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‘The Alto Knights’ Review: Sprawling, Richly Detailed Mafia Saga Serves Up a Double Helping of Robert De Niro
Barry Levinson and the writer of 'Goodfellas' revisit the world of American gangsters, exposing the dispute that exposed the organized crime world.
That aphorism, credited to everyone from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Omar on “The Wire,” could be one of the unspoken Cosa Nostra credos in “ The Alto Knights,” a dense yet fiercely compelling gathering of some of the heaviest hitters in the contemporary gangster genre: “Goodfellas” screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, “Bugsy” director Barry Levinson and acting icon Robert De Niro in a dual role. “The Alto Knights” spans multiple decades, as Pileggi’s detailed script rewinds to explain how a group of amoral immigrants exploited Prohibition, which Frank wryly describes as a policy no one wanted to follow and which the authorities were loath to enforce. Though there’s no shortage of whackings and other spectacular moments unfolding before DP Dante Spinotti’s cameras, the tone of “The Alto Knights” is decidedly less glamorous than your typical gangster movie, which is built right into De Niro’s slightly pathetic body language: the stooped shoulders and shuffling gait.
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