What was the political talk about?

[Poggle]

Sometimes I get confused with a lot of politics in movies and with OUATIA I don't think I understand anything at all concerning that Irish fellow and that "Capitalists vs. Socialists" theme.

Starting with Noodles watching the news report, what's the whole political story in the movie?

[DJASh]

Jimmy Cleanhands the Union boss is getting hassled by Salvi and Co....Noodles'gang come to his aid ( the petrol pump scene)...thus buying his loyalty to them. He hires them as muscle during a strike..after prohibition they go into business together in the trucking industry.

The point being made is that many people who made it big in politics in the US post-war had roots in organised crime ...helping them get to where they got.

[Poggle]

Well I'm talking specifically, since I'm not familiar with a lot of the politics of that time, what those people wanted from Jimmy that they tried to kill him, and that whole situation with Aiello and the talk about the factory workers, etc.

[shorty larsen]

I think Leone's intention is also to show that all the american political system is corrupted if some secretary's origins are mafia ones. It is indeed a critic of the american dream. In order to become powerful and respectable you have to doublecross your best friends in life, that is the price to reach the american dream....

[Walton]

When they talk about the end of prohibition and starting up a whole trucking industry, I've always felt that was a reference to the teamsters and how they may have begun. Is Jimmy the union guy named Jimmy as a bit of a reference to Jimmy Hoffa?