Vendetta

Rating:
Summary: Depiction of a murder.
Review: Great movie. christopher walken is great as always. and the movie is put together very smoothly, making the viewer uneasy to see what is coming up next. all in all very nicely put together.
it is based on the story of the italian lynching in 1890 and for that reason the director tries and does a good job at depicting the places and people with as much originality as possible.
this is a great movie to add to your Christopher Walken collection, especially at this price ($8.99)

Rating:
Summary: An Overview of New Orleans in 1890
Review: Taking a look back into the time of 1890, in what is now the party central Mardi Gras area of New Orleans, Walken is a dominating sadist who controls the government and cotton industry. Basically Walken runs the town, and tries to eliminate the Italiens, whom he perceives as the problem of the area. Typical of movies of this nature, the problem is himself and his overwhelming greed that ends up killing some prominant Italien immigrants. Two thumbs up, but hey `I AM ON THE COVER, THE GUY IN THE BROWN SUIT LEADING THE MOB'. Although I'm on the cover, I'm no real part in this movie, about three seconds to be exact. OH WELL EH! Rent this movie, it is a powerful depiction of a time in our history, thank GOD, that we do not have to fight through again. The laws that we have today are established for us, through true heroes who fought through the rich and powerful to make 3 cents an hour. Mayer's uses the Italien immigration time of 1890, and the horrible imagery of lynching innocent labourers, to illustrate this point to us, who more or less take this for granted today. Really look at the heart of this movie, and understand how lucky we really are today....

Rating:
Summary: An Overview of New Orleans in 1890
Review: Taking a look back into the time of 1890, in what is now the party central Mardi Gras area of New Orleans, Walken is a dominating sadist who controls the government and cotton industry. Basically Walken runs the town, and tries to eliminate the Italiens, whom he perceives as the problem of the area. Typical of movies of this nature, the problem is himself and his overwhelming greed that ends up killing some prominant Italien immigrants. Two thumbs up, but hey `I AM ON THE COVER, THE GUY IN THE BROWN SUIT LEADING THE MOB'. Although I'm on the cover, I'm no real part in this movie, about three seconds to be exact. OH WELL EH! Rent this movie, it is a powerful depiction of a time in our history, thank GOD, that we do not have to fight through again. The laws that we have today are established for us, through true heroes who fought through the rich and powerful to make 3 cents an hour. Mayer's uses the Italien immigration time of 1890, and the horrible imagery of lynching innocent labourers, to illustrate this point to us, who more or less take this for granted today. Really look at the heart of this movie, and understand how lucky we really are today....

Rating:
Summary: From Gangs of New York to a Lynch Mob in New Orleans!
Review: This film is a forgotten contribution to public understanding of the history no history teacher wants to tell you. That is precisely why you need to see this movie. While it is not at the same quality level as "Gangs of New York" there are definitely highlights of quality work. Christopher Walken has a special style of playing villains. When you are ready to shoot him, you have to realize he just "got you." This is the mark of a real actor in a villain role. This is basically one of the most compelling stories of political corruption, and was the largest lynching in American history. Many good Italian American families suffered in the process.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent film on the prejudices of the business world.
Review: This is a wonderful, if not disturbing, film on an incident more people should know about. I think it shows wonderfully the prejudices against Italian-Americans and how people always cruelly associate them with the mafia. I'd like to give a warning, though, to those with sensitive stomachs: the scene in which the nine accused are slaughtered by the mob may be a bit to unnerving for some.

Rating:
Summary: Racism + Capital = Murder
Review: Turn of the century New Orleans boasts a bustling port, a key revenue maker for the up and coming Italian immigrants struggling to cross the barriers installed by the WASP establishment and now tolerated Irish. Christopher Walken plays the key figure in the established world of commerce who can't seem to buy or bully his way into the market the Italians have locked up. He uses his political influence to bring further pressure to bear, and when the local police Chief, portrayed by Clancy Brown, now making a career of playing lawmen and prison guards, is assassinated he'll use the law of the courts and if that fails - the mob, to get his way. This true story is a strong testament to the slimy underside of the 'land of opportunity'. The combination of the posionous weeds of bigotry and the greed of finance capital proves a deadly one as a handful of Italians, including Walken's key business rivals, are rounded up for the murder of the Chief. An excellent courtroom drama makes up for an uninteresting romance between a young Italian boy and Irish girl that the film uses to lighten the load. The sterling performances of Clancy Brown and Bruce Davison, unrecognizable despite his dozens of TV movie appearances, in a tour de force role as defense attorney, earn this drama it's fourth star.

Rating:
Summary: See What the Irish in New Orleans Did To The Italians!!
Review: When we hear of lynchings we often think of African-Americans being strung up by the KKK. But the biggest mass lynching by a vigilante mob in the U.S. happened in 1890 to the Italian immigrants of New Orleans. HBO should be commended for having to courage to make a film about the most tragic time in Italian-American history.

In the film, 20 Italians were arrested at random and put on trial for the shooting murder of Police Chief Hennessy, an Irishman who may have been prejudiced towards Italians but would not lock them up unless he had concrete evidence against them. In other words, conspiracy and membership in a group whose name was heard for the first time--the Mafia.

In the trial, the Italians were acquitted. But that didn't stop a crazed vigilante mob from breaking into the city jail with shotguns and blowing them all away. (The film, however, shows that two do survive.) When the king of Italy heard about this he almost started a war with the US. Instead, then President Benjamin Harrison gave $25,000 in restitution, and everyone forgot about it. But not the Italians who witnessed the bloodshed for themselves. It's too bad the Mafia weren't there at that time; they could've fought back.

All the trouble starts when Mr. Houston, played by Christopher Walken, wants to get control of the docks which are run successfully by Mr. Macheca and the Provenzano family. He relies on the corrupt law system, but even the DA, played by Edward Herrmann, believes there's no case. He says, "Why would Macheca be with the Mafia? He's rich. He's got nothing to gain and everything to lose." The prejudice of the city fathers is remarkable. They always refer to Italians as either dagos or Italians with "I" pronounced like "eye".

In the end Mr. Houston takes over the business which Macheca built up from the bottom by himself. A statue is raised to the memory of Hennessy; but is there a monument in New Orleans to the killed Italians? It's amazing to see how some people thought nothing of toting shotguns and committing murder. Viewers of the film "Rosewood" will find this familiar ground.

One more thing: Unlike other ethnic groups, Italians have never bought into the cult of victimology. They do not issue calls for reparations. But every Italian-American should be aware of what happened a century ago in New Orleans. To this day there are still morons who believe that all Italian-Americans are part of the Mafia. And TV shows like "The Sopranos", now matter how riveting, do not help the image of these people, either. If you are Italian, and you see this movie, you will cry like the Jews after the Holocaust--"Never Again! Never Again!".

Rating:
Summary: See What the Irish in New Orleans Did To The Italians!!
Review: When we hear of lynchings we often think of African-Americans being strung up by the KKK. But the biggest mass lynching by a vigilante mob in the U.S. happened in 1890 to the Italian immigrants of New Orleans. HBO should be commended for having to courage to make a film about the most tragic time in Italian-American history.

In the film, 20 Italians were arrested at random and put on trial for the shooting murder of Police Chief Hennessy, an Irishman who may have been prejudiced towards Italians but would not lock them up unless he had concrete evidence against them. In other words, conspiracy and membership in a group whose name was heard for the first time--the Mafia.

In the trial, the Italians were acquitted. But that didn't stop a crazed vigilante mob from breaking into the city jail with shotguns and blowing them all away. (The film, however, shows that two do survive.) When the king of Italy heard about this he almost started a war with the US. Instead, then President Benjamin Harrison gave $25,000 in restitution, and everyone forgot about it. But not the Italians who witnessed the bloodshed for themselves. It's too bad the Mafia weren't there at that time; they could've fought back.

All the trouble starts when Mr. Houston, played by Christopher Walken, wants to get control of the docks which are run successfully by Mr. Macheca and the Provenzano family. He relies on the corrupt law system, but even the DA, played by Edward Herrmann, believes there's no case. He says, "Why would Macheca be with the Mafia? He's rich. He's got nothing to gain and everything to lose." The prejudice of the city fathers is remarkable. They always refer to Italians as either dagos or Italians with "I" pronounced like "eye".

In the end Mr. Houston takes over the business which Macheca built up from the bottom by himself. A statue is raised to the memory of Hennessy; but is there a monument in New Orleans to the killed Italians? It's amazing to see how some people thought nothing of toting shotguns and committing murder. Viewers of the film "Rosewood" will find this familiar ground.

One more thing: Unlike other ethnic groups, Italians have never bought into the cult of victimology. They do not issue calls for reparations. But every Italian-American should be aware of what happened a century ago in New Orleans. To this day there are still morons who believe that all Italian-Americans are part of the Mafia. And TV shows like "The Sopranos", now matter how riveting, do not help the image of these people, either. If you are Italian, and you see this movie, you will cry like the Jews after the Holocaust--"Never Again! Never Again!".