THE most real, most relevant scene of the whole series!

[S.FL84]

Nowhere in the whole series, hell in all television history before or since MV has there ever been more truth told in such a short few seconds than the "banker confrontation" scene of THE PRODIGAL SON.  Basically everything that happened in all the decades of the so-called "war on drugs" is contained in the slimy banker's line of "your just along for the ride". 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2018 by S.FL84

[Dadrian]

Agreed. One of my favorite scenes. Lots of various opinions here about Prodigal Son, but it’s always been one of my favorites. 

[Daytona74]

Thumbs up...  One of the best, most succint characterizations ever of big greedy corporate banks. And the way they see the rest of the world.

This was Michael Mann's crew on top of its game.

[Tom]

Yeah, but unfortunately that's not the whole scene. Some important parts are missing, e.g. The bankers initial comment that on international markets coca plants are commodities like others and of course, Crockett's walk-off: "I know you are dirty you ace and I can't harm you. But I am patient."

P.S. Sad fact is that famous broadway actor Julian Beck, who played the banker here suffered from last  stages of stomach cancer while shooting in July 85 and died a few days before the episode premiered in late September. His wife Judith Malina was guest starring in "Duty and honor" in season 3.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Tom

[Vicefan7777]

Yes it is a great scene.  Unfortunately banks are still like that.  Just look at the trouble Wells Fargo and Bank of America has gotten in to over the last few years. 

[S.FL84]

Listen bros.  no punk internet offense to anyone here but yall are totally missing whats being said here (especially considering this was 19 freakin'85!!!).  The banker is saying what a joke the "war on drugs" is and all the law enforcement, addictions treatment, tidal wave of local money is and whose truly behind it all (drugs, every war the US has been in).  The Illumenati, the Bildergergs, The CIA, the New World Order.  Their all the same goddam thing!  An invisible one world government.  This truly exists and the fact it was brought to light in a totally fake MTV glammed cop show in prime time in as I said ^ 19freakin'85 is nothing short of mind blowing. 

It reminds of what Jon Roberts said in COCAINE COWBOYS.  He remarked about how law enforcement had no clue that it in reality was ONE org. bringing it all in, the Ochoa family from Columbia who were financed by the banking industry.  How the producers knew this, much less put in in MV, waaay back then I'll never figure out.

[S.FL84]

^ At the (6:16) point he explains my previous point.

[Daytona74]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb Tom:

Sad fact is that famous broadway actor Julian Beck, who played the banker here suffered from last  stages of stomach cancer while shooting in July 85 and died a few days before the episode premiered in late September.

He does look unwell, sort of, in that scene.

But still managed to pull off a stellar performance as a cynical member of the uncaring money elite.

 

vor 40 Minuten schrieb S.FL84:

Listen bros.  no punk internet offense to anyone here but yall are totally missing whats being said here (especially considering this was 19 freakin'85!!!).  The banker is saying what a joke the "war on drugs" is and all the law enforcement, addictions treatment, tidal wave of local money is and whose truly behind it all (drugs, every war the US has been in).  The Illumenati, the Bildergergs, The CIA, the New World Order.  Their all the same goddam thing!  An invisible one world government. 

Very probably true. And not just a loopy conspiracy theory. No, I mean it.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Daytona74

[jpaul1]

interesting thread. i think one has to put himself back in the 80s to understand that scene. banks weren't evil. it's just that in that era, there were very few laws against narco trafic. so it was very not to say extremelly tempting to take a part of the beautiful cake. in the 80s, the Medellin cartel had almost no one in front of them in Colombia. sending dope planes to Florida, was almost like posting a letter at the post office. did you see Crash movie with Johnny Depp. look how his girlfriend was passing full suitcases of Marijuana in the plane company she was working for. it was Mexico but it shows how huge the problem was. from what i read the hunt on narco traffic really started after an NBC show that showed how Norman's cay worked, and was flooding the US with coke. but before that, everyone was serving himself at the buffet

personnally the scene i find very realistic, it's the scene of smuggler's blues where they launch the dope in the swamp from the plane. Smuggler's blues which i recall has been written by M. Piñero aka Calderon. Piñero had been raised in the street (NY lower east side). and before becoming an artist, he was an hardened criminal

Julian Beck was a courageous man

Edited September 19, 2018 by jpm1

[AzVice]

oh yes that was for sure one of the best scenes in the show. Money makes the world go around.

[ViceFanMan]

On 8/4/2018 at 4:43 PM, Tom said:

Yeah, but unfortunately that's not the whole scene. Some important parts are missing, e.g. The bankers initial comment that on international markets coca plants are commodities like others and of course, Crockett's walk-off: "I know you are dirty you ace and I can't harm you. But I am patient."

P.S. Sad fact is that famous broadway actor Julian Beck, who played the banker here suffered from last  stages of stomach cancer while shooting in July 85 and died a few days before the episode premiered in late September. His wife Judith Malina was guest starring in "Duty and honor" in season 3.

Amazing scene, and Julian Beck was superb at it. This is true, he was sadly dying of cancer when filming this scene...his bizarre fascination with the glass of water, he’d used as an example to Crockett and Tubbs, was creepily captivating too. 

However, I cannot think of him as anything but the scary, creepy, evil ghost-preacher in Poltergeist II, lol!  

[Ferrariman]

It's too bad that Sonny never got to make good on his promise of bringing him down.

[ViceFanMan]

4 minutes ago, Ferrariman said:

It's too bad that Sonny never got to make good on his promise of bringing him down.

Exactly...back then I was hoping maybe the evil banker would show back up later...not knowing that Beck was dying when the episode was being filmed.  

[airtommy]

I'm on the other side of this.  The scene was great for dramatic effect, but you shouldn't confuse it with reality.  The global cocaine market is   $88 billion annually.  A tiny fraction of that ends up in the hands of money launderers.  The US economy is $20000 billion annually.   Drug money laundering is not the game that New York financial institutions are playing.

[ViceFanMan]

24 minutes ago, airtommy said:

I'm on the other side of this.  The scene was great for dramatic effect, but you shouldn't confuse it with reality.  The global cocaine market is   $88 billion annually.  A tiny fraction of that ends up in the hands of money launderers.  The US economy is $20000 billion annually.   Drug money laundering is not the game that New York financial institutions are playing.

Nowadays...but what was it in 1985-86? It also seemed like it was this specific bank that got into the drug money business with that cartel to make millions of dollars, but I don’t know if Beck’s character necessarily meant all the banks & financial institutions in NY were doing that...just his. 

[Tom]

vor 7 Stunden schrieb airtommy:

I'm on the other side of this.  The scene was great for dramatic effect, but you shouldn't confuse it with reality.  The global cocaine market is   $88 billion annually.  A tiny fraction of that ends up in the hands of money launderers.  The US economy is $20000 billion annually.   Drug money laundering is not the game that New York financial institutions are playing.

True, but in this scene there was a different  reasoning for the banker‘s support for the drug trade given than money laundering! The banker said clearly that all banks including his had lent huge amounts of money to South American countries and deemed the drug trade income as only reasonable financial source for these countries to pay back their loans. So his main motif was avoiding credit defaults for his bank not money laundering. Not much better of course given the collateral damage caused by it.