Kill the Irishman

A crime film set in Cleveland in the 1970s. Danny Greene works on the docks. He rises in the union and becomes its president, then falls in a corruption investigation. At that point he makes an arrangement with federal agents and at the same time keeps doing business with the criminal organisations of the city. He handles both sides. In his own neighbourhood he has another position: he presents himself as the representative of the Irish community, hands money to children and is liked there. He falls out with the organisation. After that a series of car bombs goes off in the city; there are dozens of explosions within a year and the press gives it a name. The attempts to kill Greene keep failing, and that gives him a legend. What the film is interested in is not crime but a man building his own image and that image protecting him. The narrative is based on real events; the period was decisive in the unravelling of the criminal order in Cleveland. Ray Stevenson plays Greene, with Vincent D'Onofrio, Val Kilmer and Christopher Walken around him. Jonathan Hensleigh directed. A solid choice for anyone who likes crime films and narratives based on real events. For a viewer wanting a new structure, the film follows the known rise-and-fall pattern of its genre.