18. The Mob in Movies vs Real Life
The Godfather is a great movie, with a memorable haunting music, a gripping plot, and one of Hollywood’s greatest ensemble casts. However, admiration for the film has blinded many to the fact that it is not real. What it depicts is fiction created by author Mario Puzo, brilliantly brought to the silver screen by director Francis Ford Coppola. It is an imagined version of organized crime, not an accurate depiction of the real thing. In real life, the mafia has always been a collection of often psychotic, parasitic, backstabbing, and grubby thugs who would do anything for money. In short, the actual mob has always been more like a malignant cancer than the romanticized band of criminals portrayed in the movie. Rather than paragons of loyalty and disciples of omerta, mobsters from the mafia’s earliest days have often snitched, and betrayed bosses and underlings alike.
Also, far from the myth popularized by The Godfather about the mafia’s avoidance of drugs, the mob has been heavily involved in narcotics from its birth. A recurring theme throughout The Godfather is “good” Mafiosi, the Corleones, who don’t deal drugs, warring with “bad” mobsters who want to sell narcotics. In real life, all mafia families from day one dealt in drugs. The mafia were never ones to leave money on the table, and illegal narcotics was too lucrative a trade to ignore. Those who did would have soon been eclipsed by the greater wealth of others who did not, and accordingly been outcompeted for influence, soldiers, and loyalty.
