(1999)
2.5
Mike Cummings
A respectable mafia? That is the oxymoron that director Dwight Little examines in this TNT film about crime boss Paul Castellano (1915-1985). Using archival film, black-and-white sequences, and color, the production begins with the fatal shooting of Castellano, overlord of the Carlo Gambino crime family from 1976 to 1985, at Sparks Steak House in New York City. It then flashes back to the events leading up to the murder. Chazz Palminteri (A Bronx Tale), one of Hollywood's better but lesser-known actors, portrays Castellano as an aging don who falls prey to his conscience. Although his performance is brilliant, the Castellano he depicts is a sanitized version of the real life boss of bosses. It is true, as the film maintains, that Castellano forbade drug-trafficking and other forms of illegal activity in favor of legitimate business enterprises. It is also true that he outwardly repudiated "arbitrary" murder as a solution to La Cosa Nostra's problems. However, it is also true that Castellano apparently ordered 24 hits during his reign as cousin Carlo's hand-picked successor before he himself became a victim of disgruntled John Gotti (Sonny Marinelli)'s henchmen. Astute viewers may also notice that Palminteri bears little resemblance physically to the hulking Castellano, called "Big Pauly" by his hoodlum buddies. Nevertheless, the film is entertaining -- though hurried and underdeveloped -- as it presents snippets of Castellano's life as a youth (acted by Yani Gellman) and a family man. When his boys express a desire to follow in dad's footsteps (like godfather, like son), Castellano says, "This ain't the movies boys. People die sometimes. And you will not be part of it." In its almost sympathetic portrait of Castellano, the film presents him as a kind of tragic Shakespearean figure. Like Claudius in Hamlet, he feels the prick of conscience. Like King Lear, he discovers the folly of his ways late in life. Like Julius Caesar, he falls to conspirators. Scriptwriters Jere Cunningham, Alphonse Ruggiero, and Palminteri adapted Boss of Bosses from a book by former FBI agents Joseph O'Brien and Andris Kurins with a co-writer, Laurence Shames. Boss of Bosses is worth watching, if only for Palminteri's performance.
Boss of Bosses on AllMovie
Boss of Bosses (1999)
