G.A.N.G.S.T.A
This book looks closely at six films which will focus on key aspects of the film such as character analysis which is always important when it comes to understanding a key character, as well as key facts for the reader to look into, because for me that always adds an extra dimention to the film if I have then realised that after watching, the events in the films actually happened. Creating this book is the best option as all the information you need is all in one place. The name for my book is G.A.N.G.S.T.A which stands for Gaining Attributes Needed (to) Get Somewhere Through Achievement. I chose this acronym for the title because I felt that I could incorporate that through the write ups for each film, i.e. I have chosen a word from each letter for each film that I feel best represents the film, which really ties the films to the title of the book.
Renae West
AUT HORS NOTE
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Table
OF
CON TENT G.A.N.G.S.T.A
1
The Untouchables (1987)
2
The Godfather (1972)
3
American Gangster (2007)
4
The Rise of the Footsoldier (2007)
5
The Departed (2006)
6
Takers (2010)
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G.A.N.G.S.T.A Gaining
Attributes
Needed
(To)
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Somehwere
Get
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Through
Achievement
“I’ll tell ya the truth. There is violence in Chicago, of course. But not by me. And not by anybody I employ. And I’ll tell ya why. Because it’s not good for business. But you know what fucked things up for me… that fucking halfwit coppa, Eliot Ness when he came poncing around. Sticking his nose in places where it didn’t belong. He is talking about he swore to put me away with all legal means at his disposal. And you know what. That man. That fuckin’ coppa who I loathed. That I detested with every fibre of my being. He ended up being the last guy standing in our fight. Well, him and his team that they call “The Untouchables”.
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The
Untouchables
(1987) Directed by Brian De Palma
Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables
Synopsis
After building an empire with bootleg alcohol, legendary crime boss Al Capone (Robert De Niro) rules Chicago with an iron fist. Though Prohibition agent Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) attempts to take Capone down, even his best efforts fail due to widespread corruption within the Windy City’s police force. Recruiting an elite group of lawmen who won’t be swayed by bribes or fear, including Irish-American cop Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery), Ness renews his determination to bring Capone to justice. G.A.N.G.S.T.A
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We also see Capone label himself a ‘businessman’ Al can’t deny that he’s a specific kind of businessman – the kind that deals in criminal activity. And this is why law enforcement has been trying to bust him for some time. At least, the parts of law enforcement that Al hasn’t bought off. But it will be a lot tougher to get rid of the crusading federal agent, Eliot Ness, and his small band of “Untouchables.” There is a challenge for Capone, which is bribing enough police officers to keep the law off his tail. For a while, it seems like Al will have little problem doing just that. His real challenge comes when a small group of un-bribable lawmen, known as the “Untouchables” and led by Eliot Ness, starts hunting Capone down.
Robert De Niro as Al Capone The way that Al Capone was portrayed within this film was dominating, uncouth, reckless and political. Al Capone might as well be the mayor of Chicago.
Although he claims to lead a peaceful business, he also likes to say (and believe) things like: “You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.” Charismatic and a natural leader, Al could perhaps have been a success in a number of fields. But when your field of choice is organized crime, it’s awfully hard to stay on top forever because everyone is gunning for you – from the “good” guys like Ness to fellow bad guys. G.A.N.G.S.T.A
“There is violence in Chicago. But not by me, and not by anybody who works for me, and I’ll tell you why because it’s bad for business.” G.A.N.G.S.T.A
The Story Told Through Fashion...
Costner’s Ness wears both a cool longcoat and a nice hat throughout most of the film, making him look even more legendary as he fights crime around the city. He wears three suits in various shades of gray, but his main suit is a medium gray flannel wool threepiece suit, one of many beautiful costumes supplied to the film by Giorgio Armani. The film’s costumes, designed by Marilyn Vance, were nominated for an Academy Award. Although the suit shares some stylistic touches with the 1980s, the fit and overall look are appropriate for 1930. The mid-section is pulled in, emphasizing the shoulders and legs to lend Ness a more athletic profile, the male equivalent of the female hourglass. Ness, the consummate professional, is rarely seen out of his vest, so we only get a glimpse or two of the dark suspenders he wears with his suits, but when he removes his jacket, he shows off a black leather shoulder holster under his left arm with a snapped strap holding his pistol in place.
1920s
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For the dramatic confrontations between Ness and Capone, Robert De Niro wears light gray three-piece suits cut from designs by the real Al Capone’s original tailors. Noted for his method acting, De Niro personally tracked down Capone’s tailors so he would have identical clothing for The Untouchables, all then made by New York tailor Henry Stewart.
After a major death in the film, Ness confronts Capone on the lobby stairs of the Lexington Hotel which the gangster had made into his headquarters. Capone, his son, and his bodyguards are heading to a baseball game – as they often did – although Capone hardly looks like a man dressed for baseball in his gray silk threepiece suit. Underneath both suit jackets, De Niro wears a white dress shirt with a large spread collar, front placket, and French cuffs fastened with silver links. He wears a black silk tie on the Lexington stairs and a dark navy silk tie in court. De Niro had his dressing gowns and robes monogrammed following Capone’s same pattern found in the Sulka archives. De Niro’s insistence on wearing the same style of silk underwear as Capone is now well-cited as a trait of his method acting. However, costume designer Marilyn Vance testifies that this decision wasn’t as eccentric as it might seem: “De Niro knew it was there… he needed to feel the richness, the essence of the character.”
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Fact Check ! G.A.N.G.S.T.A
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De Niro
Born of an immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York in 1899, Al Capone quit school after the sixth grade and associated with a notorious street gang, becoming accepted as a member. Johnny Torrio was the street gang leader and among the other members was Lucky Luciano, who would later attain his own notoriety. Growing up in New York City, Capone was active in the Five Points gang, a criminal enterprise of mostly younger Italian-Americans in Manhattan that also graduated such well-known mobsters as Charlie “Lucky” Luciano and Johnny Torrio. It was in New York that Capone suffered a facial wound in a fight at a brothel, earning him the nickname “Scarface.”
Is
Al Capone G.A.N.G.S.T.A
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He was one of the most famous American gangsters who rose to infamy as the leader of the Chicago Outfit during the Prohibition era. Before being sent to Alcatraz Prison in 1934 for a tax evasion conviction, he had amassed a personal fortune estimated at $100 million as the head of the infamous crime syndicate.
St Valentine’s Day Massacre On February 14th 1929, four men disguised as police officers entered gangster Bugs Moran’s headquaters on North Clark Street in Chicago, in which they lined up 7 of Moran’s henchmen against a wall, and shot them to death. The St. Valntine’s Day Massacre, as it is now known as, was culmination of a gang war between arch rivals Al Capone and Bugs Moran. George Moran who was also known as “Bugs” was a career criminal who ran the North Side gang in Chicago during the bootlegging era of the 1920s. He fought bitterly with “Scarface” Al Capone for control of smuggling and trafficking operations in the Windy City. On one notorious occasion, Moran and his associates drove six cars past a hotel in Cicero, Illinois, where Capone and his associates were having lunch and showered the building with more than 1,000 bullets. A $50,000 bounty on Capone’s head was the final straw for the gangster. He ordered that Moran’s gang be destroyed. On February 14, a delivery of bootleg whiskey was expected at Moran’s headquarters. But Moran was late and happened to see police officers entering his establishment. Moran waited outside, thinking that his gunmen inside were being arrested in a raid. However, the disguised assassins were actually killing the seven men inside. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre actually proved to be the last confrontation for both Capone and Moran. Capone was jailed in 1931 and Moran lost so many important men that he could no longer control his territory.
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“Family is very important to me and there are certain attributes that the Corleone family hold. My father, Vito Corleone is a very intelligent man. He can make you an offer you cannot refuse. There is a certain authority and power that comes with the Corleone name. My eldest brother, Santino ‘Sonny’, he was too loud. He was a hot-head, and as my father once said, he would have made a lousy Don. My second brother Fredo, he disappointed me. If anything, you probably would have thought that I was the older brother. He lacked sense. He could never be the Don. As for my sister Connie, well poor Connie… she went through a lot with her husband Carlo Rizzi beating her up, which lead to Sonny beating him up in the street. The embarrassment that my brother inflicted on my brother-in-law lead to the death of my brother, which has led me to this position. I am the Don of the Corleone family. Now listen up and listen well.”
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The
Godfather (1972) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Synopsis
Widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, this mob drama, based on Mario Puzo’s novel of the same name, focuses on the powerful Italian-American crime family of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). When the don’s youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino), reluctantly joins the Mafia, he becomes involved in the inevitable cycle of violence and betrayal. Although Michael tries to maintain a normal relationship with his wife, Kay (Diane Keaton), he is drawn deeper into the family business. G.A.N.G.S.T.A
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972)
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“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
Vito Corleone The Don
Although we only see Marlon Brando and Don Vito Corleone, who is Michael’s father in The Godfather (Part one) for only 16 minutes, which he won the Oscar for Best Actor for this role in 1973, he created a character that wise and intelligent, an excellent reader of others’ intentions, and a smooth, subtle talker, able to convince with words, not only bullets. The most exceptional thing about Vito, and the way in which he most outshines his son, is the manner in which he conducts his personal life. Vito Corleone controls his movements impeccably, using his body in only the most understated of ways to convey a sense of omnipotent authority over other men. This becomes evident as soon as the movie begins: the first time we as viewers lay eyes on any part of Vito, the camera faces Bonasera from over Vito’s shoulder. Bonasera, sitting on the other side of Vito’s desk, begins to sob at the plight of his daughter’s suffering. We see not a commanding body towering over Bonasera but an out-of-focus hand in the foreground, gesturing to a capo to bring Bonasera a drink in consolation, which he gratefully accepts. With just the use of one out-of-focus hand, the film situates Vito’s authority in methodical action and institutional relevance. His is a masculinity characterized by the deference and obedience of other powerful men — a masculinity that does not need to exert power actively because the institution he has built on his own terms does it for him. Of course, Vito’s authority changes after he steps down from his position as the copo dei capi. Vito becomes more of a family man, indulging in wine and time with his grandchildren. In an uncharacteristically tender moment toward the end of the film, we see Vito playing with his grandson in the garden. He presses an orange peel against his teeth to scare the child and lets him spray him with a water gun as they run around through the orange plants.
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Al Pacino
“Never let anyone know what your thinking.”
This impression continues right up to the point the Don is shot. The way Michael handles the situation at the hospital only furthers the notion that here is a young man who has the same smarts as his father but is so different. Now is when we first begin to see the other, dark side of Michael Corleone with his decision to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey. We see him demonstrate determination, readiness to accept consequences, and overall intelligence and presence of mind throughout the operation. Sonny cheekily chastises Michael for coming up with this plan. “Hey, whaddya gonna do, nice college boy, eh? Didn’t want to get mixed up in the family business, huh? Now you wanna gun down a police captain, why, because he slapped you in the face a little bit? Michael insists that “It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.”. While Michael is in hiding in Sicily, he gets “hit by the thunderbolt” a.k.a falls in love at first sight with and a beautiful Italian girl Apollonia. But it is the devastation of Apollonia’s death, combined with the news of his brother’s Sonny’s death, that brings Michael to a point of no return. Once the love of his life and unborn child dies, Michael becomes a bitter and ruthless man. Love was replaced with hate and a coldness running through within him.
As Michael Corleone Michael Corleone is a refreshingly complicated protagonist, in that his journey is frankly the opposite of what most people would root for — military war hero to crime family boss. Ironically, Michael is literally going from having to kill people for his country to killing people for his family.
At Connie’s wedding, he is a dashing war hero who is against his father’s line of business. We see that side of him strongly contrasted with the Godfather’s early display of power. It is at this moment when Michael likes to remind Kay (Diane Keaton) and us the viewer that “that’s [his] family not [him]”. G.A.N.G.S.T.A
Michael returns home without his Italian bride, his brother dead, other brother Fredo too weak to run the family, and father too sick to be the boss anymore. Michael has no choice, and does not care to make any other choice, but to submerge himself into the business, despite his father’s hopes for something more. In watching the scene when proposes to Kay, we see how cold Michael has truly become.. To be respected as a boss, Michael knew he had to have a family. Kay was the easiest and quickest option available to him. The scene is more of a calculated business transaction than a loving proposal. It’s not to say he doesn’t care about Kay, at all. Michael never cheats on her, he gives her a good life. But it’s much more a business move than anything else. “I came here because I need you—because I care for you. Because I want you to marry me.” Beautiful words, but watch how Michael says them, there’s no true emotion, and this proposal is clouded with mechanical motions with the goal of getting Kay back into his life.
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How Costume Tells the Story of the Rise and the Fall of the Don G.A.N.G.S.T.A
There are 3 key stages of Don Vito Corleone’s character and personality which is demonstrated through the costume worn on screen which includes the work of award-winning Hollywood costume designer, Anna Hill Johnstone. Vito Corleone is immaculately attired in three-piece formalwear and floral boutonniere. This is where it could be considered that Don Corleone is at the peak of his game and super highly respected. The suit is simplistic yet powerful, which is a reflection of his personality at this point in his life as he is the leader of one of the five Mafia families in New York City. But as the film continues, Vito’s dress is earthy, tweedy, rustic - befitting of a simple, elderly gentleman from the Sicilian countryside. We typically see this as his eldest son, Santino “Sonny” Corleone begins to take the lead or transitions into becoming the leader of the Corleone family; It’s almost as if as the power shifts over to his eldest son, his costume also changes. Black is such a powerful colour, and the three-piece suit that Vito wears at the beginning of the film just exudes power, yet the earthy tones that he wears towards the middle of the film show’s his ‘step-down’ from the Don role, yet he still wears a suit in the middle of the film, showing that he’s still apart of the “family business”. As we near towards the end of the film, after the death of his eldest son, Michael (the youngest son) officially becomes the head of the family business as Vito Corleone takes a step back to become a family man again as he spends time with his grand children. His costume now is a complete 360 degree turn from what we saw on our screens in the beginning. He is seen sporting a simple white shirt, paired with grey slacks and a fedora hat as he sits outside and enjoys his retirement from the family business; but it is very interesting to see that now Vito is offically no longer the Don, his look is very simplistic as his powers have diminished.
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The various outfits Pacino wears throughout the movie — the work of award-winning Hollywood costume designer Anna Hill Johnstone — beautifully illustrate the character’s reluctant transition from privileged, university-educated and relatively innocent golden boy of the clan, to murderous, monstrously powerful mob boss. We first see Michael at his sister’s wedding, in which he is seen in his full military attire. After his father has fallen victim to an assassination attempt, he wears an expensive-looking brown overcoat while guarding his injured dad’s hospital alongside impromptu security escort, Enzo the Baker. Subsequently, we discover that beneath the coat, he’s sporting what his brother Sonny very accurately describes as a “nice Ivy League suit” — brown corduroy sports coat and contrasting slacks, with a striped tie and Oxford cotton button-down shirt. Following the brutal killing of his big brother Sonny, Michael returns to America, marries Kay, has a couple of kids, and as heir apparent to the family business, begins to feel the weight of the world on his shoulders, which are now almost exclusively clad in grey, businesslike three-piece suits, where as his father, Vito Corleone eases into retirement by wearing cardigans and more relaxed clothes.
As Michael professes to “renounce Satan and all his works” while standing as godfather at his nephew’s baptism, he is seen in a double-breasted suit and a black and white tie stripped silk tie. He is also seen sporting the same outfit during the films conclusion with the tie loosened and the jacket removed to reveal suspenders. The symbolism is potent indeed — as is so often the case, the most dressed-down man in the room is also the most powerful. G.A.N.G.S.T.A
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Fact Check! Meet
Frank
Costello, the Mob Boss Who Inspired Don Corleone. G.A.N.G.S.T.A
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Frank Costello soon helped the crime syndicate by befriending many politicians in Tammany Hall. These relationships helped the syndicate buy favors from judges, cops, politicians, district attorneys, and city officials. After the Castellammarese War, a bloody conflict between rival Italian and Sicilian gangs, Costello was instrumental in helping Lucky Luciano consolidate the sprawling Italian gangs of New York City into a “commission” of five separate crime “families.”- which is very similar to the representation of the ‘five families’ in the film . Don Corleone resembles a lot of Frank Costello’s “The Prime Minister” traits as they both seem to have preffered to draw little attention to themselves and the mob, choosing reason over violence whenever possible and usin diplomacy and their extensive connections in polotics and business to maintain power. Marlon Brando even based Vito Corleone’s soft, raspy voice on Costello’s after he did some research for his character and listened to tapes of Costello testifying to the Kefauver Committee on Organized Crime.
Frank Costello was born Francesco Castiglia in Cosenza, Italy in 1891. Like most of the American Mafia, Costello immigrated to the United States with his family as a boy in the early 1900s. Upon arriving in New York, Costello’s brother became involved in local street gangs who engaged in petty theft and local small crimes. Unfortunately, that same year he served 10 months in jail for armed robbery. From then on, he never carried a gun, an unusual move for a Mafia boss, but one that would make him all the more influential. After his several jail stints, Costello found himself working for Harlem’s Morello Gang. Bootlegging soon brought the Italian gang into cahoots with the Irish mob, including mobster Bill Dwyer, who had been operating a rum-running operation by this point. Together the Italians and the Irish formed what is now known as the Combine, a deeply rooted bootlegging system with a fleet of ships that could transport 20,000 crates of liquor at a time. G.A.N.G.S.T.A
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Frank! Is That
You? G.A.N.G.S.T.A
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Frank Sinatra is one of the greatest singers of all time, but there was a dark episode in his life that might have inspired a character in “The Godfather.” Frank Sinatra is probably one of the most famous musicians of all time thanks to his peculiar, strong and romantic voice, his dapper style, and appealing personality. But behind his story of success, there seems to be a dark subplot that’s a kind of open secret. It’s his connection with the Mafia. Though he tried to silence these rumors (as he called them) his entire life, one of the strongest evidence against him was perhaps the way he reacted towards The Godfather and the character of Johnny Fontane, Vito Corleone’s godson and pop star. Sinatra rose to popularity in the forties but his interest in music came at a very young age. His parents used to own a bar in New Jersey where he was allowed to sing a song every now and then. After dropping out of school, he started working small jobs including performing at bars in both New Jersey and New York. Sinatra joined a band called the 3 Flashes in 1935, but his real hit came in 1938 when he started performing live at a radio show in New York. This led to him to recording his first songs and to start making connections. One of his first connections to organized crime might’ve been with Mafia boss Willie Moretti, who is said to have helped him get out of a really bad contract with Tommy Dorsey, one of Sinatra’s first bandmates. The FBI had opened a file on Sinatra since the forties, one that would collect more than 2,000 pieces of evidence that investigate Sinatra and these famous connections. Looking at Mario Puzo’s character Johhny Fontaine, the resembelence between him and Sinatra are uncanny. Johnny Fontane was a humble young man with a great talent wanting to make a living out of his music. In his quest to succeed at show business, a producer tricks him into signing a contract that would make him work really hard without getting much money. Fontane’s luck changes when he becomes one of Vito Corleone’s most beloved godsons. Much like Fontane, Sinatra’s mysterious rescinding out of several disadvantageous contracts were well known. So were some of the connections with different gangsters. In addition to that, he also was able to pursue a career as an actor, and became a very influential personality in Hollywood. Even Francis Ford Coppola (the film adaptation’s director) once mentioned that “obviously Johnny Fontane was inspired by a kind of Frank Sinatra character.” Sinatra was furious with Godfather author Mario Puzo over the Fontane character and reportedly confronted Puzo in public with profane threats supposedly on the basis that Fontane is shown to cry in the film, an emotional weak display Sinatra would not imply as a part of his personality.
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Frank Sinatra
Johnny Fontaine portrayed by Al Martino
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“Did you know that I rose from the ashes like a phoenix? A goddamn phoenix. I went from a very simple life to making $1m a day by creating the purest form of heroine which I called “Blue Magic”. It’s a brand name. Like Pepsi. I stand behind it. I guarantee it. If you ask me, I was pretty smart to find a way to make the purest form of heroine you could find on the market back then. But putting that all aside, family and loyalty are very important to me as I am a man of integrity. I know you are probably thinking “how can a gangster have integrity?” but there are certain rules and practices you have to follow when you are in the game, which I did, except for that one time where I had to pop a cap up in Tango’s head out on the street when he thought that he now ran the streets after Bumpy’s death, talkin’ bout I owe him 20% of the profits I make… or that time where my cousin was running up his mouth in my house and he spilt his damn wine on my $10,000 Alpaca rug, which he then started to rub it out.. you don’t do that! You blot that shit! But anyway, back to the situation at hand I made a name for myself. I am Frank Lucas. Now that that’s outta the way, lets begin…”
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American
Gangster (2007)
Directed by Ridley Scott
Synopsis
Harlem drug dealer Frank Lucas rises to power in corrupt 1970s New York, equalling and surpassing the notorious Mafia families with the reach of his empire. On the other side of the law, honest cop Richie Roberts dedicates himself to taking down `the most dangerous man walking the streets’. Lucas acts with impunity, smuggling heroin into the US in the coffins of American soldiers killed in Vietnam.
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“The most important thing in business is honesty, integrity, hard work, and family.” Those are the words of Frank Lucas who was portrayed by Denzel Washington, and Lucas really does live by those words as we witness him transition from being the second man I charge to the first as he became one of the most successful drug lords of the late 60s early 70s by cutting out the middlemen and buying heroine directly from Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Throughout the story, it is fair to say that Lucas’ race plays a significant role in the NYPD’s unwillingness to recognise him as a true threat to cracking the war on drugs in New York City because it was mainly the Italian mafia who was at the forefront of the drug war that was going on at the time. Not only did he manage to slip under the radar of the NYPD but also the Sicilian Mafia, as they also struggled to recognise him as a true competitor within the world of organised crime. Lucas’ calm smarts allows him to uses society’s negative connotations of the African-American society to his advantage, by using his intelligence and strength to continue to slip under the radar, which then results to the ultimate manipulation of those who assumed him powerless. Yet there are times where we witness that Lucas has to exhibit his ruthlessness in order to gain respect. We are at times presented with painfully detailed violence. For example, the film’s opening scene we see Lucas with his mentor Bumpy Johnson, dousing a man with gasoline and setting him a light. Frank Lucas the proceeds to shoot the man in the head three times after watching him scream for his life.
“The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.”
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This scene is pivotal in understanding this character as we see him remain calm as the man is on fire yet witness his ruthless side as he sets the man on fire. In one scene in the middle of the film, Lucas’ little brother Huey (Chiwetel Ejiofor) was caught wearing what his brother liked to call a “clown suit”. Lucas then proceeds to warn his brother that what he had on was “…a costume with a big sign on it that says, ‘Arrest me’. You understand? You’re too loud, your making too much noise” and he was right. Lucas was smart enough to know that him and his family had to remain under the radar if they wanted to continue to produce the best heroine on the market, but then “being too loud” then became the bane of his existence when his wife brought him a $50,000 chinchilla coat with a matching $25,000 hat which he wore to the fight of the century, which then highlighted him to the FBI.
From Rags To Riches... Designed by Jany Yates, Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) for the most part of the film is seen sporting a sand-brown, single breasted suit with peak lapels. This look isn’t overtly gangster, nor is it businessman which is really interesting because you never really know what to expect from this character just by looking at the costume, which is great in a sense as this character is able to slip under the radar and adhere to his cool demeanour. This whole look is in sync: sand-brown suit, tie and brown shoes which gives an impression that this character appreciates organisation, which is an essential trait when you are a leader of an organisation. There is one scene in particular where Frank Lucas quizzically asks his younger brother Huey, “What you got on?” “A very, very nice suit,” Huey responds proudly, wearing a 1970s style silk shirt with the exaggerated collar overlapping the lapels of his three-piece. Lucas, however, disagrees. “It’s a clown suit. That’s a costume with a big sign on it that says, ‘Arrest Me’. You understand? You’re too loud, you’re making too much noise.” He pulls his younger brother close to dispense some words of wisdom. “Look at me. The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.” This takes point in the middle of the film where we see that Lucas’ business in the drug world is working yet his costume has remained the same from the beginning of the film, however, his younger brother gets a little carried away with the new found money he has and buys himself a flash suit, to which his brother (Lucas) has to educate him that his outfit needs to be toned down, otherwise he would blow the lid off of his older brothers mulit-million-dollar business. Unfortunately, Frank Lucas did not succeed in listening to his own advice. In a key part of the film, in the ‘Fight of the Century’ scene – a battle between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali – Lucas sports a $50,000 chinchilla coat with a matching $25,000 hat. As they were gifts from his wife and he resultantly felt obliged to wear the opulent coat, despite knowing it would make him “the loudest one in the room.” This is the point in his life where he was at the top of his game in terms of money and respect from other people. However, the $50,000 chinchilla coat was also the downfall of this street-smart kingpin as Richie Roberts (portrayed by Russell Crowe) has his camera in hand spotted Lucas in the crowd in the hunt for the distributor of a brand of heroin colloquially known as ‘Blue Magic’, and spots Lucas due to the sheer lavishness of his ensemble and his intriguingly close ring proximity. Costume designer Jany Yates has done a really good job by adding more to the story through the costumes she has provided in the film as we are taken on a journey of rags to riches but unfortunately we also witness the downfall of this character through the costumes, as the costume exposes Lucas’ criminal behaviour.
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Fact Check!
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Frank Lucas The North Carolina-born Lucas moved to Harlem after witnessing the Ku Klux Klan murder his cousin, an incident that Lucas said sparked his career in crime. In Harlem, he indulged in petty crime and pool hustling before he was taken under the wing of gangster Bumpy Johnson. Frank Lucas learned well from Johnson, but took his teachings to a whole new level, developing one of the most lucrative crime organizations of the 20th century. Johnson died in 1968, leaving the control of Harlem up for grabs. Lucas took the opportunity to seize as much territory as he could. Frank Lucas realized that to take over Johnson’s operation he needed to break the monopoly of the Italian Mafia. His idea was to bypass the Mafia’s heroin trade in Harlem and go directly to the source of the drug. By 1968, the Vietnam War had been raging for several years. It was common knowledge that U.S service personnel had been exposed to many different illegal drugs, including heroin. After many years of supplying the streets of Harlem with “Blue Magic” (Lucas’ own brand of heroin) which was far more potent than most heroin and caused many deaths due to overdose. Richie Roberts (FBI agent responsible for the arrest of Frank Lucas) even declared that Lucas had “killed more black people than the KKK with the sale of Blue Magic.
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BLUE MAGIC In the earloy 1970s, Harlem-based drug Kingpin, Frank Lucus, was slingling his signature brand of heroin all over New York City and the rest of the East Coast. “Blue Magic”, as it was called, was the best-selling, closest-to-pure heroin people could get. Charles Lutz, who served in Vietnam with the 525th Military Intelligence Group and spent 32 years as a federal narcotics agent, was part of the team that toppled Lucas’ Asia-based heroin supply chain. It was the largest heroin smuggling operation in American history. In the film American Gangster, Denzel Washington portrayed Frank Lucas, a Harlem narcotics distributor from the late 1960s and early 1970s who put the trademark “Blue Magic” on the high-grade brand of heroin he sold.
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$1m Lucas said that he made US$1 million per day selling drugs on 116th Street. When he died, Lucas had a net worth of $52 million which majority was made through the selling of ‘Blue Magic’.
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“Do you know how much I fuckin’ love football? The love that I have for the sport is ridiculous. West Ham till I die. But let me tell ya a little story. I used to be a bouncer in some club up in East London, which is where I met two top geezers, Tony Tucker and Pat Tate. Drug dealers. Who unfortunately were both murdered. But anyway… they were two big time dealers back in the 80s. If you needed ecstasy to keep you going through your raving, they were your guys. Sorry, back to the story… met a few more people and that’s when I joined the ICF and for those of you that don’t know what that stands for, Inter City Form. We were just a bunch of West Ham supporters you know. Talk about how much we fuckin’ hate Spurs and Liverpool. They called us ‘Hooligans’. But then of course one thing led to another…you then meet a few more people and then BOOM! I’m in charge of the criminal underworld of London. I’m Carlton Leach! I run the show!”
The Rise Of the Footsoldier Directed by Julian Gilbey
Synopsis
(2007)
Rise of the Footsoldier follows the inexorable rise of Carlton Leach from one of the most feared generals of the football terraces to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals who rampaged their way through London and Essex in the late eighties and early nineties. It is three decades of his life following him from football hooliganism, through to his burgeoning career as a bouncer, his involvement in the criminal aspects of the early ‘rave’ scene and subsequently to his rise to power as one of the most feared and respected criminals in the country. G.A.N.G.S.T.A
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Ricci Harnett as...
Carlton Leach Carlotn Leach, a brutal gangster who began as a football hooligan. In the beginning of the film, we see Leach as a supporter for the London football club, West Ham during the mid 1970s, but then he joined the ICF which stands for the Inter City Firm which was essentially a gang of men who would go to football games and cause a commotion which would usually end up in massive fights between the supporters pf two football clubs. Leach was the leader on the terraces, are there are so many times where we see this aggressive streak come out of Leach due to this hooligan nature that he has. But as the 1980s approach, he started working as a bouncer in a club East London, which is when he met Tony Tucker, followed by Pat Tate. Once Leach met the two men that were both large scale dealers within the ecstasy world during the rave era, this is where Leach’s world turned upside down.
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He became drawn into the illegal activities He and his fellow bouncers provided security at the clubs, and also served as bodyguards of those peddling the illicit drugs. He went with the flow and started doing big deals at big raves. Carlton recalls that his wages rose from £50 a night to £300. After this, we see that crime becomes a way of life for him, where violence is business and he became the leader of the criminal underworld. The murders left Carlton a changed man. The fearsome and tough man turned into a terrified person as he thought that he would be the next one to be murdered. It served as a wake-up call for him, and made him realize that he had his parents and a family. Even five years after the murders, he stayed paranoid. He didn’t trust anyone and kept himself away from people. But after ten years as a hardcore hooligan, Carlton Leach decided to leave behind football violence, his bouncer’s job, and drug dealing. He left Canning Town, where he was born and brought up, and moved to Southend.
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Regarding the costume that is worn within the beginning of this film, it wikdely consists of a style known as terrace fashion. When we see Leach in the mid-70s attending the football games, he was seen sporting clothes from brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, Sergio Tacchini, Fila and Ellesse. This was all apart of a subculture that saw young fans just like Carlton Leach travel to Europe for matches and developing a taste for new and exotic sportswear in the process. They brought it back home, others saw and wanted it, and so the cycle began. This was really the beginning of hype sportswear. We can see Leach wearing an Adidas jacket along with some Levi 501 jeans, which is very symbolic of the 80s terrace fashion. Yet as Carlton Leach’s status changes as he transitions from East London club bouncer into a gangster, which is when we see him change from the sporty look into the ‘gangster look’. He dresses in more dark clothes and the traditional leather jacket, which seems to be the typical attire for when turn to the bad side as black is supposed to represent things that are bad and evil.
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Fact Check!
The Football Hooligan Himself
He was born in Canning Town, (East London since 1965). Leach was catapulted into a criminal career by his love of West Ham United F.C. Before long, he was a member of the notorious Inter City Firm, a gang of hooligans who followed the East London club. Leach started work as a bouncer in East London, where he became involved with Tony Tucker, then followed by Pat Tate, both of whom worked as large scale dealers in ecstasy during the rave era in the late 1980s.
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F***k’n Hell Ref ! G.A.N.G.S.T.A
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Football hooliganism is disorderly, violent or destructive behaviour perpetrated by spectators at association football events. Disorderly behaviour has been common amongst football supporters since the birth of the sport, but it is only really since the 1960s that it began to be perceived as a serious problem. By the 1970s, each club had its own hard core of violent young men whose prime purpose each week was not to watch their team play but to confront the crew of the rival club. In the 1980s, however, hooliganism became indelibly associated with English football supporters, following a series of major disturbances at home and abroad, which resulted in numerous deaths. Vigorous efforts by governments and the police since then have done much to reduce the scale of hooliganism.
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England has the worst international reputation for hooliganism, a number of other countries have similar and growing problems. Today, the highest profile hooliganism problems tend to occur in relation to international matches and events. In all these countries, some gangs of hooligans share other characteristics, interests and beliefs that incline them towards violent conduct, including links to far-right and racist organisations. Others, however, are apolitical, and are simply composed of men who enjoy fighting.
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“You know a man once told me that when he was my age, people would say that you could become a cop, or you could become a criminal. But when you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference? And that’ was the question that I had to face. There is no loyalty. It’s a lie. It doesn’t exist. Sacrifice is a test, and trust me, I’ve been tested. But just know this. When you burn the candle at both ends…you get burnt. Everybody gets burnt.”
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Departed Directed by Martin Scorsese
Synopsis
(2006)
South Boston cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes under cover to infiltrate the organization of gangland chief Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). As Billy gains the mobster’s trust, a career criminal named Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) infiltrates the police department and reports on its activities to his syndicate bosses. When both organizations learn they have a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin must figure out each other’s identities to save their own lives.
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Colin Sullivan The protégé of Frank Costello, Colin Sullivan appears to be a rough guy from a very rough neighbourhood in Boston, which almost conflicts with the face value impression the audience have created for him as he appears to be a sweet man, but then as the film progresses, we realise that from the beginning, Sullivan has been mentored by Frank Costello, where he has shown him that it is okay to take whatever you want from life. As the film progresses, we get to learn how Colin is in a relationship. We begin to see that Colin does not like to talk about where he comes from, which was a neighbourhood in Boston which meant that you had to be tough to survive; but there comes a point where his fiancé Madolyn was moving in with Colin and decided to take the next step in their relationship and move in together, to which she brought some of her childhood pictures to place in their home, but by doing so Colin becomes angry and immediately takes them out of the room and says “You don’t see any pictures of where I came from. Look I respect who you are. Just, you know, not in the living room. We might have company. Now, this response that he has given to his girlfriend shows two things; the first being that he is ashamed of his background and where he comes from, but the second point is that a reason why Colin probably did not want any pictures in the house is because he doe not want anything that could jeopardise his ‘career’ and expose his connect him to the mobster Frank Costello. He really was a man that was fighting fire with fire by passing himself of as a police officer yet his true intentions were get as much intel as he could for Frank Costello, to which he eventually learnt his lesson which resulted to him escaping the situation by getting his head blown off by Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) towards the end of the film.
“I’m fucking Irish, I’ll deal with something being wrong for the rest of my life.” G.A.N.G.S.T.A
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Jack Nicholson
“I don’t want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.”
As Frank Costello Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) who is the taker within the film, is not interested in playing by the rules that the society that he lives in follow. This probably stems from the fact that he is an Irish Catholic. Costello grew up in a time were the Irish had a really hard time and were hated in America, which probably means that Costello has built up a real resentment for what America believe they stand for and following any of the rules that the nation has set out for their citizens to follow. You really begin to see that for Frank, life is all about taking whatever you want from life. Take first, ask questions after. He could dare people to try and stop him; and when these people did try to stop him, he could kill them.
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Despite his belief that he can do anything in order to get what he wants, Costello still has a code of honour that he follows which we see when he feels a little guilty for dragging Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) into his criminal world, saying: “Your Uncle Jackie, he also would kill my entire f***ing family if he saw me here with you . And I think about this… Did you ever think about going back to school?” It is here where we can see that Costello is appearing to give out some genuine fatherly advice, yet he seems to be disappointed when Billy does nit take on his advice. We can see that Frank has got a paternal side to him and the reason why we are able to see this at times is probably because he is trying to figure out who will continue his legacy once he is gone, yet there are times where Costello gives off the impression that he is irreplaceable as he tells Billy: “The only one who could do what I do is me. A lot of people had to die for me to be me”, which proves that Frank Costello is a man who knows that he holds a reputation for himself thus meaning that maybe there is not someone who is capable of taking over after him. G.A.N.G.S.T.A
In regard to the costume that is worn within this film, it is constantly shifting between justice and illegal activities. For example, Colin Sullivan is supposed to be an upholding citizen who has sworn to serve and protect whilst wearing his police uniform, which he does for the most part; and he still manages to keep up his appearance of looking like he is the good person as his normal attire just consists of a plain shirt and jeans, which really depicts how he is trying to go uncovered, just so the police force will not find out that he is really on the wrong side of the law.
Lets
However, Billy Costigan is one the right side of the law, yet he has to make himself appear to be a member of the Irish mob, which means he switches his police uniform, for an all-black ensemble which consists of a black baseball cap, black t-shirt, black jeans and a black leather jacket. This disguise seems to be very typical of what is clothes are used when people want to hide their true identity. It is almost as if as soon as the hat comes on, your true identity is masked and no one will ever find out who you really are; but costume designer Sandy Powell does do a great job in contrasting the two lives through costume as she portrays the good guy and the bad guy, but twice over as we see Colin Sullivan and Billy Costigan playing both sides in an attempt to both gain something greater.
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Fact Check!
James Joseph
‘WHITEY’ Bulger
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Jack Nicholson’s role as mob boss Frank Costello in Martin Scorsese’s Boston gangster drama “The Departed” is very loosely based on Whitey Bulger. Whitey Bulger was a prominent figure in Boston’s organized crime scene from the 1970s until the mid-’90s, when he fled the area. Captured in 2011, he was later found guilty of federal racketeering, extortion, conspiracy and 11 murders.
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James “Whitey” Bulger embarked upon a life of crime at the age of 14 and had become a prominent figure in Boston’s organized crime scene by the late 1970s. From 1975 to 1990, Bulger also served as an FBI informant, tipping off the police to the Patriarca crime family while also building his own crime network. After fleeing the Boston area in 1995, Bulger landed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list. After returning to Boston, Bulger embarked upon a life of crime. His offenses grew increasingly large in scale, culminating in a string of bank robberies from Rhode Island to Indiana. In June 1956, he was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. He ended up serving nine years, including stints in Atlanta, Alcatraz and Leavenworth. (Bulger allegedly served time in Alcatraz because he was discovered making plans to escape from his prison in Atlanta.) He was captured in California in 2011 and after a two-month trial, the notorious crime boss was found guilty of federal racketeering, extortion, conspiracy and 11 murders. G.A.N.G.S.T.A
“Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re Takers. That’s what we do. We take. Although me and my team said that we would never do a job back to back, we wanted to gain more than what we already had, but the money is too tempting for all of us to resist. Money brings you thingsit brings you sorrow. Like when I lost my boy A.J when the bloody Russians invaded the hotel we were at because I trusted Ghost when he never forgave us for the job back in ’04… but that’s beside the point. This is our story.”
Takers
(2010)
Directed by John Luessnhop
Synopsis
Gordon Cozier (Idris Elba) and his friends enjoy a luxurious lifestyle funded by bank robberies, and they avoid capture by sticking to a strict set of rules. As they celebrate the latest job, a former associate arrives with a daring plan to rob an armored car. The lure of so much cash is too tempting to resist but, unbeknown to Gordon’s men, this heist puts them on a collision course with Russian mobsters and a detective (Matt Dillon) who will do anything to capture them.
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Meet The
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Gordon Cozier Within every heist film that has been created over the years, there will always be a leader. The Main guy. The decision maker, and that is exactly who Gordon Cozier (Idris Elba) is. He has this calm demeanour to him when he lays down the plan for his team as he has to think strategically on how they can make their next big bust work. Cozier is also a very tactical person. When watching this character throughout the film and conversating with his crew, you will tend to notice that at times, he is the last person to speak, not because he does not know what to say, but simply because he is trying to stay two steps ahead of the game, which has worked. For the most part. However, it may appear to some at first that Cozier slightly lacks emotional intelligence and we see this through his relationship with his older sister Naomi (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) as their relationship unfolds on screen, you can see how Naomi is struggling with her drug addiction whilst trying to become clean in a rehab facility.
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Cozier promises his sister that one day he will take her back home to the Caribbean where they both shared warm memories, but he has a tough time comprehending her feelings as she believes that she is clean and is ready to take the next step in her life with her brother, but Gordon continues to push her sister back, which some say that he does in fact lack emotional intelligence as he is unable to put himself in the shoes of his sister, yet what if he is in fact emotionally intelligent? There is one scene in particular, where Naomi was allowed to leave her rehabilitation scheme a week early and surprised her brother at his apartment, yet Cozier was not ready to take on the responsibility of looking after his sister and even insisted of putting her in a hotel for the night. This was purposely done because he didn’t want to get his sister involved in the crime life that he was living. Seeing that he had one job left to do (the big heist scene of the film), he wanted to make sure that he did have the money so he could give back to his sister a re-live the better times that they had together.
John Rahway
John Rahway. The marksman and the muscle of the organisation. Rahway is essentially the second man in command who just exudes an effortlessly cool nature about him. Even though he may be second in line when it comes to this crew, he technically sets up majority of the plans and executes them well, its just that Gordon Cozier is at the forefront and is the face of this group of thieves. Majority of the time it tends to be Rahway who does a lot of the talking to which Cozier gives the green light for a particular job, which shows that John really is capable of being a leader but maybe perhaps prefers to be the second man because when you are the leader, there is no one to fall back on. John Rahway is also a really good judge of character, and we witness this when an old member of their crew, Ghost returns after being locked up in prison, to which he proposes to his old crew a new plan to a heist, yet Rahway is a little apprehensive about the plan as he reminds the crew that they vowed to never complete a heist back to back, yet Gordon Cozier gives the heist the go ahead (yet he still had a plan in mind if ever the heist was a flop), yet unfortunately, this then resulted in the death of 3 members of their group.
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Jesse and Jake Attica
The two brothers within the film who always have each other’s backs. The bond that these two characters have as brothers is very strong, which is very evident to see. Around the middle of the film, when Jesse is running from the police (which is showing off his daredevil escape artist skills), he then makes it back to the group and finds them panicking as they were wondering about his whereabouts. Jesse proceeds to tell the group that he shot a police officer during the case, saying “that it was like he wanted me to shoot him”. They all become a little frantic which is when Gordon shouts back at him “You don’t shoot the cops! C’mon man!”, Cozier then lunges himself forward to attack Jesse, but his big brother Jake comes to the rescue and defends his little brother, by justifying that they hear him out. The two brothers really do show how much they have each other’s back when we witness them choose to die together before ever going back to jail. A brutal solution to solidify their brotherhood.
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Jake Attica is the explosives specialist within the group and for the heist jobs that we have seen them complete, he has played a crucial part of making the heists run smoothly or finish with the big bang. Jake is also a good judge of character, as he also warned Gordon Cozier against doing the heist that Ghost had set out for them to do. He never trusted Ghost from a previous job back in ’04 (which we never actually found out what happened during this time), but Jake was completely right as Ghost essentially played the group for his own gain.
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The way these men come across to the viewers solely by looking at their costume is, law abiding citizens. All of them, bar Jesse Attica (Chris Brown) are dressed in suits majority of the time, which would distract the other characters within the film, which is evident within one of the first scenes when we saw Gordon Cozier (Idris Elba) and John Rahway (Paul Walker) walk into a bank whilst wearing suits which was their normal attire yet they blended into the background as no one had any suspicions of them walking into the bank to complete their heist plan. We also witness the rest of the group in costume to help complete their heist. For example, Jesse (Chris Brown) made an appearance at the bank whilst wearing a cleaners outfit, whilst his brother was wearing a postman’s uniform, and in essence a disguise is fundamental in any crime/heist film, the group need to make sure that they blend in to avoid anyone realising that there will be a robbery in progress about to take place; but for the most part of the film, the men are all smartly dressed as it appears as if suits are their ‘casual look’ which does say a lot about how highly these men see themselves as well as not drawing attention to themselves by making them come across as normal guys as much as possible.
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