Lansky sees aging mobster Meyer Lansky looking back on his earlier time as the boss of both Murder, Inc. and the National Crime Syndicate.

I have to admit that I regret missing out on Lansky back in 2021. It wasn’t so much for the lack of interest but rather growing tired of buffering when watching press screeners. It’s only a few years later, after reading Michael Benson’s Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in Wartime America, that I am finally watching the film. Eytan Rockaway’s director’s statement mentions that his father interviewed Lansky before he died. There is a grey way of looking at Lansky’s life. You can look at him as a criminal for things he did, despite a lack of criminal convictions. However, you can also view him as an American patriot and Jewish hero for beating up on Nazis. Harvey Keitel does an amazing job at playing the aging mobster in his later years.

Our way into the story of Meyer Lansky’s (Harvey Keitel/John Magaro) life is when writer David Stone (Sam Worthington) interviews him in Miami Beach.  This is right around the same time that the FBI is closing in on him during their investigation. Lansky is supposedly holding onto a nine-figure fortune and given his age, authorities are running out of time to capture him. It’s through talking with Stone that Lansky reveals all. Meanwhile, the FBI reaches out to Stone for help in their investigation. How much of it is truth or exaggeration, I do not know.

Benson’s book only covers Lansky’s time battling the Nazis as well briefly summarizing his life in the epilogue. Try as they did, Lansky “was never convicted of anything more serious than illegal gambling.” This could possibly be because of photos in Lansky’s possession. He did flee to Israel in 1970 to escape an IRS investigation for tax evasion. However, Israel would deport him back in 1972. A jury would acquit him in 1974. When he died from lung cancer in 1983, his family found out the hard way that he legally had $53,000 to his name. While alive, Lansky would have money and property in other people’s names.

One of the best parts in the film, of course, is when Meyer Lansky and the gangsters bust up Nazis at a Nazi Bund meeting in Yorkville back in 1937. Unlike some films in the past, it is a serious scene. Unlike the Humphrey Bogart-starring All Through the Night, there is no room for comedy and rightfully so.  The fighting starts right after Sasha Klein (Stacey Hinnen) hits the Bund leader (Lowrey Brown) speaking and pulls down the Nazi flag.

“I would rather have killed them all,” Lansky says. “To show the world that as long as Meyer Lansky was around, they could never do that to us again.”

I couldn’t help but rewind and take it in again. There’s so much to the Jewish resistance story that we rarely see in movies or documentaries. I’m a proud Jew and lost family in the Holocaust. There were Nazis and Nazi sympathizers living in plain sight during wartime America. Some of them were working in law enforcement. It’s sickening and disturbing, and maybe a few other choice words to describe it. While the film shows a meeting where Lansky wants to build an army to beat up Nazis, Eytan Rockaway’s script does not tell the full story. There really to needs to be a film or documentary that focuses on the Jewish gangsters who defeated the Nazis in wartime America. None exist at the moment but Bruce David Klein is working to change this. Here is to hoping the film is close to completion!

According to Benson’s book, everything went into motion after Judge Nathan Perlman called up Lansky. Unlike the 1937 meeting in the film, this phone call didn’t take place until 1938. Rabbi Stephen Wise sat in on the meeting, if only to guilt Lansky if things went badly. Perlman and Wise did not condone killing Nazis but gave the greenlight to all but kill Nazis. In short, be as violent as possible! Lansky and Murder, Inc. did this at no cost. However, Perlman would provide any legal assistance if problems arose. Lansky also wanted to make sure that there would be nothing bad in the press if they got caught. It is a real shame that the Jewish gangsters vs. Nazis portion of the film covers a few minutes at the most. I guess this also speaks to wanting to make a film spanning decades of Lansky’s life.

There are some issues with the film in terms of historical accuracy. Aharon Yariv (Wass Stevens) is seen meeting with Meyer Lansky at The Colonial Inn to request money on behalf of Golda Meir so that they can purchase weapons for the future state of Israel. My problem with this meeting is not whether or not the two ever met. No, it’s the fact that Yariv immigrated to British Mandatory Palestine in 1935 and was never tattooed at a concentration camp. He joined the Haganah in 1938 and fought as part of the British Army during World War 2. Anyone who did their research into Yariv would know about his history. Why try and give his character more sympathy when it is not necessary?

The film spans 1909 into the early 80s–Lansky, born in 1902, and his family didn’t immigrate until 1911. When they flash back to Lansky’s teen years, why is he being played by an adult John Magaro rather than a teenager? The same goes for Bugsy Siegel (David Cade). They were 16 and 12 years old, respectively, in 1918 when the scene takes place. Oh, it gets much worse. The film shows both Lansky and Siegel were involved with the murder of Salvatore Maranzano years later than when it actually took place. One, his murder came in 1931, not the late 1930s as the film implies. Two, from what I can find, Lansky and Siegel played a role in ordering the murder but I cannot find anything that places them in the room.

While both Harvey Keitel and John Magaro excel as the Jewish mobster, Lansky is a good film but there was the potential for it to be a great film.

DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Eytan Rockaway
CAST: Harvey Keitel, Sam Worthington, AnnaSophia Robb, Minka Kelly, David James Elliot, Danny A. Abeckaser, and John Magaro, David Cade, Shane McRae, Wass Stevens, James Moses Black, Alon Aboutboul, Joel Michaely

Vertical released Lansky in theaters and VOD on June 25, 2021. Grade: 3.5/5

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