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Inglourious Basterds. (2009)

You know, fighting in a basement offers a lot of difficulties. Number one being, you’re fighting in a basement.
— Lt. Aldo Raine

Plot

In 1941, SS Colonel Hans Landa interrogates French dairy farmer Perrier LaPadite about the whereabouts of the last unaccounted-for Jewish family in the area, the Dreyfus family. Landa suspects that they are hiding under the floor, and in exchange for the Germans agreeing to leave his family alone for the rest of the war, LaPadite tearfully confirms it. Landa orders his SS soldiers to shoot through the floorboards, killing all but one of the Dreyfus family; Shosanna, the daughter, escapes. As she runs, Col. Landa decides not to shoot her.

Three years later, Lieutenant Aldo Raine of the First Special Service Force rounds up and recruits Jewish-American soldiers to the Basterds, a paramilitary unit formed to instill fear among the German soldiers by killing and scalping them. The Basterds include Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz and Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz, the latter a rogue German soldier who murdered thirteen Gestapo officers. In Germany, Adolf Hitler interviews a young German soldier, Private Butz, the only survivor of a Basterd attack on his squad, who reveals the details of the attack and that Raine carved the Nazi swastika into Butz’s forehead with a knife so he could never hide that he served in the German Heer.

Four years after the murder of her family, Shosanna is living in Paris and operating a cinema under the name “Emmanuelle Mimieux”. She meets Fredrick Zoller one night as she’s setting up for movies. Seemingly the next day she learns about his reputation as a war hero as well. He is a celebrated German sniper who killed 250 soldiers in a single battle, and stars in a Nazi propaganda film, Stolz der Nation (Nation’s Pride). Infatuated with Shosanna, Zoller convinces Joseph Goebbels to hold the premiere of the film at her cinema. Landa, who is the head of security for the premiere, interrogates Shosanna about how she acquired the cinema at such a young age, while giving hints that he may know who she is. Landa ultimately forgets his most important question and leaves her to proceed with the premiere. Shosanna plots with her Afro-French lover and projectionist Marcel to kill the Nazi leaders who will attend the premiere by setting the cinema ablaze. Unknown to Shosanna, Intelligence Corps Lieutenant Archie Hicox has been recruited to lead Operation Kino, a British plan to attack the premiere with the Basterds.

Hicox goes to a basement tavern in German-occupied northern France with Basterds Stiglitz and Wilhelm Wicki to meet an undercover agent, the German film star Bridget von Hammersmark, who will be attending the premiere in Paris. Hicox inadvertently draws the attention of Wehrmacht Sergeant Wilhelm and Gestapo Major Dieter Hellström with his unusual German accent and mannerisms. Their covers blown, Stiglitz and Hicox shoot Hellström, triggering a gunfight that kills everyone in the tavern except Sergeant Wilhelm and von Hammersmark, who is shot in the leg. Raine arrives and negotiates with Wilhelm for von Hammersmark’s release, but she shoots Wilhelm when he lowers his guard. Raine, believing von Hammersmark set Hicox and his men up, tortures von Hammersmark, who convinces him that she is not a spy and reveals that Hitler will also be attending the film premiere. Raine decides to continue the mission.

Landa investigates the aftermath at the tavern and finds von Hammersmark’s shoes and a napkin with her signature. At the premiere, Omar Ulmer, Donny and Raine, who have explosives with timers strapped to their ankles, pose as Italian guests of von Hammersmark, hoping to fool the Germans unfamiliar with the language. However, Landa, who speaks fluent Italian, converses briefly with the Basterds before allowing Donowitz and Ulmer to take their seats. He takes von Hammersmark to a private room, verifies that the shoe from the tavern fits her, then strangles her to death. Raine and another Basterd, Smithson “The Little Man” Utivich, are taken prisoner, but Landa has Raine contact his superior with the OSS and cut a deal: he will allow the mission to proceed in exchange for safe passage through the Allied lines, a full pardon and various benefits after the war ends.

During the screening, Zoller slips away to the projection room to see Shosanna. After she rejects his advances, he becomes aggressive. She pretends to acquiesce, then pulls a pistol and shoots him. Zoller, mortally wounded, manages to shoot and kill her before he dies. As Stolz der Nation reaches its climax, spliced-in footage of Shosanna tells the audience in English that they are about to be killed by a Jew. Marcel, having locked the doors of the cinema, ignites a huge pile of flammable nitrate film behind the screen as Shosanna’s image laughs and the theater goes up in flames. Ulmer and Donowitz break into the opera box containing Hitler and Goebbels, killing them. They then fire their submachine guns into the panicked crowd until the bombs go off, killing everyone in the theater.

Landa and his radio operator drive Raine and Utivich into Allied territory, where they surrender. Raine however shoots the radio operator before ordering Utivich to scalp him. Despite agreeing to Landa’s deal, Raine has him restrained and carves a swastika into his forehead, professing it to be his “masterpiece”.

The Godfather Part III (1990)

“Politics and crime. They’re the same thing…”
– Michael Corleone

In 1979, Michael Corleone, approaching 60, is wracked with guilt over his ruthless rise to power, especially for having ordered Fredo’s assassination. He donates part of his tremendous wealth to charitable causes. Michael and Kay are divorced; their children, Anthony and Mary, live with Kay. At the reception following a papal order induction ceremony in St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in Michael’s honour, Anthony tells his father that he is leaving law school to become an opera singer. Kay supports his decision, but Michael wants Anthony to complete his law degree first. Michael and Kay have an uneasy reunion when Kay reveals that she and Anthony know the truth about Fredo’s death. Vincent Mancini, the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone, arrives at the reception. He is embroiled in a feud with Joey Zasa. Connie Corleone arranges for Vincent to meet Zasa, who calls Vincent a bastard, and Vincent bites Zasa’s ear. Although Michael is troubled by Vincent’s fiery temper, he is impressed by his loyalty, so agrees to include Vincent in the family business.

Michael knows that the head of the Vatican Bank, Archbishop Gilday, has accumulated a massive deficit and offers $600 million in exchange for shares in Internazionale Immobiliare,[3] an international real estate company, which would make him its largest single shareholder with six seats on the company’s 13-member board. He makes a tender offer to buy the Vatican’s 25% share in the company, which will give him controlling interest. Immobiliare’s board quickly approves the offer, pending ratification by the pope.

Don Altobello, a New York Mafia boss and Connie’s godfather, tells Michael that his partners on The Commission want to be in on the Immobiliare deal. Wanting the deal to be untainted by Mafia involvement, Michael pays them from the sale of his Las Vegas holdings. Zasa receives nothing and, declaring Michael his enemy, storms out. Altobello follows Zasa, saying he will reason with him. Moments later, a helicopter hovers outside the conference room and opens fire. Most of the bosses are killed, but Michael, Vincent, and Michael’s bodyguard, Al Neri, escape. Neri tells Michael that the surviving mob bosses made deals with Zasa but Michael realizes that it is Altobello who is the traitor. Michael suffers a diabetic stroke and is hospitalized. As Michael recuperates, Vincent and Mary begin a romantic relationship, while Neri and Connie give Vincent permission to retaliate against Zasa. During a street festival hosted by Zasa’s Italian American civil rights group, Vincent kills Zasa. Michael berates Vincent for his actions and insists that Vincent end his relationship with Mary, explaining Vincent’s involvement in the family’s criminal enterprises endangers her life.

The family goes to Sicily for Anthony’s operatic debut in Palermo at the Teatro Massimo and stays with Don Tommasino. Michael tells Vincent to pretend to defect from the Corleone family in order to spy on Altobello. Altobello introduces Vincent to Don Licio Lucchesi, a powerful Italian political figure and Immobiliare’s chairman. Michael discovers that the Immobiliare deal is an elaborate swindle, arranged by Lucchesi, Gilday, and Vatican accountant Frederick Keinszig. Michael visits Cardinal Lamberto, favoured to become the next pope, to discuss the deal. Lamberto persuades Michael to make his first confession in 30 years. Michael tearfully confesses that he ordered Fredo’s murder, and Lamberto says that Michael deserves to suffer but can be redeemed.

Vincent tells Michael that Altobello has hired Mosca, a veteran hitman, to assassinate Michael. Mosca and his son, disguised as priests, kill Don Tommasino as he returns to his villa. While Michael and Kay tour Sicily, Michael asks for Kay’s forgiveness, and they admit they still love each other. Michael receives word of Tommasino’s death, and at the funeral vows never to sin again. Following the pope’s death, Cardinal Lamberto is elected to succeed him and the Immobiliare deal is ratified. The plotters against the ratification attempt to cover their tracks. Michael sees that his nephew is a changed man and names him the new Don of the Corleone family, telling him to adopt the Corleone name. Vincent ends his romance with Mary.

The family sees Anthony’s performance in Cavalleria Rusticana in Palermo while Vincent exacts his revenge:

Keinszig is abducted by Vincent’s men, who smother and then hang him from a bridge, making his death look like a suicide.
Don Altobello, at the opera, is given poisoned cannoli by Connie, who watches him die from her opera box.
Calò, Tommasino’s former bodyguard, meets with Don Lucchesi at his office, claiming to bear a message from Michael. As he whispers the message, Calò stabs Lucchesi in the neck with his own spectacles.
After approving the Immobiliare deal, Lamberto, now the pope, is served poisoned tea by Archbishop Gilday and dies in his sleep. Al Neri travels to the Vatican, where he shoots Archbishop Gilday.

At the opera house during Anthony’s performance, three of Vincent’s men search for Mosca but he overcomes them. Mosca is unable to aim at Michael in the theatre but outside the opera house wounds Michael and kills Mary. Vincent shoots and kills Mosca. Michael cradles Mary’s lifeless body and screams in agony; the scene fades out into a montage of various scenes of Michael’s life across all three films.

Years later, an elderly Michael is alone in the courtyard of Don Tommasino’s villa. Suddenly, he slumps over in his chair and falls to the ground.

The Godfther Part II (1974)

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
– Michael Corleone

In 1901, the family of nine-year-old Vito Andolini is killed in Corleone, Sicily, after his father insults local Mafia chieftain Don Ciccio. Vito escapes to New York City and is registered as “Vito Corleone” on Ellis Island.
In 1958, during his son’s First Communion party at Lake Tahoe, Michael Corleone has a series of meetings in his role as the Don of his crime family. Corleone caporegime Frank Pentangeli is dismayed that Michael refuses to help defend his Brooklyn territory against the Rosato brothers, who work for Michael’s business partner Hyman Roth. That night, Michael leaves Nevada after surviving an assassination attempt at his home.

In 1917, Vito Corleone lives in New York with his wife Carmela and son Sonny. He loses his job due to Don Fanucci insisting that his nephew work there; Peter Clemenza invites Vito to unwittingly take part in a burglary.
Michael suspects Roth planned the assassination, but meets him in Miami and feigns ignorance. In New York, Pentangeli attempts to maintain Michael’s façade by making peace with the Rosato family but they attempt to kill him. Roth, Michael, and several of their partners travel to Havana to discuss their future Cuban business prospects under the cooperative government of Fulgencio Batista. Michael becomes reluctant after reconsidering the viability of the ongoing Cuban Revolution. On New Year’s Eve, he attempts to have Roth and Roth’s right-hand man, Johnny Ola, killed, but Roth survives when Michael’s bodyguard is discovered and shot by police. Michael discovers that his brother, Fredo, betrayed him after Fredo inadvertently reveals that he knows Ola after claiming they had never met. Batista abruptly abdicates due to rebel advances. During the ensuing chaos, Michael, Fredo, and Roth separately escape to the United States. Back home, Michael learns that his wife Kay has miscarried.

By 1920, Vito and Carmela have had two more sons, Fredo and Michael. Vito’s criminal conduct attracts the attention of Fanucci, who extorts him. His partners, Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio, wish to avoid trouble by paying in full, but Vito insists that he can convince Fanucci to accept a smaller payment by making him “an offer he won’t refuse”. During a neighbourhood festa, he stalks Fanucci to his apartment and shoots him dead.
In Washington, D.C., a Senate committee on organized crime is investigating the Corleone family. Having survived the earlier attempt on his life, Pentangeli agrees to testify against Michael, who he believes had double-crossed him, and is placed under witness protection.

Now a respected figure in his community, Vito is approached for help by a widow who is being evicted. After an unsuccessful negotiation with Vito, the widow’s landlord asks around, learns of Vito’s reputation, and hastily agrees to let the widow stay on terms very favourable to her. Vito and his partners are becoming more and more successful with their business, “Genco Pura Olive Oil Company”.
On returning to Nevada, Fredo privately explains himself to Michael; feeling resentful at being disregarded, he had helped Roth in expectation of something in return—unaware, he claims, of the plot on Michael’s life. He also informs Michael that the Senate lawyer, Questadt, is working under Roth’s payroll. Michael responds by disowning Fredo and tells his capo that nothing is to happen to Fredo while their mother is alive. Michael is unable to reach the heavily-guarded Pentangeli, so sends for Pentangeli’s brother from Sicily, resulting in Pentangeli renouncing his previous statement; the hearing dissolves in an uproar.

Kay reveals to Michael that she actually had an abortion, not a miscarriage and that she intends to remove their children from Michael’s criminal life. Outraged, Michael strikes Kay, banishes her from the family, and takes custody of the children.

In 1923, Vito, along with his family, visits Sicily for the first time since emigrating. He and business partner Tommasino are admitted to Don Ciccio’s compound, ostensibly to ask for Ciccio’s blessing on their olive oil business. Vito exacts his childhood vengeance by killing Ciccio after revealing his former identity, but as they escape, Tommasino is shot in the leg and suffers a permanent disability.
Carmela Corleone dies. At the funeral, Michael appears to forgive Fredo.

Roth is refused asylum and denied entry to Israel. He is forced to return to the United States. Over the dissent of consigliere Tom Hagen, Michael sends caporegime Rocco Lampone to intercept and shoot Roth on arrival. Rocco is shot dead by federal agents after completing his mission. At the witness protection compound, Hagen reminds Pentangeli that failed plotters against the Roman Emperor often committed suicide and assures him that his family will be cared for. Pentangeli later slits his wrists in his bathtub. Al Neri, acting on Michael’s orders, assassinates Fredo out on the lake.

On December 7, 1941, the Corleone family gathers in their dining room to surprise Vito for his birthday. Michael announces that, in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, he has left college and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, leaving Sonny furious, Tom incredulous, and Fredo the only brother supportive. Vito is heard at the door and all but Michael leave the room to greet him.
Michael sits alone by the lake at the family compound.

The Godfather (1972)

I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse
– Don Vito Corleone

In 1945, at his daughter Connie’s wedding to Carlo Rizzi, Don Vito Corleone hears requests in his role as head of a New York crime family. His youngest son, Michael, who was a Marine during World War II, introduces his girlfriend, Kay Adams, to his family at the reception. Johnny Fontane, a famous singer and Vito’s godson, seeks Vito’s help in securing a movie role; Vito dispatches his consigliere, Tom Hagen, to Los Angeles to persuade studio head Jack Woltz to give Johnny the part. Woltz refuses until he wakes up in bed with the severed head of his prized stallion.

Shortly before Christmas, drug baron Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo, backed by the Tattaglia crime family, asks Vito for investment in his narcotics business and protection through his political connections. Wary of involvement in a dangerous new trade that risks alienating political insiders, Vito declines. Suspicious, Vito sends his enforcer, Luca Brasi, to spy on them. Brasi is garroted during his first meeting with Bruno Tattaglia and Sollozzo. Later Sollozzo has Vito gunned down in the street, then kidnaps Hagen. With Corleone first-born Sonny in command, Sollozzo pressures Hagen to persuade Sonny to accept Sollozzo’s deal, then releases him. The family receives fish wrapped in Brasi’s bullet-proof vest, indicating that Luca “sleeps with the fishes”. Vito survives, and at the hospital, Michael thwarts another attempt on his father. Michael’s jaw is broken by NYPD Captain Marc McCluskey, Sollozzo’s unofficial bodyguard. Sonny retaliates with a hit on Bruno Tattaglia. Michael plots to murder Sollozzo and McCluskey; feigning a desire to settle the dispute, Michael meets them in a Bronx restaurant, where after retrieving a planted handgun, he kills both men.

Despite a clampdown by the authorities, the Five Families erupt in open warfare, and Vito fears for his sons’ safety. Michael takes refuge in Sicily and Fredo is sheltered by Moe Greene in Las Vegas. Sonny attacks Carlo on the street for abusing Connie and threatens to kill him if it happens again. When it does, Sonny speeds to their home but is ambushed at a highway toll booth and riddled with submachine gunfire. While in Sicily, Michael meets and marries Apollonia Vitelli, but a car bomb intended for him takes her life.

Devastated by Sonny’s death and realizing that the Tattaglias are controlled by the now-dominant Don Emilio Barzini, Vito attempts to end the feud. He assures the Five Families that he will withdraw his opposition to their heroin business and forgo avenging Sonny’s murder. His safety guaranteed, Michael returns home to enter the family business and marry Kay, promising her that the business will be legitimate within five years. Kay gives birth to two children by the early 1950s. With his father nearing the end of his life and Fredo too weak, Michael takes the family reins. He insists Hagen relocate to Las Vegas and relinquish his role to Vito because Tom is not a “wartime consigliere”; Vito agrees Tom should “have no part in what will happen” in the coming battles with rival families. When Michael travels to Las Vegas to buy out Greene’s stake in the family’s casinos, he is dismayed to see that Fredo is more loyal to Greene than to his own family.

In 1955, Vito suffers a fatal heart attack. At the funeral, Salvatore Tessio, a Corleone capo, asks Michael to meet with Don Barzini, signalling the betrayal that Vito had forewarned. The meeting is set for the same day as the baptism of Connie’s baby. While Michael stands at the altar as the child’s godfather, Corleone assassins murder the other New York dons and Moe Greene. Tessio is executed for his treachery and Michael extracts Carlo’s confession to his complicity in setting up Sonny’s murder for Barzini. A Corleone capo, Peter Clemenza, garrotes Carlo with a wire. Connie accuses Michael of the murder, telling Kay that Michael ordered all the killings. Kay is relieved when Michael finally denies it, but when the capos arrive, they address her husband as Don Corleone and she watches them pay reverence to Michael as the newly installed don as they close the door on her.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Part of me was afraid of what I would find and what I would do when I got there. I knew the risks, or imagined I knew. But the thing I felt the most, much stronger than fear, was the desire to confront him.
– Capt. Benjamin Willard

In 1969, during the Vietnam War, a U.S. Army 5th Special Forces soldier, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz has apparently gone insane and is waging a brutal and successful guerilla war against terrified NVA and PLAF forces without permission, directions or resupply from his commanders. At an outpost in Cambodia, he commands American and Montagnard troops who see him as a demigod.

Summoned to I Field Force headquarters in Nha Trang, MACV-SOG Captain Benjamin L. Willard is briefed on the situation by two Army commanders and a CIA officer and ordered to “terminate Kurtz’ command…with extreme prejudice.”

Willard, initially ambivalent, joins a U.S. Navy river patrol boat (PBR) commanded by Chief, with crewmen Lance, “Chef”, and “Mr Clean” to quietly navigate up the Nùng River to Kurtz’ outpost. Before reaching the coastal mouth of the Nùng, they rendezvous with the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, a helicopter-borne air assault unit commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, to discuss the safe passage. Kilgore is initially uncooperative as he has not received word about their mission through normal channels, but he becomes more engaged after discovering that one of the sailors (Lance) is a famous surfer. The commander is an avid surfer himself and agrees to escort them through the Nùng’s Viet Cong-held coastal mouth. The squadron raids at dawn, with Kilgore ordering a napalm strike on the Viet Cong. Before Kilgore can lure Lance out to surf on the newly conquered beach, Willard gathers the sailors to the PBR to continue their mission.

Tension arises as Willard believes himself in command of the PBR while Chief prioritizes routine patrol objectives over Willard’s. Slowly making their way upriver, Willard partially reveals his mission to the Chief to assuage his concerns about why his mission should proceed. As Willard studies Kurtz’ dossier, he is struck by the mid-career sacrifice he made by leaving a prestigious Pentagon assignment to join a special operations branch, which afforded no prospect of advancing in rank past colonel. The third-generation West Point graduate could have pursued more conventional command assignments to eventually rise to four-star general.

Weeks later, the PBR reaches the remote U.S. Army outpost by the Do Lung Bridge. Willard and Lance enter the outpost after nightfall, seeking information on what is upriver and receive a dispatch bag containing official and personal mail. Unable to find any commanding officer at Do Lung, Willard orders the Chief to continue as an unseen enemy assaults the bridge.

Willard learns via the dispatch that another MACV-SOG operative, Captain Colby, was sent on an earlier mission identical to Willard’s and has since joined Kurtz.

As the crew read letters from home, Lance activates a smoke grenade while under the influence of LSD, attracting the attention of an unseen enemy, and Mr Clean is killed. Further upriver, Chief is impaled by a spear thrown by Montagnards and attempts to kill Willard by impaling him on the spear point protruding from his own chest. Willard suffocates Chief and Lance buries him in the river. Willard reveals his mission to Chef, who is now in charge of the PBR, but despite Chef’s anger about the mission, he rejects Willard’s offer to cut the sailors loose and continue alone and insists that they complete the mission together.

The PBR arrives at Kurtz’s outpost, located on the site of a long-abandoned Angkor Empire temple compound, teeming with Montagnards and strewn with corpses and severed heads. Willard, Chef and Lance are greeted by an American freelance photojournalist, who manically praises Kurtz’s genius. As they wander through, they come across a near-catatonic Colby, along with other US servicemen now in Kurtz’s renegade army. Willard returns to the moored PBR to leave Chef with the boat, ordering him to call in a pre-arranged airstrike on the outpost if Willard and Lance do not return.

In the camp, Willard is subdued, bound and brought before Kurtz in a darkened temple. Willard is detained and tortured for several days, during which time Kurtz kills Chef and throws his head into Willard’s lap, which explains why the airstrike did not occur. Willard is soon released and allowed to roam the compound. Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, the human condition and civilization while praising the ruthlessness and dedication of his adversaries, the Viet Cong. Kurtz discusses his family and asks that Willard tell his son about him after his death.

That night, as the Montagnards ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo, Willard stealthily enters Kurtz’s chamber as he is making a voice recording and attacks him with a machete. Mortally wounded, Kurtz utters “… The horror … the horror …” and dies. All in the compound see Willard departing, carrying a collection of Kurtz’s writings, and bow down to him. Willard then leads Lance to the boat and they sail away. Kurtz’s final words echo eerily as everything fades to black.

The Irishman (2019)

When I was young, I thought house painters painted houses. What did I know? I was a working guy, a business agent for Teamster Local 107 out of South Philly. One of a thousand working stiffs, until I wasn’t no more. And then I started painting houses myself.
– Frank Sheeran

In a nursing home in his wheelchair, Frank Sheeran, an elderly World War II veteran, recounts his time as a Mafia hitman.

In 1950s Philadelphia, delivery truck driver Sheeran starts to sell some of the contents of his shipments to a local gangster in the Italian Philadelphia crime family. After his company accuses him of theft, union lawyer Bill Bufalino gets him off, after Sheeran refuses to give the judge names of his customers. Bill introduces Sheeran to his cousin Russell Bufalino, the head of the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family. Sheeran begins to do jobs for Russell and members of the local South Philadelphia underworld, including murders. Soon, Russell introduces Sheeran to Jimmy Hoffa, the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who has financial ties with the Bufalino crime family and is struggling to deal with fellow rising Teamster Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano, as well as mounting pressure from the federal government. Hoffa becomes close with Sheeran and his family, especially his daughter Peggy, and Sheeran becomes Hoffa’s chief bodyguard while on the road.

After the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy, Russell is thrilled while Hoffa is livid. Kennedy’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy, who was named Attorney General, forms a “Get Hoffa” squad in an effort to bring down Hoffa, who is eventually arrested and convicted in 1964 for jury tampering. While in prison, his replacement atop the Teamsters, Frank Fitzsimmons, begins overspending the groups’ pension funds and making interest-free loans out to the Mafia. Hoffa’s relationship with Provenzano, who was himself arrested for extortion, also deteriorates beyond repair. Hoffa is eventually released via a Presidential pardon from Richard Nixon in 1971, although he is forbidden from taking part in any Teamsters activities until 1980.

Despite his parole terms, Hoffa undertakes a plan to retake his power atop the organized unions. Hoffa’s growing disrespect for other Teamster leaders and related crime family interests begins to worry Russell. During a testimonial dinner in Sheeran’s honour in October 1973, Russell tells Sheeran to confront Hoffa and warn him that the heads of the crime families are not pleased with his behaviour. Hoffa then informs Sheeran that he “knows things” that Russell and the other dons are unaware that he knows, and further claims that he is untouchable because if anything ever happened to him, they would all end up in prison.

In 1975, while on their way to the wedding of Bill’s daughter, Russell tells Sheeran that things have reached their breaking point with Hoffa, and his death has been sanctioned. To his chagrin, Russell tells Sheeran that he has been chosen as the person to do it, on fears that he otherwise might try to warn or save him. The two drive to an airport, where Sheeran gets on a flight to Detroit. Sheeran tells Hoffa he will be in town early in the day, but arrives late that afternoon. Hoffa, who had scheduled a meeting at a local diner with Provenzano and Anthony Giacalone, is surprised to see Sheeran arriving there in a car with Hoffa’s unsuspecting foster son Chuckie O’Brien and Sal Briguglio, another gangster. They advise Hoffa that the meeting was moved to a house where Provenzano and Russell are waiting for them; Sheeran reassures Hoffa that everything is fine and he joins them in the car. Upon entering the house, Hoffa finds that no one else is there and believes that he has been set up. He turns around to leave the house, at which point Sheeran shoots him twice at point-blank range before leaving the gun and the body at the entrance. After Sheeran leaves, two younger gangsters take Hoffa’s body to a crematorium to eliminate all traces of him.

Sheeran, Russell, Provenzano, and others are eventually convicted on various charges, none of which are related to Hoffa’s murder, and one by one, they begin to die in prison. Sheeran is eventually released and placed in a nursing home. He tries to make peace with his alienated daughters, but Peggy severs all contact with him. Sheeran begins to see a Catholic priest assigned to the nursing home. The priest gives Sheeran absolution in his room. As the priest leaves Sheeran alone in his room for the Christmas holidays, Sheeran asks him to leave the door open a little, emulating Hoffa’s habit.

GoodFellas (1990)

Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.
– James Conway

In 1955, high school student Henry Hill, son of an Irish-American father and Sicilian-American mother, becomes enamoured of the criminal life and Mafia presence in his working-class Italian-American neighbourhood in Brooklyn and begins working for local caporegime Paul “Paulie” Cicero and his associates: James “Jimmy the Gent” Conway, an Irish-American truck hijacker and gangster; and Tommy DeVito, a fellow juvenile delinquent. Henry begins as a fence for Jimmy, gradually working his way up to more serious crimes. Enjoying the perks of their criminal life, the three associates spend most of their nights in the 1960s at the Copacabana nightclub, carousing with women. Henry starts dating Karen Friedman, a Jewish-American woman from the Five Towns area of Long Island. Initially troubled by Henry’s criminal activities, Karen is eventually seduced by his glamorous lifestyle. Despite her parents’ disapproval, they marry.

In 1970, Gambino family member Billy Batts repeatedly insults Tommy at a nightclub owned by Henry. Enraged, Tommy and Jimmy kill him. The murder of a made man would warrant retribution from the Gambinos; another made man, possibly even Paulie, would be forced to kill the perpetrators. Realizing this, Jimmy, Henry and Tommy cover up the murder. They transport the body in the trunk of Henry’s car and bury it in upstate New York. Six months later, Jimmy learns that the burial site is slated for development, forcing them to exhume and relocate the decomposing corpse.

In 1974, a jealous Karen harasses Henry’s mistress Janice and holds Henry at gunpoint. Henry moves in with Janice, but Paulie insists he return to Karen after collecting a debt from a gambler in Tampa with Jimmy. Upon returning, Jimmy and Henry are arrested after being turned in by the gambler’s sister, an FBI typist, and receive ten-year prison sentences. In order to support his family on the outside, Henry has drugs smuggled in by Karen and sells them to a fellow inmate from Pittsburgh. In 1978, Henry is paroled and expands this cocaine business against Paulie’s orders, soon involving Jimmy and Tommy.

Jimmy organizes a crew to raid the Lufthansa vault at John F. Kennedy International Airport and take $6 million. After some members buy expensive items against Jimmy’s orders and the getaway truck is found by police, he has most of the crew murdered. In his voiceover narration, as dead bodies are being discovered all over the city, Henry implicitly theorizes that Jimmy would have killed them anyway rather than share the profits of the heist. Tommy and Henry are spared by Jimmy. Tommy, however, is tricked into believing he is to become a made man and is ultimately shot dead in retribution for Batts’ murder.

In 1980, Henry becomes an (ostensibly paranoid) nervous wreck from cocaine use and insomnia. He sets up a drug deal with his Pittsburgh associates but is arrested by narcotics agents and jailed. After bailing him out, Karen explains that she flushed $60,000 worth of cocaine down the toilet to prevent FBI agents from finding it during their raid, leaving the family virtually penniless. Feeling betrayed by Henry’s drug dealing, Paulie gives him $3,200 and ends their association. Following a routine visit, Karen barely escapes a probable murder attempt by Jimmy. Henry meets Jimmy in a diner and is asked to travel on a hit assignment; the novelty of such a request makes Henry suspicious. Facing federal charges, and realizing Jimmy plans to have him and Karen killed, Henry decides to enrol in the witness protection program, even though it means that Karen will not be able to see her parents. He gives sufficient testimony to have Paulie and Jimmy arrested and convicted. Forced out of his gangster life, Henry now has to face living in the real world; he narrates “I’m an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.”

The end title cards state that, as of the film’s release in 1990, Henry is still a protected witness and was arrested in 1987 in Seattle for narcotics conspiracy, receiving five years’ probation. He has been clean since then. After 25 years of marriage, he and Karen separated in 1989 while Paulie died the previous year in Fort Worth Federal Prison at the age of 73 from respiratory illness. Jimmy is serving a twenty-years-to-life sentence in a New York prison for murder, in which he will be paroled in 2004 when he will be 78 years old.

Taxi Driver (1976)

Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.
– Travis Bickle

In 1975, Travis Bickle is a lonely, depressed 26-year-old living in isolation in New York City. Travis takes a job as a night shift taxi driver to cope with his chronic insomnia, driving passengers around the city’s boroughs. He frequents porn theatres and keeps a diary in which he consciously attempts to include aphorisms, such as “You’re only as healthy as you feel.”

Travis becomes infatuated with Betsy, a campaign volunteer for Senator and presidential candidate Charles Palantine. After watching her interact with fellow worker Tom through her window, Travis enters to volunteer as a pretext to talk to her, then takes her out for coffee. On a later date, he naively takes her to see a pornographic film, which offends her, and she goes home alone. His numerous attempts at reconciliation by sending flowers and apologizing over the phone are rebuffed, causing him to become embittered and convinced that she is exactly like the “cold” people he detests in the city. He finally confronts her at the campaign office, berating her before being kicked out by Tom.

Travis is disgusted by the sleaze, dysfunction, and prostitution that he witnesses throughout the city, and struggles to find meaning for his existence. His worldview is furthered when an adolescent prostitute and runaway, Iris, who uses the professional name “Easy,” enters his taxi, attempting to escape her pimp, Sport. Sport drags Iris from the taxi and throws Travis a crumpled $20 bill, which continually reminds Travis of her and the corruption that surrounds him. A similarly influential event occurs when an unhinged passenger gloats to Travis of his intentions to kill his adulterous wife and her black lover. Travis confides in fellow taxi driver Wizard about his thoughts, which are beginning to turn violent; however, Wizard assures him that he will be fine, leaving Travis to his own destructive path.

In attempting to find an outlet for his frustrations, Travis begins a program of intense physical training. A fellow taxi driver refers him to an illegal gun dealer, “Easy” Andy, from whom Travis buys four handguns. At home, Travis practices drawing his weapons and modifies one to allow him to hide and quickly deploy it from his sleeve. He also begins attending Palantine’s rallies to reconnoitre their security. One night, Travis enters a convenience store moments before an attempted armed robbery and fatally shoots the robber. To help him evade arrest, the store owner takes responsibility for the deed, claiming one of Travis’s guns as his own.

Travis seeks out Iris, through Sport, and twice tries to convince her to stop prostituting herself, an effort which partially convinces her. After breakfast with Iris, Travis mails her a letter containing money, imploring her to return home. Travis cuts his hair into a mohawk and attends a public rally where he intends to assassinate Palantine. Travis almost pulls out one of his guns, but Secret Service agents notice him putting his hand inside his coat. He almost gets caught, but successfully escapes the scene.

That evening, Travis drives to Sport’s brothel in the East Village. Travis shoots Sport in the stomach, causing a shootout to start. He shoots a gangster in the hand, but Sport gets up and shoots him in the neck before Travis guns him down again. Then Iris’ customer comes through the door from her room and shoots him in the arm and Travis kills him with the sleeve concealed gun. He is attacked by the gangster again who he stabs through the hand and finally shoots dead before the crying Iris. As the police arrive, Travis attempts suicide by shooting himself in the head but finds he has run out of ammo and he passes out from blood loss.

Travis is not prosecuted, but instead, he is hailed as a local hero in the press. He receives a letter from Iris’ father, thanking him for saving her and revealing that she has returned home to Pittsburgh, where she is going to school. After weeks of recovery and returning to work, Travis encounters Betsy as a fare. Travis drives her home, then refuses to let her pay the fare, driving away with a smile. As Travis drives off, he becomes suddenly agitated after noticing something in his rear-view mirror and the end credits roll.

Raging Bull (1980)

What Are You Tryin’ To Prove?! What Does It Prove? What are you trying to prove?
– Joey LaMotta

In 1964, an ageing, overweight Italian American, Jake LaMotta, practices a comedy routine.

In 1941, LaMotta is in a major boxing match against Jimmy Reeves, where he suffered his first loss. Jake’s brother, Joey LaMotta, discusses a potential shot for the middleweight title with one of his Mafia connections, Salvy Batts. Some time thereafter, Jake spots a fifteen-year-old girl named Vickie at an open-air swimming pool in her Bronx neighborhood. He eventually pursues a relationship with her, even though he is already married. In 1943, Jake defeats Sugar Ray Robinson, and has a rematch three weeks later. Despite the fact that Jake dominates Robinson during the bout, the judges surprisingly rule in favor of Robinson and Joey feels Robinson won only because he was enlisting into the Army the following week. By 1945, Jake married Vickie.

Jake constantly worries about Vickie having feelings for other men, particularly when she makes an off-hand comment about Tony Janiro, Jake’s opponent in his next fight. His jealousy is evident when he brutally defeats Janiro in front of the local Mob boss, Tommy Como, and Vickie. As Joey discusses the victory with reporters at the Copacabana, he is distracted by seeing Vickie approach a table with Salvy and her crew. Joey speaks with Vickie, who says she’s giving up on her brother. Blaming Salvy, Joey viciously attacks him in a fight that spills outside the club. Como later orders them to apologize, and has Joey tell Jake that if he wants a chance at the championship title, which Como controls, he’ll have to take a dive first. In a match against Billy Fox, after briefly pummeling his opponent, Jake doesn’t even bother to put up a fight. He is suspended shortly thereafter from the board on suspicion of throwing the fight, although he realizes the error of his judgment when it is too late. He is eventually reinstated, and in 1949, wins the middleweight championship title against Marcel Cerdan.

A year later, Jake asks Joey if he fought with Salvy at the Copacabana because of Vickie. Jake then asks if Joey had an affair with her; Joey refuses to answer, insults Jake, and leaves. Jake directly asks Vickie about the affair, and when she hides from him in the bathroom, he breaks down the door, prompting her to sarcastically state that she had sex with the entire neighborhood (including his brother, Salvy, and Tommy Como). Jake angrily walks to Joey’s house, with Vickie following him, and assaults Joey in front of Joey’s wife Lenora and their children before knocking Vickie unconscious. After defending his championship belt in a grueling fifteen-round bout against Laurent Dauthuille in 1950, he makes a call to his brother after the fight, but when Joey assumes Salvy is on the other end and starts insulting and cursing at him, Jake says nothing and hangs up. Estranged from Joey, Jake’s career begins to decline slowly and he eventually loses his title to Sugar Ray Robinson in their final encounter in 1951.

By 1956, Jake and his family had moved to Miami. After he stays out all night at his new nightclub there, Vickie tells him she wants a divorce (which she has been planning since her retirement) as well as full custody of their kids. She also threatens to call the cops if he comes anywhere near them. He is later arrested for introducing under-age girls to men in his club. He tries and fails to bribe his way out of his criminal case using the jewels from his championship belt instead of selling the belt itself. In 1957, he goes to jail, sorrowfully questioning his misfortune and crying in despair. Upon returning to New York City in 1958, he happens upon Joey, who forgives him but is elusive.

Again in 1964, Jake now recites the “I coulda been a contender” scene from the 1954 film On the Waterfront, where Terry Malloy complains that his brother should have been there for him but is also keen enough to give himself some slack. After a stagehand informs him that the auditorium where he is about to perform is crowded, Jake starts to chant “I’m the boss” while shadowboxing.

Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)

You and I have unfinished business.
–The Bride

Four years before the events of Kill Bill: Volume 1, the pregnant Bride and her groom rehearse their wedding. Bill, the Bride’s former lover, the father of her child, and the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad arrives unexpectedly and orders the Deadly Vipers to kill everyone at the wedding. Bill shoots the Bride in the head, but she survives and swears revenge.

In the present, the Bride has already assassinated Deadly Vipers O-Ren Ishii and Vernita Green. She goes to the trailer of Bill’s brother and Deadly Viper Budd, planning to ambush him. Budd has been warned by Bill of her approach; he incapacitates her with a non-lethal shotgun blast of rock salt and sedates her. He calls Elle Driver, another former Deadly Viper, and arranges to sell her the Bride’s unique sword for $1 million. He seals the Bride inside a coffin and buries her alive.

Years earlier, Bill tells the young Bride of the legendary martial arts master Pai Mei and his Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, a death blow that Mei refuses to teach his students; the technique that supposedly kills any opponent after they have taken five steps. Bill takes the Bride to Mei’s temple for training. Mei ridicules her and makes her training a torment, but she gains his respect. In the present, the Bride uses Mei’s techniques to break out of the coffin and claw her way to the surface.

Elle arrives at Budd’s trailer and kills him with a black mamba hidden with the money for the sword. She calls Bill and tells him that the Bride has killed Budd and that she has killed the Bride, using the Bride’s real name: Beatrix Kiddo. As Elle exits the trailer, Beatrix ambushes her and they fight. Elle, who was also taught by Mei, taunts Beatrix by revealing that she poisoned Mei in retribution for him plucking out her eye. An enraged Beatrix plucks out Elle’s remaining eye and leaves her screaming in the trailer with the black mamba.

In Acuña, Mexico, Beatrix meets a retired pimp, Esteban Vihaio, who helps her find Bill. She tracks him to a hotel and discovers that their daughter B.B. is still alive, now four years old, spending the evening with them. After she puts B.B. to bed, Bill shoots Beatrix with a dart containing truth serum and interrogates her. She recounts a mission in which she discovered she was pregnant and explains that she left the Deadly Vipers to give B.B. a better life. Bill explains that he assumed she had died and mourned her for three months; he ordered her assassination when he discovered she was alive and engaged to a “jerk” that he assumed was the father of her child. Beatrix disables Bill and strikes with Mei’s Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, which she had kept secret. Bill makes his peace with her, takes five steps and dies. Beatrix leaves with B.B. to start a new life.

Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)

Those of you lucky enough to still have their lives, take them with you! However, leave the limbs you’ve lost. They belong to me now…except you Sofie! You stay exactly where you are.
– The Bride

A woman in a wedding dress, the Bride, lies wounded in a chapel in El Paso, Texas, having been attacked by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She tells their leader, Bill, that she is pregnant with his baby. He shoots her in the head.

Four years later, having survived the attack, the Bride goes to the home of Vernita Green, planning to kill her. Both women were members of the assassination squad, which has since disbanded; Vernita now leads a normal suburban family life. They engage in a knife fight but are interrupted by the arrival of Vernita’s young daughter, Nikki. The Bride agrees to meet Vernita at night to settle the matter, but when Vernita tries to surprise the Bride with a pistol hidden in a box of cereal, the Bride dodges the shot and throws a knife into Vernita’s chest, killing her. Nikki witnesses the killing, and the Bride acknowledges that Nikki may one day seek her own vengeance for her mother’s death.

Four years earlier, police investigate the massacre at the wedding chapel. The sheriff discovers that the Bride is alive but comatose. In the hospital, Deadly Viper Elle Driver prepares to assassinate the Bride via lethal injection, but Bill aborts the mission at the last moment, considering it dishonourable to kill the Bride when she cannot defend herself.

The Bride awakens from her four-year coma and is horrified to find that she is no longer pregnant. She kills a man who tries to rape her and a hospital worker who has been selling her body while she was comatose. She takes the hospital worker’s truck and teaches herself to walk again.

Resolving to kill Bill and all four members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, the Bride picks her first target: O-Ren Ishii, now the leader of the Tokyo Yakuza. O-Ren’s parents were murdered by the Yakuza when she was a child; she took vengeance on the Yakuza boss and replaced him after training as an elite assassin. The Bride travels to Okinawa, Japan, to obtain a sword from legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzō, who has sworn never to forge a sword again. After learning that her target is Bill, his former student, he relents and crafts his finest sword for her.

At a Tokyo restaurant, the House of Blue Leaves, the Bride defeats O-Ren’s elite squad of fighters, the Crazy 88, and her bodyguard, schoolgirl Gogo Yubari. She and O-Ren duel in the restaurant’s Japanese garden; the Bride gains the upper hand and slices the top of her head off with a sword stroke. She tortures Sofie Fatale, O-Ren’s assistant, for information about Bill, and leaves her alive as a threat. Bill asks Sofie if the Bride knows that her daughter is alive.