thug heirarchy

Let's just say that the waste disposal guy was connected to the others. Eventually, tributes he paid to his superiors might be passed on to other high ranking corrupt businessmen or camorristi and then they might be given to someone who ran drug trade, who then might pass some of the money to some guy who had something to do with fashion industry who might pass them to some other guy who organized illegal weapons trade etc.

The people associated with Camorra don't really have to be camorristi. They don't attend to meetings with some "Godfather" who tells them what to do. They live in a culture of crime and dishonesty. They have chosen to associate themselves (as there is few other options) with dishonest people who have themselves chosen to associate themselves with other dishonest people and so on and so they have also certain dishonest obligations to their associates. Majority of the people depicted in the film are not truly part of any "gang" or "criminal group", they just have certain obligations to some people who have obligations to others and in that way, they are eventually connected to each other.

Of course, Goodfellas guys in their thousand dollar suits were also reality back then. Some could cash in the success and establish some kind of a criminal elite especially in the U.S. where they had a monopoly on that old Italian system of criminality.

All in all, it didn't really matter who "was in charge" or who collected most of the income. There was no single instance who could have come and chastise the waste disposal guy, two teenager thugs and Don Ciro. They were linked alright but their allegiances were to different organizations who had allegiances of their own and different leaders.

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But it was a little hard following who was in charge or who had rank, perhaps that was the point.

I'm sure it was the point. We never see any Godfather type authoritarian figures in this film. It's all about the foot soldiers who admit towards the end of the film in at least a couple of the different stories, that they don't know the hierarchy, they don't know who makes the plans and gives the orders. They just carry the orders out, no matter the consequences.

I agree that you best not come to this movie, expecting a Scorsese type gangster epic underlaid by a constant barrage of cunningly selected pop singles. It's far less glamorous, covers a far shorter time period, whilst intertwining five separate stories of people whose lives are touched by organized crime. 🐭

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