In this, 1972’s first installment of a 3 part series, we meet the head of the family, Vito Corleone. Francis Ford Coppola’s film classic chronicles the ma’s rise from humble beginnings as a sicilian immigrant to the head of one of the largest and most influential crime families in the U.S., based out of New York City. Vito, is a loving man with high esteem for his family as well as old world values. He tries his best to impart his wisdom and sense of fairness into his son’s, whom he knew would one day run the family business. His son’s could not be more different from each other, with the heir apparent being the oldest Sonny Corleone.

Through the trials displayed in the film see a highly stylized yet undeniable true and gritty look at the underworld of the italian mafia in the U.S. in the early to mid part of the last century. We witness the change from italians arriving in the U.S. at Ellis Island, to controlling many industries, with the hand of the mafia pulling the strings. And at the helm of the organization, Vito struggles to balance his obligations to his family, while ensuring that his crime family thrives and remains atop the food chain of the Mafia in the city.

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Kevin Costner’s 1990 epic Dances with Wolves is a Masterpiece of American cinematography. The movie chronicles the time spent by cavalryman Lt. Dunbar on the frontier of the american west. Lt. Dunbar was assigned to an abandoned outpost to assess threat and re-establish a foothold with the U.S. military in the area.

While at his outpost, Dunbar encounters what for a long while would be his only friend,a wolf he names Two Socks, due to his markings. Dunbar and the wolf get to know each other, while Dunbar gets accustomed to his life as a lone cavalryman,on the frontier. It is around this time that the two are discovered by a band of men from the local tribe of Sioux. He will learn to trust the Sioux, and that everything that he’s been told about them as a people has been a lie. Dunbar begins a life with the Sioux, and discovers that a white woman lives among them and has been raised as one of them.  While he thinks that his life has found purpose and meaning, it will come to tribulation once his regiment finds where he’s living and how he’s been doing it.

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In 2003’s crime drama, Mystic River, tragedy strikes a Boston family when their daughter is found murdered on the banks of the river. Sean Penn plays Jimmy Markham, the father of the girl and a local hood. Kevin bacon plays Det. Sean Devine, the cop investigating the murder and Markham’s childhood friend. Their adult relationship is strained considering their polarized career choices.  That being said, while Devine works the murder from the legal side, Markham employs his connections within the underworld to generate leads.

The pair were once a trio, with Tim Robbin’s character, Dave Boyle, rounding it out. Dave’s story is one of tragedy, having been kidnapped and molested when the boys were young. Boyle still struggles with the aftermath of his ordeal, and it colors his day to day interactions. This raises eyebrows, including those of Jimmy Markham. What follows is an epics tale of revenge, and betrayal.

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Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 release, Boogie Nights is a look at the 1970’s pornindustry,and one young man’s”rise” to stardom within it. We come to know a young Eddie  Adams, from Torrance, CA. Eddie is 17, living with his parents and working 2 jobs. On one of those jobs, he works as a busboy/dishwasher at a nightclub. As a side hustle, he mastrubates for $10 for patrons. This is how he catches the eye of porn director Jack Horner, who upon seeing the size of Eddie’s member, is eager to bring him on as a protege’.

Eddie comes into his own as a porn actor named Dirk Diggler. The story covers the period of transition when the industry switched over from film, to video, upending the entire way that the films were made and distributed. In the process, we see the porn industry from the viewpoint of the the actors and actresses, as well as the crew. It’s a sometimes dark look at an industry that literally changed they way that movies were made.

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In 1998, David Kaye directed an epic tale of race relations in the U.S., starring Edward Norton as Derek Vineyard and Edward Furlong as Danny Vineyard, two brothers growing up in a radicalized Neo-Nazi household, in Los Angeles, CA. in the early to mid 90’s. The Brothers have been on a long slide downward every since their father was killed by members of a Crip gang years prior. Or, does their path of ruin pre date that fateful event?

The story introduces Danny as a troubled youth, dealing with his Neo Nazi brother being away in prison and also with problems with younger members of the local crip gang. Danny is tasked by his high school principal to take stock in his life and in his choices, by evaluating what is leading him down his current path, and what led his older brother Derek in the same direction.

Derek faces his own challenges after being imprisoned for murder on a black home invader.  While in prison, he sees that everything that he has come to believe about the white power movement is a lie, and that he himself has unwillingly helped to spread that lie. He finds friendship in a black prisoner and wins his release with the help of his former principal who is also trying to get him to get Danny on the straight and narrow. Will Derek be able to change hearts and minds in time to save his brother from repeating his mistakes?

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In 1991, John Singleton introduced the U.S. to a view that they were not used to seeing, a realistic view into the way that African Americans are living in the inner-cities plagued with gang violence and drug abuse, told from an African American perspective. Until that point, stories that had been told on the subject had always been told from an outsider’s perspective, and not from someone who had actually grown up in the environment. Singleton spins the tale of a group of friends, growing up in South Central Los Angeles amidst the violence of open gang warfare, drugs(the Crack epidemic), and racial hostility from the police department.

The Story is mainly told from the point of view of a young man named Trey. Trey lives with his father, Furious, in south central. He grows up in an area where most fathers are not in the home, and positive male role models are hard to come by. His Best friends are Rick and Darren, two brothers being raised by a single mother, and on two completely different paths. Rick becomes a local sports protege, while Darren (a member of the “Neighborhood” Crips gang) ends up a career criminal.

Life in the hood isn’t easy, but at least you have your friends, right? Well that is the case, until a rival gang (Crenshaw Mafia Blood Gang) decides to make an example of Rick, following an altercation at an earlier tie. This forces Darren and Trey to make some tough choices about how to react, whether or not to retaliate. The movie has stood the test of time some 24 years after it’s theatrical release as one of the best pieces of american cinema in the last 30 years, and is well worth re-watching.

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In Zack Snyder’s 2009 film adaptation of the 1982 graphic novel, a motley group of heros (super and otherwise) face off in a tale of intrigue and suspense. The movie covers the lives of of 7 of the heros (5 are active), and how they intertwine through a web of deceit and betrayal. The tale culminates with these gritty vigilantes fighting to save the fate of the planet from becoming completely desolate one.

The protagonist seems to be a guy named Rorschach, who’s mask of anonymity changes like the inkblot test he’s named after. It seems that through analyzing what would seem to be an ordinary suicide he discovers that amongst the ranks of his fellow crime fighters, there is something amiss. He goes to recruit some of his fellow fighters and discovers resistance due to everyone living their own lives and having their own troubles.

The antagonist turns out to be the character Ozymandias,  styled after the Greek versions of Khmetan gods. Ozymandias has set a plan in motion that involves all of the heros, and requires their participation, whether implicit or by happenstance. In the end, our heroes must decide what roles they play, and indeed just what a real hero is.

 

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In the 2001 Wes Anderson film, The Royal Tenenbaums, the concept of family is challenged, by using an affluent New York unit as the primaries for consideration. The Tenenbaums live a fractured existence of shame, regret, and hubris. Led by Royal Tenenbaum, he his ex wife and their brood struggle to cope with life as a broken family unit, while struggling to right old wrongs, and live new lives in the wake of a disastrous pairing between he and his ex-wife, Etheline.

The Tenenbaums have 3 kids (one, Margot, adopted.) and have taken in a fourth who was a best friend of one of the other 3. The children are a strange mix of siblings with the boys, of which their are three, being a tennis pro, an accountant, and a writer. Margot is an accomplished playwright. By the end of the tale, all 3 boys have nervous breakdowns. Margot herself experiences loss, as she goes through yet another divorce, realizing that she is in love with her adopted brother, Richie.

Etheline Tenenbaum is having a difficult time moving on with her life, as her estranged husband, Royal refuses to sign divorce papers so that she may remarry her tax accountant. Seeing the disarray that his live of excesses has caused within his family,and nearing the end of his selfish life due to Cancer, Royal decides to make things right before he goes. Hilarity ensues, and life will never be the same for the Tenenbaums, and maybe that’s a good thing.

 

 

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