Ness prophesying his dying act, or De Palma's hindsight?

Rating: Null/10 (20 May 2002)

SPOILERS:At the end of this movie, Ness(Cosner) was asked what he'd do if prohibition was repealed. He said he'd probably pour himself a drink. I saw a documentary on Elliot Ness that said that in his last moment B/4 a fatal heart attack he had poured himself a drink, & dropped dead just as he raised it to his lips. Tempting to view this as poetic justice because he was doing what he made a career condemning in others. What qualifies this is his expressed view of prohibition-as played by Cosner. "It's the law of the land". That leaves open the possibility that Ness was after the disregard for law & order that seemed to explode from disregard for the prohibition laws, rather than a condemnation of alchohol itself.