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In a nutshell HBO's "The Rat Pack" is a movie more about Sinatra, Martin, Lawford, Davis Jr. Only these five would know for sure, but the movie seemed plausible and was an entertaining evening - another success for HBO in my opinion. Is this really the way it was? I don't know. The intricacies of the relationship between the five (particularly between Sinatra and Lawford) are detailed and everything seems very natural. Only Don Cheadle (as Davis) seemed to not quite grasp his character, but he still managed a good performance. Bobby Slayton as Joey Bishop was less central to the story, but pulled off the character well. Ray Liotta was a standout as Sinatra, but no less compelling were Joe Mantegna as Martin and Angus MacFadyen as Lawford. In addition to the Rat Pack and the Kennedy's we get glimpses of Marilyn Monroe (Barbara Niven) and Joe DiMaggio (John Diehl,) and a look at the involvement of organized crime. Revolving around the relationship between the famous "Rat Pack" of the 1960's (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop) and focusing heavily on their relationship with the Kennedy's, this is a very entertaining, well-done film that provided a peek at the lives of the 1960's Hollywood jet-set. I've given a lot of thought to this movie and, in all honesty, I can't think of anything in particular to critique about it.
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If Sinatra's relationship with The Mob was any tighter than it was, he would have had free reign to whack the President himself, and his name in the history books would have replaced that of Lee Harvey Oswald. Anyone else notice that there were no Secret Service agents on hand? They could have been there unseen for the purpose of filming that sequence, but think about it. The scene with Sinatra and Kennedy aboard the President's yacht. Sinatra was beside himself for days on end after that ordeal took place. That scene of Sinatra going absolutely crazy when Brother-in-Lawford (Angus Macfadyen) stated President Kennedy (William Petersen) would stay at Bing Crosby's place while in Palm Springs was of course true. And the Mafia's ties with Frank Sinatra (Ray Liotta), though embarrassing for the entertainer, cannot be reasonably disputed today given all that's been revealed over the years. As a quick draw artist, he was arguably the fastest there was, acknowledged even by the Duke himself, John Wayne. What's true about Sammy's prowess with guns though is legendary in Hollywood. (Don Cheadle) confronted his detractors as a two-fisted gunslinger to make his point about marrying a white woman, and Johnny Roselli's (Joe Cortese) suggestion to take out the entire Rat Pack once it was known Bobby Kennedy (Zeljko Ivanek) would be going after organized crime. There were only a couple scenarios I'd never heard of before, so I can't say if they were historically accurate or embellishments for the story. Kennedy as President was a bonus, not to mention the more than casual interest expressed by the Mob and Sam Giancana (Robert Miranda) in the affairs (both political and personal) of the Kennedy Family and the future President. The behind the scenes dynamic relating to the election of John F. It's all in there, with poignant cultural references to let the viewer know what else was going on in the entertainment world at the time, like Sinatra and Martin being tapped for the movie "Some Came Running", and the Rat Pack's involvement in "Ocean's 11". I'm thinking about things like Sinatra roughing up a newspaper reporter for writing an unflattering story, his aversion to doing a movie scene more than once, and May Britt (Megan Dodds) fuming over the way the guys treated Sammy Davis Jr.
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Having read a fair number of books about Sinatra, Martin, The Rat Pack, and DiMaggio and Monroe, I couldn't believe how accurate even the most minor of details in the film turned out to be.