Disgusting: John Travolta to play John Gotti

[Monkeyleg]

My wife had the distinct displeasure to inform me today that there's a movie coming out starring John Travolta as John Gotti. The movie is "Gotti: Three Generations."

I can't even begin to probe the depths of my disgust. I've loathed John Travolta since his days on "Welcome Back Cotter", but to have him play Gotti is beyond the pale. It's sacrilege.

Armand Assante did a good job playing Gotti (even if he is a bit more handsome).

But Travolta? The remaining members of the Gambino family should whack him before filming starts.

I give the movie (without even seeing it or knowing the screenplay):

 

[gunsmith]

IDK if anything could be worse then "Growing up Gotti"

I am a native NY'er and was living in the city during Gotti's reign-he could have easily been elected Mayor, he was very popular.

Armand Assante  did indeed do a terrific job.

[Monkeyleg]

IDK if anything could be worse then "Growing up Gotti"

Well, if John Travolta had been in it, it would have been worse.

It's interesting that so many NY'ers had positive views of Gotti. I'd heard many say that his neighborhood in Brooklyn was much nicer than other neighborhoods because of him. The same was true of the lower east side of Milwaukee when Frank Balistrieri was in charge. The streets were safe to walk, unlike today.

[gunsmith]

yeah, there were a few places where everyone knew to be on their best behavior - Gotti's neighborhood & The east third street block where the NYC Hells Angels HQ were two.

[Jamie B]

Travolta's career came, went, came back, and is obviously slipping away quickly again.

Looks as if that Scientology ain't helping much.....

[gunsmith]

imo his two best movies were pulp fiction and get shorty.
Those seem to be the only two I have really enjoyed

[230RN]

I wouldn't knock Travolta.  He's a pretty good actor, in my opinion, and he's pretty accomplished otherwise.  He can also dance, witness "Grease,"  and is accomplished in other ways, like being a multi-engine commercially licensed jet pilot.

I don't know about you, but I don't live in a house like this:

http://stevenroddy.com/aerial-picture-of-john-travolta%E2%80%99s-house-in-ocala.html

I guess his fuel bills could keep me in the luxury I'm accustomed to for about thirty years.

I guess he got fat for a while, but trimmed down again.  Unlike me, who just got fat and that was that.

I don't know why people can take an instant dislike to some people, and I'm victim to that fault, too.  I couldn't stand Barbara Stanwyck until I saw her in one old B&W movie where she played a stripper, and she looked great and did very well in that one.

I'm also a victim to the instant dislike syndrome, too, since some people take an instant dislike for me.

But for everyone else it takes a whole week or so.

Terry, 230RN

[Lee]

The same was true of the lower east side of Milwaukee when Frank Balistrieri was in charge.

"Don't disrespect the Pizza Parlor" 

Is is funny how the Little Italy's were generally pretty nice and safe places in most cities.  There's a moral in there somewhere.
Maybe they'll have a chapter called "Get Shorty", and he'll wack Tom Cruise.

[Jamie B]

I guess his fuel bills could keep me in the luxury I'm accustomed to for about thirty years.

His house, or his 737?!

[Monkeyleg]

I wouldn't knock Travolta.  He's a pretty good actor, in my opinion, and he's pretty accomplished otherwise.  He can also dance, witness "Grease,"...

[stevelyn]

I think Tony Sirico would have made an excellent John Gotti.

[roo_ster]

It could be worse.  It could be Keanu Reeves.

[Angel Eyes]

It could be worse.  It could be Keanu Reeves.

"Whoa . . . . ."

[Monkeyleg]

I think Tony Sirico would have made an excellent John Gotti.

He could play the role well, although his role as DB in "Gotti" might have been a conflict.

As for Keanu Reeves, he's still a much better actor than Travolta. I still like his line in "Street Kings" (yes, I know he didn't write it):

"It means you got eyes like apostrophes, you dress white, talk black, and drive Jew. So how am I supposed to know what kind of zipperhead dog-munching dink you are if you don't?"

[French G.]

You want people to watch the movie why not slap a hairpiece on James Gandolfini and call it done? Going to fail anyway, The Departed sets the bar too high on recent gangster movies.

[gunsmith]

I never met any "made" men but I met plenty of street hoodlums from little Italy and Brooklyn, if you were their friend it was all good, but if you screw up they kill you in imaginatively painful ways. After witnessing people getting victimized
( pronounced vicked ) I kept my distance and tried to be polite.

A guy in my old neighborhood who dated my late sister was in the Irish gang called the westies, he was a cruel animal as a kid but an incredibly gifted athlete too, a golden gloves champ. His lowlife brother supposedly got killed after raping a girl, the guy that killed him supposedly got chopped in half with a machine gun.   I'm sure it was pretty gruesome though, the neighborhood got flooded with cops and helicopters - totally locked down but he slipped thru somehow.

I dislike the Hollywood i zation of those creepy psychopathic thugs, but for some reason enjoy a good gangster flick.  I probably would have voted for Gotti anyway, better a real crook then Blameberg any day.

[Monkeyleg]

I knew some low-level made guys, and a few connected guys. I'm sure some were pyscho's, but I never saw that side of them.

The westies were famous (or infamous). Irish gangsters were never subtle.

John Gotti was entertaining just because he kept sticking his thumb in the government's eye.

[gunsmith]

you probably knew them as adults, when gangsters are kids they lack refinement.

the problem with being a kid in a neighborhood with these types is they have kids just like them, only the kids have not refined their act and can be incredibly brutal.
I got into fistfights with a kid who ended up in the westies and in the golden gloves, we had lots of those types in my old neighborhood. I thought I was a bad fighter because I lost so many fights but really it was just that these guys were really good, its like trying to play golf with tiger woods I guess.

its no wonder I tended to always carry a weapon of some kind, fortunately I got out of school before zero tolerance . I never got in trouble all the times I brought knives to school-one teacher took a knife and stuck it in ceiling by throwing it. It stayed there all yr.

ETA, I always gotta laugh when I'm told how safe NYC is these days, stay there for 30 yrs and get back to me.

[Perd Hapley]

Who's John Gotti?

[Monkeyleg]

Who's John Gotti?

He's one of the central characters in "Atlas Shrugged".

[grislyatoms]

He's one of the central characters in "Atlas Shrugged".

Yep.

Want a dead-on Don Gotti? Bill Murray sans the beard he has been sporting lately. Same acne scars.  Travolta? Meh, maybe. I guess.

[Waitone]

Travolta makes a great likable bad guy.  I would think that is exactly what you would want in a movie about Gotti.

[Monkeyleg]

He makes my skin crawl.

I don't think John Gotti ever did this, either:



Understand that, besides disliking his face and personality, I also hate his status as an icon of disco, as I absolutely hated disco.

[230RN]

Boy, you really hate the guy.

Where does such hatred come from?

It's something I'm curious about.  There are plenty of people I don't like, but that doesn't make me uncivil about them.

Is there some specific trigger that makes your "skin crawl?"  Or is it a global kind of thing?  If so, what components of that global dislike set you off?

Something made you post about him "out of the clear blue sky," as it were.

Help me understand this.

Terry, 230RN

[sanglant]

i see it now, he's white obama.

see this pic, from here