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Airbolt 
"teil mann, teil maschine"
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 Posted - 12/08/2013 : 16:43:16
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This is the tale of a ruthless gang in Los Angeles. Their aim was to make peoples lives miserable and they succeeded. Enough about the people that made "Gangster squad" tho! ( sarcasm )
Hollywood routinely mangles history by enhancing, airbrushing and inventing. This movie ups the ante by holding up a parody of Hollywood's own Backyard.
The real facts behind the movie would have made an interesting film and have been strip-mined for movies as diverse in quality as "Mulholland falls" and "L.A Confidential". It's about a fairly chequered part of L.A's early postwar history where the control of crime is brutally fought over.
Gangsters from "Back East" attempted to control the rackets and an equally determined Police Department decided to give them incentives to leave town. Such as a good kicking or pistol whipping. This was carried out by an unofficial collection of officers recruited by the Chief of Police. Of course, It eventually ended in exposure but the mayhem was intense while it lasted.
So much for history. Here's a few of the howlers among many.
MICKY COHEN - A Gangster who ruthlessly rose to the top of the L.A crime racket. He lookede like Bob Hoskins with a Bad case of "5 o clock shadow". At no time did he ever resemble a character from the R-rated cut of "Dick Tracy" !
However, at least the carpet-chewing Sean Penn gets the viciousness right. Cohen ( in real life ) cultivated a roguish persona. if he was around today he would have his own reality show.
JACK WHALEN - Almost an extra in the movie altho his killing was a key moment. jack Whalen was a far more intriguing character in real life than his portrayal in the movie. He was known as "The Enforcer" and had a hair-trigger temper. He wquld routinely thrash victims to a pulp. Yet he yearned to be in the movies and even posed in a bizarre set of pictures as a Cowboy. His killing was rather more prosaic in real life - he tried to collect on a Debt from Micky Cohen on his own and without a Gun.
JERRY WooTERS - The Ryan Gosling character. In real life Wooters was a friend of Whalens and was always under suspicion. Not sure that the piping voiced Lothario of the movie did him any favours.
TWO GUN ACTION - Why have complex moral problems when you can have flashy, cartoony action sequences. It worked for John Woo. Among the many quibbles about these sequences was the chief thug firing two Thompson's at the same time. I've held a Thompson and it takes two hands, trust me!
ALL WHITE ON THE NIGHT - Now we know the towel is in the ring when the squad is portrayed as multi-ethnic. Even a cursory knowledge of racial politics in 40s L.A scotches this one. When they added in the old cowboy, I was waiting for a Robot and an alien to join!
SUITS YOU - Well at lest the clothes were nice.
Theres plenty where that came from but the Battery is low so.....
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Gangster Squad
