He was the important Cosa Nostra guy who astonished everyone by committing the ultimate sin: treason. It was something that made him lower than the low: hated not merely by the police and the media but his own people, too. Perhaps those who think that this episode is a self-serving fantasy of Tommaso’s to justify ratting out his fellow bad guys. Bellocchio shows how at this moment the mafia have revealed themselves to be not glamorous warriors, but grotesque and spiteful bullies. There isn’t quite enough human interest or incidental detail of the sort that made Goodfellas so unmissable.

Source: The Guardian May 23, 2019 18:45 UTC