GANGSTER SQUAD

Wonderfully violent (watching it is a great way for some of us to vicariously express and diffuse our "inner anger and rage!) with a first class cast, headlined by Josh Brolin as the heroic,  admirable,dauntless police officer who took down the infamous mobster boss Mickey Cohen (excellent portrayal by Sean Penn), who held sway in Los Angeles  circa 1949.)   Having lived in Hollywood in that time period  ( I was 20 years old in 1949) I especially appreciated recognizing many  familiar landmarks, plus the automobiles of that era -- and, oh yes, the red trolley cars that ran along Hollywood Blvd that I used to ride to Hollywood High School in the mid- 'Forties.  Fortunately I was not concerned with gangsters or mobsters at the time -- never went to Slapsy Maxie's night club, but sometimes read about the "clubs" in the Newspaper.   Got a kick out of the scenes of Carmen Miranda performing, decked out in her trademark outlandish technicolor costume.   I should not admit this, but I  really enjoyed this movie, and came out totally relaxed! It was very therapeutic for me,  You can go to  www.metacritic.com  to see the names of the other fine actors, including Nick Nolte who played (the honest)  Police Chief Parker.  (I may be mistaken, but I think that the hats the mobsters wore (all the men wore hats in the 'forties) had a white band above the brim.  Helped to tell who were the bad guys during the numerous gun fights.  Mickey C. (ego-maniac, psychopath or is it sociopath?)  didn't wear a hat,but his guys did.)  Oh, and most of the police and most judges had been bought off by Cohen until our hero (I forget the real officers name, busted up the whole empire that Cohen was building - controlling money placed for all betting, instead of it being controlled from Chicago.  There..   that's more than you  needed to know.)