"The Untouchables" — Robert De Niro's Circle of Trust
Who’s in and who’s out?
Synopsis: Eliot Ness and his band of lawmen, known collectively as “The Untouchables,” fight to take down Chicago crime boss Al Capone.
Who is Al Capone?
A ruthless mobster, Al Capone ruled over Chicago with an iron fist. His crime syndicate touched every corner of society from a laundromat on the Southside to the mayor’s office downtown. During his reign, turf wars and gang-related violence claimed some 700 lives. According to some estimates, Capone alone has been directly or indirectly linked to over 200 murders. And, judging by his mug shot on the FBI’s website, he had pretty eyes.
We know everything about Al Capone. We even know that he played the banjo in a prison band. The Untouchables, a highly fictionalized account of Eliot Ness’s efforts to bring him down, offers some potentially true, potentially untrue tidbits about Capone’s life.
Those include:
He wore blue silk jammies.
He enjoyed breakfast in bed.
Every morning he smoked a cigar while reading the paper, laughing at headlines about Ness’s failures.
He wore sunglasses indoors.
He enjoyed the opera.
He enjoyed the opera even more when, during an aria, a goon whispered in his ear that Ness failed in his investigation yet again, which in turn enhanced the emotional power of the aria.
Who’s in the Circle of Trust?
As the head of a diverse bootlegging organization, Al Capone understood that trust was both a commodity and a weapon, arming and shielding himself with loyalists while sowing fear among his ranks.
In The Untouchables, he confides in his sprawling network of goons and cronies to do his bidding, such as his enforcer Frank Nitti, who intimidates and eliminates his adversaries, moles within the police department, who foil Ness’s investigation, a bespectacled man with a bowtie, who delivers an envelope full of bribery cash to Ness at his office, and a bunch of background mafiosos in crisp suits, who are simply there to look imposing.
He also trusts the first jury during his tax evasion trial, as it is full of people he paid off.
Who’s out of the Circle of Trust?
The second jury during his tax evasion trial, as it is full of people he did not pay off.
Does anyone move in or out of the Circle of Trust?
The manager of the warehouse Ness and his team raided.
During a posh dinner with his crew, Capone discusses the power of teamwork and how it can make the dream work—the sort of talking points that wouldn’t sound out of place at a company-wide town hall before mass layoffs. He then launches into an extended metaphor about baseball and success. That’s when an associate hands him a baseball bat.
Someone’s about to lose their job.
He continues his speech, marching from crony to crony, teasing the air between wood and skull with a few test swings. It’s the most fucked up game of duck-duck-goose.
“A man stands alone at the plate. This is the time for individual achievement,” he barks. “In the field, though, he’s part of a team - his stats are all part of the team - like all the greats.”
Put another way, a team is only as good as its weakest link.
Moments later, Capone raises the bat and caves the warehouse manager’s head in.
Goose.
It’s also worth mentioning that he loses trust in his lawyer, who changes Capone’s plea to guilty after Ness convinces the judge to switch juries. Capone expresses his contempt by socking his lawyer in the face.
April. Spring—a time of fresh starts and new leaves. To mark the occasion we’re going to travel back to the 1960s and move through the earliest years in Robert De Niro’s career. Join us next week for his very credited first film role (listed as Robert Denero) in The Wedding Party.
Check out the Robert De Niro Circle of Trust spreadsheet here.
What is this project?