How To Royally Screw Things Up

My outlook on life is I’d rather regret what I’ve done than what I didn’t do.

I hate watching movies like that. Even if it's well acted and directed I don't find it enjoyable watching people make bad decisions for bad reasons. When I want to yell at the screen "what are you doing, stupid!" it doesn't make for a good movie experience for me.

Casino is tough to watch. How do people, like Joe Pesi's "Nicky Santoro" become a Wise Guy with that much violence? My favorite MAFIA line to this day: "Leave the gun, take the cannoli" really showed an indifference to life, they were so matter of fact about the guy the just whacked. Then you see interviews with Sammy "The Bull" Gravano and you have to remember the killings he did yet he seems so "normal" today; he whacked 19 people. There was one documentary I watched a few years back of a hit done with a .22 with fewer grains to hold the noise down. The assassin had to shoot the guy in the head like 5 times before he was killed - 5 time! Grizzly. People went nuts over The Sopranos. I tried and I just couldn't get into it. It must be me. I recently watched The Summer Of Sam. In 1977, during Son os Sam, NYC had that massive power outage and Spike Lee used real news footage of the looting. It looked like a pre-BLM riots. I do think it accurately showed what life was like, and it was rough in those neighborhoods. Movies that are overlooked today are The Wild Bunch, and The Great North Field Minnesota Raid (I know these are not MAFIA-related.) And, 1927 "Metropolis" with a view in the 21st Century that is pretty accurate 100 years later. Sorry, I digressed.

@Shailynn: "It just made me think how many people I’ve seen in real life do the same thing. Not rob, murder and do insane amounts of cocaine but do stupid things to mess up their lives." I see a lot of this too, even a relative who is a criminal. I've known a few people that make me wonder - you were doing so well, how did you manage to take THAT FORK in life's road. Even strippers, and for that matter models, as examples: What do they do when their career is over, and that could be like just 10 or fewer years? Do a great job and stash away as much money as possible knowing they have a short runway unlike a software developer, lawyer, trucker, electrician, plumber or CPA?

Often ts a fine line between a fuck up and a conscious decision to accept the future negative consequences of an action in exchange for the immediate benefit. I've been told my strip clubbing is a fuck up. I'm of the opinion that I understand the trade offs. Time will tell. Perhaps one of these girls will murder me in my sleep, or harvest my organs and leave me in my own bathtub filled with ice. Maybe I'll be diagnosed with an illness that cuts my career short and I'll wish I had the money back. Or, maybe it'll be just fine. I'll die in in the manor of worthy of Tyrion Lancaster: In my own bed, with a belly full of wine and a maiden's mouth around my cock, at the age of eighty. And the next day, the last check I wrote will bounce, with a nod to Saul Bloom.

I’ve said many times you always miss the shot you didn’t take.

DeNiro/Stone is a great example of the phrase "you can't make a hoe into a housewife." After he dotes on her, she repeatedly says she's not that kind of girl, then he hammers away until she accepts him. Then, surprise, she reverts to her old ways. He's this otherwise formidable, competent man who ruins his life being a white knight. And kudos to Sharon Stone for making the character she played into such an obnoxious cunt. That's serious acting skills.

I’ve checked out of most movies but I still love Scorsese. I still got to catch killers of the flower moon, I haven’t seen that one yet. I’m sure it’s a little different than casino though

To some degree, it's a pretty mundane love triangle. Sam loves Ginger. Ginger loves Lester. Sam has a hard time letting go, because he (probably correctly) believes Ginger would be happier if she loved him back. But, just not how love works, as most reasonably wise people understand (at least when they're not in Sam's position). I've never seen a scientific study or even a work of fiction that sheds light on what makes a pimp a pimp. It doesn't seem to be the case that any amoral person can become a pimp. In the sense of being loved by women they exploit and have contempt for.

@ london and twentyfive - Agree 100 In my world; The short ones never go in...... (putting).