By the Gun

Plot synopsis:
Nick Tortano is an associate of local caporegime Sal Vitaglia. Nick wants to become a made man but has yet to be trusted enough for his first contract killing. As the Boston crime families wither, however, Sal is forced to consolidate his power and advance more men. Recognizing Nick as potentially useful soldier, Sal advises him to show more loyalty and respect to the family. Sal forces him to deliver an apology in order to smooth over relations with another gangster, Tony Matazano, whom he has insulted. Nick reluctantly delivers the apology, though his friend George, a local thug unaffiliated with the mafia, ridicules him for having to show respect to what he views as a contemptible person. Although Tony accepts Nick's apology, tensions remain high between them.
When Nick also delivers an apology to Tony's estranged daughter, Ali, whom his cousin had insulted, Nick and Ali become interested in each other, though she at first rejects his overtures. Ali does not like her father, and she is concerned by Nick's relationship to the Boston crime families. Nick and George rob a local drug dealer that George had befriended, and Nick attempts to give some of the money to his brother, Vito. However, their father, Vincent, refuses to accept it and calls it blood money. Meanwhile, Nick's attempts to romance Ali pay off, and the two begin dating, though she teases him about his stereotypically macho attitude. Sal finally gives Nick a contract, but he is unable to perform the murder. Seeing his hesitation, George performs it for him.
Now a made man, Nick realizes that he no longer has to show as much respect around town. After first shaking down a local business owner to whom he owes money, he revisits Tony and demands a cut of his rumored Eastern European prostitution ring. Although resentful, Tony obliges. Now needing to collect on his outstanding debtors, Tony becomes frustrated with his incompetent underlings, who allowed an anonymous gambler to accrue a $25,000 debt without knowing his personal details. Tony personally takes charge of the collection and threatens to kill the man over the phone. George later calls Nick and directs him to a warehouse, where he reveals himself as the anonymous gambler. Nick is horrified to find that George has kidnapped and beaten Tony, and Nick attempts to talk George out of Tony's murder. After first threatening to kill George, Nick instead kills Tony.
Joe, Tony's second in command, instantly becomes suspicious of George and Nick when Tony disappears. With Sal's blessing, he interrogates Nick's family, and Joe kills Vincent in an altercation. Enraged by his father's murder, Nick attempts to see Sal, though he is stopped by Jerry, who explains that Sal will not see him. Jerry asks whether Nick killed Tony, and when he is met with silence, Jerry advises Nick to leave town immediately. Instead, Nick goes to see Ali and apologizes to her for killing her father. On orders from Sal, Jerry murders Ali, but Nick kills him before he can also be targeted. George insists that they together kill the entire crime family, but Nick rebukes him, and the two go their separate ways. Having lost his father, girlfriend, and best friend, Nick resolves to kill Sal.
Sal is unsurprised to see Nick, and they talk as Nick holds a gun on him. Although Nick blames Sal for the events that have destroyed his life, Sal says that Nick has thrown away a promising career in the Mafia over his connections to friends and family that should not mean anything to him, as they are outside the Mafia. Sal shoots and kills Nick with a hidden pistol. As Sal waits for a clean up crew to dispose of Nick's body, Vito arrives and murders Sal. The film ends as Vito runs off.

Tags: revenge, murder, violence

Review:
Watched this last night, hoping to see something along the lines of, well, good acting.
Harvey Keitel does his best, but he must have known this was going to be a Krimbo turkey from day one.
Painful to watch, and I can only hope whoever cast this recovers quickly.Low budget boredom from start to finish, with unbelievable dialogue.
Wrong Turn at Tahoe, makes this film look like what it is, a cheap, no thrills D movie.I implore you, gentle film viewer, to give this one a wide, wide berth.
i watched this earlier today, its fairly well filmed, realistic locations etc but to be honest is was clear after 30 mins or so that i was really wasting my time, even so i decided to see it through to its bitter clichéd predictable end, it amazes me how actors of the calibre of both Toby Jones and Harvey Keitel ended up in this movie all be it playing bit parts...
maybe they 'had to do a little favour for someone' by being in this very average clichéd seen it all before type film...
a familiar tale of protection rackets, strip clubs, hits going wrong, family loyalty, revenge and of course no one gets away clean!
"You watched the first half of Goodfellas like a thousand times." That is an actual line from this film that feels more like a critique of itself.
By the Gun is a Scorsese wannabe film that has terrible dialog and even worse accents.
The only thing worse than being a Scorsese wannabe is being a Scorsese rip-off and while By the Gun does have moments of blatant plagiarism, it does quite fully embrace it.
The dialog and screenplay feels like they are excerpts from better films in the same genre.
It never quite gels coming out of any of these actors outside of Slaine and Harvey Keitel.
The best part about this film is Slaine, he turns in a good performance but his character feels more and more like Jackie Boy from Mean Streets going into the third act.
My last and final complaint about the cast is more a question than anything, but what in the hell is Toby Jones doing in this film and what the hell was that accent?
But, setting aside a terrible cast and poor cinematography, what is most important here is that this film isn't entertaining.
It isn't interesting, it falls in line with being another poorly done mob film that was lucky enough to get picked up by a distributor..
When a man takes the oath to become a made guy in the Mafia, he promises to put the family before anything else.
For most gangsters, this never becomes an issue, but for Nick Tortano (Ben Barnes) it becomes the basis for an impossible decision.
A series of events lead Tortano into having to decide between his new family and his old one.
Most films about the Mafia follow a very specific pattern, leading people to say all these films are the same.
The film follows a new member is a small family and the story told from his point of view, giving us a very different look at La Costa Nostra.
Ben Barnes stars in one of his first leading roles and was outstanding.
Barnes, mostly recognized as an ancillary character from the Chronicles of Narnia series, finally steps into the spotlight and shows that he has what it takes to star.
I was impressed with the story and setting of this film, but I wasn't crazy about the cast, in fact, there were several actors who really brought the quality of this movie down, but Ben Barnes wasn't one of them.
His performance really added some legitimacy to this film and if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be recommending it at all.
By The Gun is not your typical Mafia movie, because Nick Tortano isn't your typical gangster.
He has a conscience that comes into conflict with his life of crime at every turn and watching him decide the fate of everyone he loves was really something worth watching..
Here is the thing, mafia films are more or less dead.
This film had a good storyline, locations used gave the film a very convincing feel.
The rhythm of the film was good as well.
Most of the very intense moments of the film had long dialogues and the characters playing the roles could not bring any intensity to the situation.
All the old mafia films were good because they went all the way good at heart or not.
They generated that feel and compassion that they want to a part of mafia.
Anyways with some shorter dialogue in hyped up scenes would have done the justice to the talent in the film.
Or a better cast with the same dialogues and a bit bold director, who wasn't scared of leaving the good guy routine behind, could have made this film work.Just my opinion..
Gritty Mafia crime thriller full of good performances..
A young gangster (Nick) achieves his lifetime goal of joining the Mafia and we see the struggle it causes between his family, friends and girlfriend.
This is a well acted piece with a nice turn from Harvey Kietal as a crime Boss.
Nicks life is complicated by his long term partner in crimes gambling indiscretions and this leads to an explosion of violence where everyone is affected.Downbeat locations and realistic dialogue seem to add a feeling of doom for the Mafia lifestyle that is portrayed as dying out.
The film is a bit reminiscent of The Town but on a smaller budget.
As written by Emilio Mauro and directed by James Mottern BY THE GUN is another Boston Mafia flick, but this one is a bit more sensitive to character development and conflicts of the gang world than most.
Perhaps most of that is due to Ben Barnes very exceptional portrayal of the lead character, but kudos must be passed around to a supporting cast that is less concerned with star turns then depicting the miasma of Mafioso life, perhaps the most dysfunctional concept of 'family' ever created.Nick Tortano (Ben Barnes) is a smooth-talking, ladies man, ambitious criminal from the streets of Boston.
After years spent working for and idolizing the Italian gangsters he finally proves himself to the boss Salvatore Vitaglia (Harvey Keitel) and becomes a made man.
However, once inside, Nick conflicts with a moneymaker for the Mafia and begins to drive a wedge between him and Boss.
In the sidebars, Nick's 'driver' is the fat but fearless George Mullins (Slaine) who makes Nick's initial difficult kill for him, Nick's real father (Paul Ben- Victor) and younger brother Vito (an impressive turn for Kenny Wormald), a love affair with Ali Matazano (Leighton Meester), and various conflicts with Salvatore's enemies.
There are some fine minor character roles by Toby Jones, Ron Komora, Tully Banta-Cain, William Bloomfield, Richie Coaster and others, but basically this is Ben Barnes film –a confused young man who makes some wrong choices but does so in a manner that keeps our compassion.Not a great film, nor does it pretend to be, but for a small Indie look at the autopsy of the Boston Mafia it fares well..
I love this film.
But the story, even foreseeable and cliché on some points, reminds me Phil Joanou's STATE OF GRACE, remember, starring Sean Penn, another film noir involving friends, brother and the gang, where Ed Harris could be imagined in the Harvey Keitel role.
Usually I root for the lead in a film.
I fully understand now why the lead character Ben Barnes distanced himself from the film after it's release.
I was more rooting for his best friend Slaine and he was a complete reprobate.
I have to say it did live up to the expectations of they typical mob movie with the strip clubs, test of loyalty and revenge tactics.
However, with the exception of Keitel, Coaster and Slaine the acting was pretty disappointing.
A very good crime thriller that's worth a view.
This is a very good low budget crime drama with a plot that grabs you and doesn't let go until the violent, bitter end.Ben Barnes really plays the dark and conflicted Nick Tortano well, a character that you really want to root for, but just can't because of this thing they have in the mob.
Harvey Keitel is perfectly cast as a mob boss and plays the role as brilliantly as you would expect.I thought the script could have been a little tighter and frankly that's the only thing that keeps this very good film from being a great one.The acting was also very good from top to bottom, and the action scenes were well directed and very well executed.If you don't mind low budget flicks with nonetheless good character development and good performances, you will like By the Gun. It's good enough to watch twice.
A desperate attempt at a 'mob' film.
Imagine if you will all the scenes in 'Mafia' films that have stirred your imagination or induced a sense of wonder at the 'mob' culture both at the internal structure of the 'family' and the loyalty that it demands, or, the dark and depraved levels of brutality that is served colder than yesterday's Ziti.
Each film, and let's not forget the wonderful Sopranos series depicted more than their fair share of gruesome details.
Now imagine hurrying to fill every scene, sub-plot and hard hitting moment into one film?
This film seems hurried, the scenes are empty and the plot holes and unbelievable relationships between characters are clear and awkward.
This is a film that you think you've seen before simply because there's nothing original to the viewer.
I did say 'no' rather a lot!The best thing about this film was smiling at Harvey Keitels New Jersey?
Pretend Killer Pretends To Be A Killer - Fairly Lame - Not Exciting - Just An Easy To Watch Movie.
They chose the right guy for the lead, he looks like a poser and his acting was OK so he looked like one in this movie.
Three stars only because of the performance by Slaine as Nick's friend.
Every time you see the lead character he is either lighting a cigarette (he lights no fewer than 5 cigarettes in the opening scenes alone), or tossing a long, freshly lit cigarette out a car window.
It almost seems as if somebody in production decided Nick looks good with a full Marlboro 120, but not with one that is half smoked.
If it didn't mean sitting through this mud again, I'd love to go back and see exactly how many times a cigarette is lit by either Nick one of the other one dimensional wannabe gangster characters.
The only saving grace in this film is the performance by Slaine as Nick's best friend.
Castrated Mob MovieA Poser of a PictureA Fugazi.
It's Difficult to Make a Boring Mafia Movie.
But Not Here.The Movie has Some Bad Acting with Character's Meant to Be Edgy, Spouting Middle of the Road Rants About This and That.
It is So Familiar and Shop Worn it Leaves the Movie with No Room to Entertain, At All.A Couple of Scenes Show Some Zip and Promise, Like the Confrontation Between Nick and His "Friend" (Slaine), as Nick Must Confront the Fact that He is a "Poser".
Harvey Keitel and Toby Jones are Wasted.
Who Knows.This Movie is Simply Not Entertaining and is Guilty of Playing Around in the Mob Genre where it is Not Recommended to Venture Unless You've Got a Pair.
Mediocre Mob Flick with some good performances..
Set in Boston we meet Nick Tortano (Ben Barnes) he works for Salvatore Vitaglia (Harvey Keitel) in what is seen as the dying days of Sicilian mob rule – with the new eastern Europeans taking over.
Nick just wants to be a 'made man' and in doing so has become estranged to his father, but has a best bud in George (Slaine) who sort of gives him a leg up – but he has more of a taste for wanton killing than does Nick.Throw into the mix a little illicit gambling, the ubiquitous lap dancing club and a stereotype Mafiosi or two and you have the general ingredients for a decent film.
No-one was dusting off the awards cabinet for this one either, but Slaine was good and Keitel can do no wrong.
Barnes as a lead was just too nice to be convincing, but did a fair fist of it.
If you love all things mob related then it is probably worth a go, but do not expect to be blown away..
The apathetic R-rated mafia movie "By the Gun" generates minimal velocity, and the foul-mouthed characters don't curse half as much as they should.
If you're itching for something like either "Goodfellas" or "Killing Them Softly," you're going to be sorely disappointed.
Instead, his obnoxious buddy George (Slaine of "The Town") takes care of Nick's business for him.
Niccolo Emilio Tortano (Ben Barnes of "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian"), who dreamed about being a 'made man' in the Italian mob, gets his opportunity about 41 minutes into the slow-burn action as his boss Salvatore Vitaglia (Harvey Keitel of "Mean Streets") administers the omerta oath.Trouble is killing isn't in Nick's blood.
Nick's father Vincent wants nothing to do with either him or the mob.
Nick also has his eyes on a female bartender, Ali (Leighton Meester of "Country Strong"), and likes to give her flowers.
As it turns out, Ali's father is scummy mafia chieftain Tony Matazano (Ritchie Coaster of "Blackhat"), and Nick's friend George takes Tony hostage and beats him within an inch of his life.
Tony tells Nicky repeatedly to kill George, and suddenly Nick blows Tony's head off.
When Sal's shooter Jerry (Toby Jones of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier") comes gunning for Nick, he finds Ali alone in bed and ices her.
Leading man Ben Barnes drums up little charisma.
Ben Barnes, Harvey Keitel, Toby Jones is what had me but I say always go by the ratings/reviews.
All actors delivered performances, but in what direction exactly was this movie heading into?
Filmmakers tried to sugarcoat the film with intense performances but there was absolutely no background to support it hence it falls flat on the subject matter.
There is the Godfather series, The Sopranos TV series which makes 'By the Gun' a by-product of poor film making and disappoints you in the subject matter.
Now the most weird thing was, To depict the life of a 'kid' who just got 'made', apparently he dies in the end, which was some kind of twist to make your head spin, and the guy who shoots him, also dies by the hand of the brother of the 'made guy' who had NO role in the movie, no character background, nothing, nada.Leaves you feeling helpless.
It tries to send out a message of friendship but not really, eventually turns out to be a subject of a tragic romance straight from the mafia world.
The script shows that the Kid wants to do the right thing but then he doesn't.
I hate it when actors like him fall victim to characters with no background, no density.
Don't say you want a realistic movie and then criticize it for not having a Hollywood gloss!.
I was surprised this film was rated below 5.
I can understand why the average viewer might not find this movie satisfying, because the ending is unexpectedly sad and very unlike most Hollywood mobster films in which the protagonist either survives or sacrifices himself to save another sympathetic character who escapes with a secure future.
Even the typecast Harvey Keitiel makes you forget all the other mobster characters he's played.
In this film, he's Sal, not Harvey.
The scenes with newcomer Slaine are especially engaging as his character increasingly asserts his street cred to the wavering Nick.
In a way, this is almost an "art film" version of a mob story.
They manage to convey character conflicts and brutal violence without glorifying the action (and with zero police presence or shootouts or cars blowing up!) In short, a refreshing albeit depressing deviation from the usual crime movie, but solid and worth a view..
Nicky (Ben Barnes) is an overly cocky punk criminal.
His slow witted cousin George (Slaine) does his dirty work as Nicky doesn't have the guts to do his own killing, but he is willing to take the credit.
Enjoy the summer, it will soon be winter." This nice little metaphor was part of the dialogue which I thought was fairly decent.
The characters were all the same that we have seen in all these other mafia-crime films.
George becomes our next criminal protagonist, but things change there too.
There was no subplot of cops investigating killings or any criminal activity, as the film centered on Nicky, who was in nearly every scene.While the film wasn't bad, about the waning days of organized crime, it wasn't a film that will stick in your mind.
A Frustrated Review of the film, "By The Gun." I just saw the most boring tedious crime movie I have ever seem.
With a great cast including Harvey Keitel, Toby Jones, Ritchie Coaster, and the neophyte actor Tully Banta-Cain you would think that it would have something.
Every gangster movie fan, mafioso, talented actor or director will be staring at the screen and crying why!
I do not know if it was the acting, screenplay, direction or a combination of all these elements but the plot and talents should have produced something better.
It may be good for putting young children to sleep but I am so distressed that I had to write this review and send it out into the world.
Movies like this convince me, that though I had my doubts, I could direct a feature film.
If you happen to be a film masochist enjoy.