In the Absence of Good Men

Useless. super boring. i was 0 invested in anything. couldn't get thru it, even on fast speed (1 viewing)

Where I found myself very entertained by this movie and the excellent performances within it (especially by the lead and the guy playing Al Capone), there are MAJOR flaws in this movie. The biggest of these is the pacing. Major time jumps happen constantly. This film could've benefited from a two-hour runtime. Seriously.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. I think this director tried his best, and actually accomplished some awesome work, here. But it needs some re-editing hahah.

The fact that the movie promotes Jack McGurn as Capone's second in command tells you all you need to know about the authenticity of this movie. Another movie in which everyone in the world is young and good looking and they all date really pretty women. Oy. Take a look at Capones wife, in reality she was more along the lines of Roseanne. But you got lots of gun play and the costumes are nice so if thats enough for you, you got that.

If you wanna do a gangster theme movie with your own characters and events, just do it. But to take a historical figure and rewrite him, makes your film fail where it could have at least been respected for the art. Jack McGurn was a cold-blooded killer with no scruples, retaliating against the men who killed his stepfather, and gaining the attention of Al Capone with his brutality of murdering them. I'm this film, McGurn is presented as a man torn with Capone's brutality, not becoming a killer until Al shows him how. A big miss because of this, and just another gangster film that tries to show shady murderers as anti-heroes to chill for.

Unless you already know the main characters making up the various Chicago mobs of the 1920's and 30's you will most likely not understand this movie. It is mostly a collection of well-known incidents (the St. Valentines Day Massacre for example) and extreme violence along with standard "mobster meets dance joint showgirl" interludes.

Because the entire story of the Chicago mobs are not explored in greater detail and the actors don't look much like their real life counterparts it is often difficult to follow the action when one gang is attempting to waylay the other(s). Even the 1950's TV program "The Untouchables" offered a lead-in before each episode that explained a bit about the history. This movie just begins cold.

I gave the movie a 3 for the photography, sets and costumes but the storytelling leaves a lot to be desired. Anyone who knows the actual history of gangs in Chicago will wonder why they made this movie.