Movies based on real life do both good and bad things. On the bad side they make us believe that everything we’re witnessing is the bare facts laid out in cinematic style. On the good side they make us interested in a subject and hopefully look deeper into it rather than accept the film in blind faith. So it will be interesting to see what folks can learn about Danny Greene, the mobster and focus of the film KILL THE IRISHMAN.
Green (as played by Ray Stevenson) is a local tough guy who comes up the hard way. Picked on by the Italians in his neighborhood, the rough little Irish kid grows up taking his licks but dishing them out as well. He grows into a man and goes the physical labor route most do without an education. But Danny reads. He’s tough and smart, a deadly combination.
When Danny’s had enough of corrupt union leaders that care nothing for the men they represent, he takes on the local union boss and kicks him out. Now in charge of the union, Danny sets up shop and works with the Italian mob to steal from the loading docks he’s in charge of. Along the way he picks up a wife, has a few kids and eventually gets charged with wrongdoing, losing his job.
Back on the streets and looking for work, he goes to work for Shondor Birns (Christopher Walken), a Jewish mobster/loan shark. Danny learns the ins and outs of the business eventually taking on his boss. With a contract on his head, Danny decided to fight fire with fire. If that wasn’t enough, Danny also eventually takes on the Italian mob as well, daring them to take him out.
Looking into the truth behind the story you discover the numerous car bombings/deaths that took place in Cleveland when Danny Greene was around. Needless to say if you grew up in the 70s and in Danny’s neighborhood, a bulletproof vest and a bunker in your house would have been a good investment. He was a violent man when called for but depicted here he had a soft side as well, helping people out at times. Then again he also dished out physical abuse for those late to the loan shark. So which side of Danny Greene is the real one? Only he knows.
The movie tells the tale in straight forward fashion, only using flashbacks when police detective and boyhood friend Joe Manditski (Val Kilmer) narrates. Kilmer’s character is one that is torn between loyalties to his boyhood friend yet at the same time being a stand up cop enforcing the law. It’s a narrow path to walk down but he does the best he can.
Stevenson is great here, depicting both sides of Greene and under laying the tough guy on the outside with the man who wants to help others as well. There always seems to be something simmering beneath that calm façade that Danny offers the public, a man of brute strength and unrepentant violence just waiting to be set free.
The entire cast does a great job here. Walken is underused but makes the best of his onscreen time. Vincent D’Onofrio as Greene’s friend in the mob John Nardi comes off as a low level mob guy who shoots for the stars and rarely reaches the top floor of the nearby buildings. Tony Lobianco turns in a fine performance of the local head of the mob in Cleveland who ends up getting help from big time New York boss Paul Sorvino.
One of the best things included in this DVD is a short documentary about the real Danny Greene. Archive footage of Greene daring the mob to come get him, pictures of his life and times all blend to make this man interesting and at the same time show him for what he was, a low level mobster who attempted to paint a better image of himself than the actual life he led.
This is a well made movie, one that entertains and that shows a mobster who, while he gets involved with them, is not Italian. Film makers seem to take an easy way out these days depicting all Italians as mobsters. This film shows that they don’t have a lock on the crime world, that there are others involved as well. The story is interesting, the character one that holds your attention and the technical aspects show a well put together film. All in all this is a movie that’s worth renting if not owning.
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