MovieChat Forums > State of Grace (1990) Discussion > Worst Mob Boss of any Mob Movie

Worst Mob Boss of any Mob Movie

posted 17 years ago by GettnMovieBuff
39 replies | jump to latest

What a pathetic Boss (Ed Harris). He goes after senior citizens for $900 in booze money (brings 7 guys to the bar with him). When he can't control his own guys and they get in a fight he goes on to lecture them on the importance of "intimidating" the people they rip off like the rant some young parent might make.

He bows down to the Italians and takes all of their orders like a servant. He kills off his own guys (over an 8K debt) and his own brother...and he is probably one of the worst shots out of all his guys (wastes a whole clip at the end without hitting anything). Amazingly enough..I think I could run his crew better.

The one who should have been running the crew was Oldman...you gotta be loyal and a little crazy (OK, alot!).

[–] gumbel86 17 years ago

not too many to pick from, only one i can think of would be giovanni ribisi in 10th & wolf. because he would just drink at a strip club all day and didnt want to bury old grudges with the italians to make money. i think a better topic would be who was the best mob boss of any mob movie. hands down imo would be marlon brandon in gf1. pacino was smart in the sequels but not as smart as don vito.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] timcord 16 years ago

Randy Quaid in the Ice Storm was awful!! So was Nicolas Cage in Kiss of Death.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] shaolinsoldier99 16 years ago

Exactly, Ed Harris's character was in no way supposed to be a good mob boss. He was pretty much a *beep* up. It shows when Sean Penn asks him, "you think yor smart", and hands then hands him his badge.

"Every gun makes its own tune"-The Good,The Bad,and The Ugly

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] shaolinsoldier99 16 years ago

That would've been an excellent twist. Really if I hadn't read the sypnopsis, or back of my dvd, I might not have thought he was a cop.
"Every gun makes its own tune"-The Good,The Bad,and The Ugly

[–] Diedo 16 years ago

Interesting, because that wouldn't take too much editing effort. Just remove the meeting between Penn and Turturro in the beginning for the gun exchange (or add it as a twist reinforcing flashback). Same goes for other Turturro encounters (the funeral, the subway, the phonecall, the aftermath at Pier 84. Finally push forward the confession to the Katie character, or remove it.

I just realized that Penn's murderous rampage might strike very odd, because you loose the whole internal conflict dialogues with Turturro. On second thought, making it a twist is not a good idea; it negates all the interesting bits of the Penn character and changes the whole theme of the movie.

[–] tigerbos 16 years ago

Randy Quaid wasn't in The Ice Storm!

[–] ValerinAmberz 16 years ago

Great thread!

Your points are very good and make me laugh. Killing someone in your own crew over 8 grand. One would assume that for a gangster you could produce that in a day.

What I found exceptional was how extremely stupid Jackie was not to be able to sence that he would get whacked. First he starts a fight with the italians, then he makes things worse by killing 3 of them. The boss is totally pissed and goes to a chrisis meeting to avoid war, then when he comes back he acts totally weird. That the killing was no big deal, he hugs him for the first time in years, and asks him to go to a lonely place for a weird favor, and going yourself and not telling anyone about it.

He might as well have asked him to go out into the woods in the middle of the night, dig a hole, write his will before that, and wait for further instructions.

Well I guess the brotherly love made him blind, but still....

I think the only 2 people you see the boss whack are members of his own crew :)

I had never reflected over how dumb this movie really was until you said it. I'm confused because at the same time I think it's highly entetaining and very "good". I just love gary oldman in this, what a great performance. I thought this reminded me a LOT about "the departed". Great performances all around.

well since you're naked you might as well f___ a friend of mine. Paul come in here!

[–] madmac17 15 years ago

Right. Quaid wasn't in The Ice Storm. He was in The Ice Harvest.

[–] brown945 11 years ago

I think he meant The Ice Harvest.

[–] C_Corone 16 years ago

Alot of people will probably call me an *beep* for this, but my alltime worst boss will always be Tony Montana (scarface). A doped up over violent paranoid loser. In my books it doesn't matter how many you take down in a shootout if it ends up with you being dead anyway.

[–] pathenigan 16 years ago

DUDE I agree and I've been eating crow for it my whole life! He's terrible.

[–] everydayboredom1980 10 years ago

Sonny Corleone was pretty awful too.

Even Vito said so later.

[–] geesuz 16 years ago

He is supposed to be terrible - it's a dysfunctional crew that implodes. Read the book "The Westies" about the Hells Kitchen irish mob - this film is based on that.

[–] SteveRes (508) 2 years ago

This is the correct answer.

[–] BOandBarbecue (2264) 2 years ago

i hear westies were feared by italian mob.

[–] jamesroo 16 years ago

its a MOVIE not true about true events.jimmy coodan(not sure of last name
spelled)was the leader of the westies and one of the most voilent gangters
of all time.he liked to chop his victims up.and he WOULD kill someone
for 900 dollars.as it says loosly based on the westies.he did not have
a brother nor gave up any of his guys that he didn't want to for his own
reasons.he became very close to a crew of one of the new york families and
wanted to joined with them.but because of this his own irish gangsters did
not like it.and that brought down the gang.so your not watching the real
leader of the westies nor real story.its just a movie.but well done.

[–] TonyRo19 16 years ago

I just watched this flick tonight. Yes, the three of us watching agreed that Ed Harris was basically the worst mob boss ever. I think it was the fault of bad writing.....I can't think of a worse written movie at the moment.

This flick was filled with stereotypical characters that just swore a lot and drank waaaaay too much.

Really bad movie.

[–] Nikon11 16 years ago

I am one of the few that'll agree with you, probably.

And yeah, what's with the bad shooting at the end? I mean, christ, Noonan's on the floor with a few wounds, and Frankie comes right out in the open, even after all his men have been toasted, and can't shoot straight. The smart move would've been to shield yourself in the doorway, and try picking Noonan off from there.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Nikon11 16 years ago

I like Ed Harris. I don't think that the problem here is his acting. Unless he wasn't given any lines and was told to improvise, then it's not him.