One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

As a descendant of Charles Matranga, and a former New Orleanian who has done extensive research into this historical era, I can absolutely assure that this movie, like many "Hollywood" movies, is so factually incorrect it is laughable, and somewhat offensive. My great grandfather, known also as "Millionaire Charlie" Matranga, one of the original founders of the New Orleans Sicilian Mafia (the first "family" in the USA, before New York) was most definitely not an "innocent fruit vendor turned scapegoat" as portrayed in this debacle. In fact, he was the original true Godfather very much like the fictional Don Vito Corleone, before the time of the Godfather films. Clearly, the filmmakers chose to ignore the several in-depth investigations easily accessible in libraries, although not widely known by the American public. Truth is, The New Orleans Mafia has been operating for well over a hundred years in relative obscurity, while the New York and Chicago Mafiosi have received a lot of attention. I think the fact of this lack of attention to the New Orleans mafia was probably not lost on the filmmakers, who may have purposely used it to their advantage thinking that most people wouldn't know the historical reality otherwise. While there were indeed many innocent Italians who suffered extreme prejudice and violence, the major players in the assassination of police chief Hennessey, and some of which were victims of the consequent lynching, were most definitely Sicilian-born and descended Mafiosi or associates. Hennessey himself was a corrupt cop, from a family of corrupt cops, who willingly chose the "wrong side" to align himself with in the battle over the New Orleans docks and territory between the Matranga and Provenzano families. I have never seen a film which has so blatantly distorted historical events as "Vendetta". Instead of using the opportunity to make a historically accurate film to show the rise and motivations of the first American family of the Sicilian mafia(as an accurate "prequel" of sorts to "The Godfather"), the true plight of Italian immigrants in a foreign and often inhospitable land, and the operations of corrupt political, judicial, and law enforcement systems (akin to Scorsese's Gangs of New York), instead the filmmakers decided to make a revisionist, "politically correct", fictional debacle and have the shameful audacity to say it is "based on true events". In short, the film is based on bullshit. The truth may not be what people want it to be, and I certainly don't want to believe my ancestor was a murderer and criminal, but it is what it is. He had his reasons. People did what they thought they had to do, for the survival and success of their families and themselves. Some innocent people died as collateral damage, and for this reason, the American Mafia established a "rule" that is generally followed to this day - don't kill cops, especially not the chief cop, or major crap will happen, sometimes to innocent people, sometimes to the guilty. This movie doesn't really show or suggest that, although in reality, that was probably the most important take-home message of the actual events. In short, don't watch this film if you're looking for a movie that is even remotely historically correct. It's a damn shame, because Christopher Walken is one of the finest actors of our time. Ask yourself this - if this film's portrayal really was the way it was - why was it made into a TV movie, and not a cinematic release ? Why ?...because it's malarkey, that can easily be verified as such... by reading a book.

African Americans were not the only group lynched in the US. In the 1890s, there were six lynchings of Italians, three of them in Louisiana. This is the story of one such lynching in New Orleans.After the emancipation in 1865, the power in New Orleans imported Sicilians to replace the African American. After a time, they came to regret this decision, as the Italian population grew to about 30,000 by 1890. They, particularly James Huston (Christopher Walken), set about trying to play the two factions of Sicilians (the Machecas and the Provenzanos) against each other.It should be noted that politically correct terminology is not used for the two races.Since the Sheriff (Andrew Connolly) wouldn't go along with the Mayor (Kenneth Welsh) and the other leaders, he was disposed of. Another policeman (Luke Askew) reported that "dagos" did it and riots ensued. Six men were pointed out by a "witness" that was intimidated by the police.A "trial" was held, but the results weren't what the town expected, so they took matters into their own hands, stirred up by the Mayor with threats by Huston that it will be done "with you or without you." Of course, many more were murdered in the real event that took place, but this is a movie.Huston got what he wanted.

Although it has one of the more depressing endings ever filmed (and I normally don't like that kind of thing), I was unable to stop watching it. The story, no doubt simplified for the screen, was engaging and has me interested in seeking out Gambino's book to get the broader picture as well as the facts. :) Christopher Walken's accent was a tad iffy, but he wasn't the main attraction of the film. The collection of players were extremely well-balanced so that everyone had a chance to do their stuff and be memorable and they were! Darragh O'Malley as the Irish investigator was a pleasure to see after the days of Sharpe's Rifles and Joaquim de Almeida likewise captured interest with his diginified performance. Bruce Davison and Edward Herrmann as the warring attornies were also solid and interesting. I completely enjoyed this film.9/10

This was a fairly interesting historical drama, but the portrayals were so black and white that the story seemed improbable to me. I suspect the true story is a bit more "gray" than the movie suggests. Our politically correct society allows these one sided views only when the "white anglo saxon protestant" male is the villain.