H-FILM Discussion: Organized Crime and Family Values

Steven Mintz makes some interesting observations on the ironic "family values" of mob films. Here's a reference for those interested in pursuing the insigh fuller: Fredric Jameson's classic article "Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture," reprinted in his recent book "The Geopolitical Aesthetic," reads "The Godfather" as an allegory that allows viewers alienated by the anomie of late capital to recuperate the utopian promise of "family," but only according to the terms offered by late capital itself--that is to say, enclosed within a system that maintains itself through violent criminality. For Jameson the Marxist, the Mob=the Market society.

Rick Perlstein

Rick Perlstein

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