It’s no news to anybody who knows me that Robert DeNiro is my favorite actor of all time.  I usually give him and his films a pass most of the time. I can honestly say, though, that The Alto Knights is some of the best work he’s done in years. Even though I did love him in Zero Day, which came out a few weeks back on Netflix. This movie is more up his alley, though. It’s about gangsters and a well documented gang war in New York City a couple of decades ago. This story was all over the news back then. It made for a great film today, though, with DeNiro at the top of his game.

The premise of the movie is like a documentary where the main character is being interviewed and he, in this case Frank Costello (Robert DeNiro) is telling the story of his and his best friend growing up Vito Genovese (Robert DeNiro) life. Yes, DeNiro plays both characters. After a bit in prison, Vito gets out, and he wants a bigger piece of the pie regarding New York City’s illegal activities. When he doesn’t get what he wants, he starts trouble for himself and the “Five Families.” This is a classic gangster tale of ego and greed that was based on true events.

I read a lot about the gangsters and gang war of the 60s and 70s when I was younger than I am now. I also had a close friend who taught me about the Italians and what type of people they were.  They men who rose to power in this country came from nothing in Italy and Sicily.  When it all came crashing down on them, it was like a house of cards. Greed and ego’s along with Pride toppled, the largest crime organization this country has ever seen. Not to mention, a lot of unnecessary blood was spilled.  It was hard to hide it because it was in the papers and on the news every day.

The title of the film comes from “The Alto Knights Social Club” in the Bronx. It was the headquarters of Vito Genovese and his gang. They operated out of there for decades. It hosts meetings of the five families and many other gatherings over the decades it was open. This was one of the facts about the story that was new to me; it wasn’t until DeNiro spoke about the place on a YouTube video. Did I know about it? Like the saying goes, you learn something new every day.

This movie had a good cast of actors who you’ve probably seen in other films and television shows. Hugo Jarvis (Shogun) played Vincent Gigante, a future gang boss but a bit of a numbskull in this film.  Michael Rispoli (The Sopranos) played Albert Anastasia, one of the heads of the five families and a good friend to Frank Costello. The story of his demise is well documented: Debra Messing and Kathetine Narducci play the wives of Frank Costello and Vito Genovese.  They have good screen time and have the ear of their respective men. There is a huge cast in this film. I would be all talking about them all. Let’s just say they all did a good job, and none of them were miscast. 

Barry Levindon, a well renowned director of Rain Man, Sleepers and Good Morning Vietnam, just to name a few, did a great job on this film. I loved his last movie, The Survivor, which starred Ben Foster as a Jewish boxer at a concentration camp during WWII. He added a few nice touches into this story. Namely, archival footage of actual events that took place at that time interspersed with scenes from the film.  Revisiting a lot of famous moments from this story was pretty eye-opening for me. How all of this fit together was very fascinating to me.

The one thing I think most people would be asking about this movie is how or why the casting director cast DeNiro in both of the main roles. I don’t have the answer for that, but I do have speculation. I think the Vito Genovese role was meant for Joe Pesce, but he couldn’t do the role because of his health. I don’t know for sure, though. I think DeNiro stepped in, so the film wasn’t canceled and could go on. It seems like something he’d do. Either way, DeNiro was fantastic in both roles, and I thought he did a great job as the narrator in the movie. I believed every word he said about everything spoke on.  You know the saying about coming from the horse’s mouth, right? That’s how it felt for me watching the film.

Anybody who loves gangster films is going to love The Alto Knights. It’s got all the stuff you probably know about these men and their story. The narration by DeNiro’s character was very helpful. In a similar sense as Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) was in Goodfellas. It worked out perfectly for the story in the end. The cast was very good, but DeNiro, as both Frank Costello and Vito Genovese stole the show. If you didn’t look too closely, you wouldn’t have known it was him as both characters. Even though I knew about the “Five Families “ I still learned a little about this story and the events that took place at that time. Levinson brought me back into a world I had forgotten about. I loved this film. The look and feel of the movie was right on par with other gangster films I love from the past. It was truly a fantastic movie from beginning to end.

5 stars

Dan Skip Allen