From Henry's words, "When I was a teenager, I made more money than most adults on the street" reveals the first layer, the most direct thing brought by the gang life is money, overnight, a rich life is at your fingertips and. Then came the "respect" of the outside world, and the "extra care" on the street greatly satisfied vanity. This peaked when Henry took his newly hooked girlfriend into the restaurant through the back door. This long shot uses the camera movement to the extreme, and the gorgeous and smooth visual effects make the audience truly feel Henry's right now.
Then the situation took a turn for the worse, and all the characters seemed to be in madness: Jimmy began to kill a 6 million robbery, Tommy shot the young man in the bar for no reason, and was finally executed by the Gambino family (the beginning of the film has been paved) ……The film enters the second layer, the hidden self-destructive tendency of the gang, the comfortable life of the gang comes from the material provided by the gang, and the fundamental way for the gang to obtain material is terror and violence. Therefore, the essence of the gang is immoral violence, which brings The chaos makes its structure extremely unstable. This instability makes gangs often lose control when they encounter major turning points such as the drug industry.
This self-destructive tendency gradually develops toward the destruction of others, and interpersonal relationships maintained by material and violence are more fragile than imagined. In the third layer of the film, it is also a must-see scene in gangster movies: the brothers betrayed each other in the past. In the end Henry also chose to compromise and joined the witness protection plan. Over time, a small society disappeared in self-destruction and mutual destruction.
At the end of the film, Henry said "I feel that I can't leave that kind of life", and then brought the film back to the beginning, asking again: Knowing that it is toward destruction, why is there always someone willing to try? Because of that kind of life, an ordinary person who is confused and embarrassed can achieve achievements far beyond his own ability through "struggle". Can this gang legend be understood as a twisted American dream?
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