Mafia - The History of the Mob in America (2001)

DVD Movie Review

This two disk set is a must have for those interested in the movie's subject. Well prepared and presented for all viewers to understand.
It's on the lengthy side and this is to be expected for this kind of subject matter. You should have this movie in your movie library. December 28, 2008

Informative, well organized and entertaining

This A&E documentary is informative, well organized and entertaining. The section on disc 1 about Joe Kennedy's mob connections from running illegal booze during prohibition and the well documented theory of mafia involvement in the JFK assassination is worth the price of admission. Highly recommended! July 17, 2006

Informative, But To Repetitive

This movie is historically informing, but the movie constantly repeats itself going from gangster to gangster. December 29, 2005

Terrible at best

If you're seriously interested in the true history of the Mafia (as in the Sicilian/Italian group), look elsewhere. This film is a joke. To start, the entire basis of the film seems to be that organized crime started with the Italians, and that it started in Prohibition. This is most definitely not the case, and the backing for this can be found elsewhere. Second, their "historians" are a bit shady, with one of their favorites being a "western" looking guy who is constantly wearing aviator's sunglasses. His only credentials are that he's a "Mafia historian".

For those that believe the Hollywood stereotypes, you may enjoy this film because I'm not sure they have any historical references that don't include "directed by", "produced by", or "starring". If I remember correctly, the only clips from an educated historian (or possibly historians) they interviiewed were completely hacked together to only use the parts of a sentence they wanted heard. The editing was even cheaply done, so it wasn't even disguised.

This film is very poorly done, and is a disrespect to any person of Italian descent. It only perpetuates the stereotypes of the Italian people, based off of Hollywood's portrayal of them throughout time. December 16, 2005

The Birth of Organized Crime in America

Had this documentary been called "The Birth of Organized Crime in America," I would have given it 5 stars because that's all it does (and very well, I might add). I suspect the title "Mafia" was used to appeal to the rookie drug dealer who wants to learn how to improve his business but is too stupid to read a book and as such looks for DVDs with the word "Mafia" in it.

But seriously folks, this DVD tells a good story about the birth of OC in the US of A, but even then does not talk about Murder Inc. (the crew from Brooklyn that traveled around the country assassinating people for the Mafia - 2000 in all), the Gangs of New York (not the cheesy Leonardio De-Faggio version), and the gangster underworld (featuring people like Kid Twist and Mose) that came immediately before the birth of the 5 families.

Bada Beep, Bada Boop, I guess this as much as we can expect from some dudes in the suburbs of LA.






October 3, 2004

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