Untouchable

This weekend I watched a pretty classic film that I had never seen before, "The Untouchables."  It depicts the story of Eliot Ness and his "Untouchables" who during prohibition swore to take down the head of the mafia, Al Capone.  This is perfectly related to this week's class, the 19th Century and control.

Prohibition was an attempt to control alcohol manufacturing and sales.  It was ratified as the 19th Amendment in 1919 and states "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited."

The story of the Untouchables is how they battle the whole city in order to take down the head of the illegal liquor flow.  They stand up for the law, sacrificing their time, hearts, even their lives.  They eventually take down Capone on tax evasion charges and he is sentenced to 11 years in prison where he died.  The movie is inspiring and teaches how we should stand up for the right even when the challenges before us seem insurmountable.



An underlying theme of the movie is that prohibition is not a very good idea.  Nobody fights back against the mafia in Chicago because prohibition did not seem like a smart plan from the start.  Capone argues, "People are gonna drink! You know that, I know that, we all know that, and all I do is act on that... I'm a businessman!"  


The government tried to control a part of society that it had no reason to.  The result was the beginning of a horrible tradition that still plagues parts of the country today, the mafia.  Additionally Chicago still has issues with corruption.  A perfect example is how six of the governors of Illinois have been charged with crimes, including the last one, Blagojevich, who was impeached and removed from office.


There are certain things the government should not try to control.  There are also things that should be controlled but must be done very carefully or could have disastrous results.  A current parallel that can be drawn is that of internet piracy.  I'm honestly sick of hearing about SOPA and PIPA but it is relevant.  If a bill passes that badly implements restrictions there could be horrible results.  An extreme result could be the emersion of a super powerful nerdy mafia.  A less extreme and more likely result would be that pirates adjust and are barely affected and good, honest sites suffer from the legislation.


We must learn from the past and not make similar mistakes.  At the end of the movie a reporter tell Eliot Ness that they're probably going to repeal prohibition and asks him what he'll do now.  He replies, "I think I'll have a drink."