Film: 
DVD:
Written & Edited by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson, William Link
Narrated by Angela Lansbury, Tom Bosley, Michael Horton
Features:
- Includes four Biography episodes: “Lucky Luciano: Chairman of the Mob,” “Meyer Lansky: Mob Tycoon,” “Genovese: Portrait of a Crime Family,” “Bugsy Siegel: Gambling on the Mob”
Released by: A&E Home Entertainment.
Rating: NR
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; episodes appear in their original 1.33:1 format.
My Advice: Eh, don’t bother.
[ad#longpost]We’ve all seen The Godfather series of films, Goodfellas, Casino, and the others. The Mafia has been the favorite subject for Hollywood since its inception. But how much is fact and how much is fiction. This Godfathers Collection shows us how the Mafia started as local gangs on the island of Sicily that emigrated with the rest of the huddled masses to America. With the massive boost of their income due to bootlegging alcohol and the brutal genius of men like Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, they consolidated the various gangs into the Five Families of the Commission to truly organize crime and veil themselves in secrecy. However, the Mob became a victim of its own success and ego with flashy mobsters like Bugsy Siegel and others enjoying their wealth and power too much in the public eye. With the new generation of mobsters spoiled by easy money and their reputation, the Mafia started to show signs of falling apart. But as law enforcement will tell you, La Cosa Nostra is down but not out.
There’s not much I can say about this documentary. It’s very straight forward in its linear historical coverage of its subject. There’s plenty of film clips and the talking heads step up to fill in the gaps. One interesting aspect was the focus they gave to the connections between the mob in New York and the mob in Sicily. However, there is only a brief mention of Law Vegas, the City the Mob Built. Frankly trying to cover the century long history of the Mafia in ninety minutes shortchanges the subject matter.
The only extras the disc has to supplement the documentary is four Biography episodes featuring several big names in the Mafia. This helps a little but since Luciano, Lansky, and Siegel are contemporaries and worked together, these episodes have a lot of overlap. Why not include John Gotti or Al Capone?
Since there are no other special features, I really can’t recommend Godfathers Collection: The True History of the Mafia. If it happens to be on the History Channel, you might want to watch it, assuming a good rerun of Law & Order isn’t on.
Marrone! Whatta scamorz’ you are! The Godfather is a movie more about history than you maybe can know. The Hollywood cagatta is not a Mafia thing…it’s a Hollywood thing. The way THEY see it is not what it is. The other day, this guy, a real mook, says to me, “Joey, the Sopranos is a righteous show! It’s real.” I gave this caffone a spacc in faccia – a HARD smack – because that is NOT how it is. No wiseguy talks like a pig in his house – with his crew yeah! but not “in casa”. And as for Lansky, Bugsy, those guys were a part of a lot of the business. They were not, could never be, MADE guys… because they were not 100% italian – not paisani. The movies are bad when they show every day like a war. Not true. And when crews had to “hit the mattresses” for their “families” it was business ONLY. Nobody went to a school yard to whack somebody’s kid. If a wiseguy messed up and had to be “hit”, the family took care of his personal business, including the wife and kids. This is serious and betrayal is the biggest sin. You swear for HONOR above all. NO RATS! Today the cosa nostra is almost no more because of nobody taking the oath of honor. So, a guy like me retires and works part-time. I’m a serious wiseguy! You won’t see anything like the real guys in any movie. So Basta and that’s that.
I have my gummare Concetta, a nice legit business , some vino and buona notte! Thanks to youse, now I’ll have a good cagatta and a laugh too! Bravo!
Your pal and good buddy, Joey Clams