MovieChat Forums > The Untouchables (1987) Discussion > The movies true life flaws.

The movies true life flaws.


First off, this movie is definitely well made and entertaining but l tend to have problems with films that proport to be based on a "true story" but are in fact anything but. In real life Elliot Ness was not married during the events of the Capone case. I believe he had a girlfriend but Ness was both wifeless and childless. Ness's prohibition squad had a couple of dozen men assigned to it instead of merely four. It's primary job was to shut down Capone's operations and make it extremely difficult for him to make any income. There was a adjunct squad of IRS agents who in the end were responsible for putting Capone in jail for tax evasion. The nifty trick of switching juries would have been legally impossible to do and would have ensured that Capone's conviction would have overturned. And then there's the problem with Frank Nitti. The real Nitti was far from being the type of psychotic killer that he was portrayed as. In fact Nitti would eventually take over the Capone organization and would live into the 50's. And these are just the major mistakes they make. There literally dozens of more minor ones.

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The judge at Capone's tax evasion trial DID switch the jury pool after a tip off that the one for his court room had been approached with bribes. (It did not take place in the middle of the trial, that's all)

That's actually the one thing that the movie took from real life that was accurate. That and the fact that Eliot Ness's Treasury dept team did have to work around and sometimes against the Chicago PD and that there was a lot of violence for very little gain.

If you remind yourself that this movie was inspired by a TV show and that it makes no pretense about it being nothing more than an entertaining and ironic myth about prohibition, one which is relevant to many people's romanticised perception of the war on the drugs that continues to this day, you get a lot more enjoyment out of it.

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What really bothered me now looking back is how Al Capone's defense attorney abruptly changes his client's plea to guilty after it's proven that Capone attempted to bribe the jury. I'm not a legal expert by any means, but if an attorney attempted to change his or her client's plea without their prior consent, then that right there, is grounds for causing a mistrial.

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WTF Really Happened to THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987)?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhBD2N_o4OE

WTF REALLY Happened To This Movie? – The JoBlo series that dives into movies based on TRUE stories, REAL people and ACTUAL historical events to separate FACT from FICTION!

In the 1987 crime thriller THE UNTOUCHABLES, director Brian De Palma depicts the efforts of Eliot Ness and his colleagues as they try to take down gangster boss Al Capone in Prohibition-era Chicago. Does the movie stay close to history, or is it drunk with exaggeration? Bring your knife to a gunfight and find out “WTF REALLY Happened to THE UNTOUCHABLES!”

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