Tag: Prostitution

(l to r) John Joseph Gotti Jr. and John Travolta as “Gotti.”

GOTTI

Film Review by Marlene Ardoin

I understand that Rotten Tomatoes gave “Gotti” a zero, but I loved this film anyway. How can they give a true story a zero?

The Gotti story is a part of American history that I think we need to look at.

John Travolta accepted the part of Gotti, by the Gotti family. I guess it took an offer that he couldn’t refuse to make him really stretch his abilities.

This is the best role that John Travolta has ever done, using all his swaggering cool, all of his male virility, and all of his artistic charisma.

Just to make sure that I was not just under the Travolta spell, I went to a Cult Film showing of him in “Grease,” which he acted in over forty years ago. His character of Danny in “Grease” is a young John Gotti.

Neither Danny, nor young John Gotti, were the guys going to college, but they both found themselves in leadership positions based on their drive and their values.

Young John Gotti was critical of his own father, who could not support his family as a day laborer, but tried to supplement his income with gambling. There is a certain sad pathos to this.

Gotti’s biography states that after he married, he did try to go legal by taking jobs in 1962 as a presser in a coat factory and as an assistant truck driver. These aspirations did not last long.

Gotti’s son, called Junior Gotti, tells this story, through his recollection of his father, as he remembered it.

John Gotti was a loving family man. His wife, Victoria (Kelly Preston), whom he did not marry until she was on her second pregnancy, was probably the only one, who got away with arguing with him.

I sense that Gotti, himself, was motivated by his desire to vindicate his father, who lived in poverty. Gotti was quick tempered and vengeful.

His son, Junior Gotti, was given a shot at college via military school, so he was able to make a living, without resorting to crime. His desire for his father’s approval is what propelled him into crime initially.

True, this script does not show the long list of crime in which Gotti was involved, only the double crosses.

Gotti was involved with racketeering, hijacking, loan sharking, drug trafficking, bookmaking, prostitution, extortion, pornography, illegal gambling, and other criminal activities, not shown in this film.

The Italian culture in this film that we see in regards to women, is more of a guardianship, similar to that of Saudi Arabia.

And, I suppose that there was a green light to out-smart the police.

One of the best scenes is where Gotti argues with the police, who come to close down his 4^th of July fireworks party. In this scene, the illegal fireworks are better than the legal ones.

All in all, “Gotti” is a privileged view into the making of an American crime family played lavishly by one of America’s best actors, John Travolta. Hopefully, it will be out on DVD, soon.

“Send ’em up,’ says Gotti (John Travolta).

John Gotti:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gotti

https://www.biography.com/people/john-gotti-9542186

Junior Gotti:

https://www.biography.com/people/junior-gotti-340854

John Travolta

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Travolta_filmography

Kelly Preston:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Preston

7/9/2018 # Gotti

Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) and her husband, Emad (Shahab Hosseini), are faced with moral choices.

THE SALESMAN

Film review by Marlene Ardoin

“The Salesman” is the Iranian film that won Best Foreign Picture at the Academy Awards this year (2017). It pays the U.S. a compliment by choosing to wrap this story around the theater production of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.”

I was surprised that a play like “Death of a Salesman” would even be allowed in Iran. Apparently it is, with a few deletions of dialogue.

And, the husband, Emad, in this story (Shahab Hosseini), is not only a husband and actor, but a teacher. I was curious which books his school was forbidding him to use.

Emad makes a vivid point, when he tells the school messenger to just throw the rejected books in the garbage.

It is my understanding that Iran is a religion-based governmental country that sets up strict rules for a population that has a majority of young.

For example, one can be arrested for dancing provocatively in public. And a respectable woman should always cover her hair with a scarf.

What the film seems to be questioning is the ability of men and women to make their own moral judgments.

For example, a man is tempted to take advantage of a young woman. Would that woman be able to recover from the social shame and would she be able to show mercy to this man if he shows remorse?

Prostitution is brought into the question. Are prostitutes worthy of our social mercy? Apparently, this is no laughing matter. In their play, a single mom is playing this role, and the former tenant of their new apartment was a prostitute.

I think the main point being made is that each individual possesses moral strength and inner dignity.

Emad’s beautiful, young wife, Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti), shines with dignity, when she requests that her husband not take revenge. And, she takes it a step further, when she threatens to leave him, if he chooses to take revenge.

I found it interesting that Iranian students could be just as disrespectful of teachers in Iran, as they can be in the U.S.

In this film, we get a preview of all that this teacher goes through, and I think that it is safe to say, that this teacher does not deserve disrespect.

The visual images are universal. As the film opens, Emad and Rana are forced to evacuate their apartment, because it is collapsing. The foundation is unstable.

When they later return to get their things, they notice cracks in the wall above their bed. This is a foreboding sign that more bad things are about to happen to their dream of creating a family.

“The Salesman” seems to say that even the most wretched of us have personal dignity, and the most elevated in society are capable of perpetrating evil acts.

So where does a moral compass originate? Intelligence is not the answer, since it can only solve problems. The ability to feel things and to empathize with others is the origin of morality.

This film is masterful and thought provoking, but I think it could have used a few light-hearted moments.

Asghar Farhadi, Iranian film director and screenwriter of “The Salesman.”

Asghar Farhadi Biography:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asghar_Farhadi

(Please enter your Payment methods data on the settings pages.)

Buys subscription to “Movies Of The Spirit”

3/21/2017 # The Salesman