citizens…
P.S: The real life Sam Rosthein: Frank Rosenthal who inspired that “Casino” character was a swedish baby adopted by a jewish family…
Tzuriel
11/12/2010
While I agree with the main thrust of what you’re saying – that there should be more films about the Jewish mafia, as well as Jewish-American life in general – I think you’re criticism of the use of Robert DeNiro to play these characters is unwarranted. First, what he looks like is not important. Jewish people obviously have many different looks than the stereotypical one. I’m part Jewish and yet look distinctly Irish/Scottish.
Second, the use of Robert DeNiro is not about whether he’s Italian or not – it’s that he’s frickin Robert DeNiro. You use him for whatever you can, considering he’s one of the greatest actors of his generation. It has nothing to do with Italians using only Italians – Scorsese and DeNiro forged an incredibly strong working relationship by the time “Casino” rolled around, starting back when Scorsese cast DeNiro in “Mean Streets”. For Scorsese, it’s using an actor you’re comfortable with and know will give you gold. Now, Scorsese mostly works with Leonardo DiCaprio, who is mostly German in descent. Also, Frank Rosenthal only agreed to be interviewed for “Casino” and the book accompanying it after he learned that Robert DeNiro was to play him. So the man himself didn’t seem to have any trouble with it.
For Sergio Leone, it was about using the best of the best of American actors. If anything, Leone passed up many very talented Italian actors to populate his films with Americans, whether it be Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, or Robert DeNiro. When constructing “Once Upon a Time in America” his magnum opus, he drew together all the best talent he could find. That meant Robert DeNiro, then in the prime of his career and one of the most talented actors in the world.
While I think the Jewish people, as well as a whole lot of other people, are grossly underrepresented in mainstream film, I don’t think it’s fair to criticize using amazing actors for starring roles, though perhaps you can criticize the studio system that enforces that trend. So I’d love to see more Jewish actors on screen, and more Jewish mobsters, too. And I think we’re moving in that direction. Almost nobody makes Italian mobster movies anymore. Soon, we’ll move past Boston and somebody will cast an eye on Jewish stories. Or someone else’s. ;)