Known as “The Commission Case”, the 3-part series, titled “Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia”, deals with organized crime and the sprawling work of justice. Very nice work signed Sam Hobkinson.
New York is plagued by the underworld. The Bronx is on fire every night. A quasi-civil war that begins in the 70s to lead us in the 80s, until the trial of the mafia clans between 85 and 86. The series focuses on the dismantling of 5 families: Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese, Colombo and Bonanno. The Mafia. The golden age of the mafia! From sorting waste to the construction industry, organized crime was everywhere, sprawling dramatically across the Big Apple. Everything went through these 5 families. You can’t escape it without going to the cash register.
© Netflix
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The great strength of the series is undoubtedly this detailed and fascinating work on the FBI’s approach. To stop the bleeding, the agents decided to launch a large operation. Hyper archived with the added bonus of a lesson in directing, “Fear City” seems straight out of a fiction, where the Mafiosi have a look similar to the stamped productions Scorsese. Johnny Alite, one of the soldiers of the Gambino family, appears as a Robert De Niro bis. A sacred palette of characters for an immersion that exposes the now great strength of the FBI: surveillance. Stratagems and tricks explained by agents and supervisors. Joe Cantamessa, one of the agents called upon to install microphones at Mafia bosses, enlightens us on the delicacy of the operations: the slightest misstep and it is carnage. A real added value to the documentary – an astonishing suspense sets in when he develops his role in the operation.
“Fear City” seems straight out of a fiction …
Instructive and damn well put together, the series excels in terms of rhythm: a frantic montage bathed in a sublime photographic work signed Crogg Team. Shots reminiscent of “A Most Violent Year” by JC Chandor with a nod to the “Godfather” of Francis Ford Coppola, “Fear City” revives fiction to tell what the Mafia really was. The murders, the scams, the money flowing, there is a real balance found. The screen is divided into 2 parts, to integrate a Manichean vision: good against evil.
© Netflix
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In the criminal and judicial arcana, the series is sprawling, furious. And the last chapter asks us about the current place of the mafia: where is it? How does she operate now? “Fear City” is built through former mafia figures, determined agents and prosecutors, recordings that weave the great web of a vampirized city, cornered by organized crime. Another excellent documentary series from the Netflix team.
4/5 ★
«Fear City: New York vs The Mafia» est disponible sur Netflix.
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