classicsoncall Review of The Traitor

The Traitor (2019)

"...Cosa Nostra is over, now you just have to talk."

[7/10 · 25 December 2020]

This is probably the most low key gangster movie you're liable to see; the mob hits come by way of narrative rather than actual on screen violence. This is purportedly the way the Italian Mafia, or Cosa Nostra, was eventually taken down, with informants from one of the warring crime families identified as the Palermo Clan in the picture. The story is told primarily from the perspective of 'soldier' Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino), who one day simply had enough of the mob life and decided to hang it up. It's a truism that no one retires from the Mafia, but in Don Masino's case, he decided to cooperate with authorities and related much of his knowledge to Italian judge Giovanni Falcone (Fausto Russo Alesi). The ways of Italian justice come across as rather odd, as one's view of the courtroom scenes includes a backdrop of crime family inmates in a prison cell, and witnesses are allowed to question each other in open court. This had to be sensational front page news back in the Eighties as it was occurring, but it doesn't translate into a very exciting movie experience. "Godfather" fans would probably find this almost on the dull side, with the only similarity to that picture emanating from the family name Corleone.