Giovanni

Isn’t it about the outward projection of virtue though?

so the Camorra might give money to people whose relatives are doing time or who are dead because it makes them look like good and virtuous people, but at the same time, out of public view, they are utterly immoral.

I think the Sopranos dealt with this idea very nicely (and Mad Men definitely does too). It sees society as a judgmental place… so you look good, you are wel dressed, you have the wife and kids and the big car but behind closed doors you’re fucking prostitutes and selling drugs.

It’s not just a style thing, you’re quite correct, but isn’t it more about the appearance of virtue than actual virtue?

Giovanni

I’m in the same boat. I got rid of my aerial about three years ago and I have never regretted it. I have The Wire on DVD but I am sure that it can be found on the net too :-)

As to whether this constitutes ‘watching television’ is a question of semantics but if you’re capable of watching films on DVD then I think it might be worth your while taking a look at The Wire.

I completely agree (and that’s a fine review by the way). I think it will be very difficult, going forward, to take another gangster film seriously given how thoroughly Saviano and Garrone have de-mythologised and de-romanticised the image of the gangster.

Interestingly, I think The Wire was nowhere near as effective at this. Whereas most of the Wire’s targets are hit quite cleanly (the corruption of labor, the gaming of the school system), it struggles to put across the idea that the capitalist drug dealer is a bad thing. Stringer Bell is seen as a hero by many Wire fans as I think The Wire keeps up a distinction between corrupt mainstream capitalism and corrupt illegal capitalism that really should not exist. I don’t think that was necessarily intentional, The Wire is very fond of talking about the systems of capitalist oppression, but I think it’s a point they struggle to get across when compared to the effortlessness of the film.