Enjoyable hogwash

Rating: 6/10 (4 December 2004)

It's some time since I read truthful accounts of what happened in Chicago at the time, but I think I would be prepared to bet that virtually nothing in this movie actually happened the way it is presented, if at all. I don't think Elliott Ness killed a single man, for instance - certainly not someone as well known as Frank Nitti! Nor, I think, did Capone have any cops or Treasury officials killed, let alone witnesses in custody (it caused enough trouble when he had a journalist killed).
So, watch this for what it is, a sort of modern western with about the same relationship to the facts as most westerns about historical characters. It has lots of enjoyable action, tremendous shootouts, some humour (I liked the accountant going wild and blowing gangsters away right and left), moral dilemmas, etc. and great performances by DeNiro and Drago. But Kostner's character (Elliott Ness) never really came alive for me, and Sean Connery certainly didn't sound American-Irish!