The Knights of Chicago
The Brian DePalma movie, The Untouchables, is a story of knighthood. It’s an old-fashioned story of good and evil that you don’t see much anymore. Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) is loved by his wife and daughter; and he will stop at nothing to protect them. But he creates their protection himself, with his own weapons and his own orders and actions. Because he is a man of the law, and a man who upholds the law, his actions through the law are good.
The movie acknowledges that the Federal laws of prohibition are problematic. But it uncontestably sets up who is good and who is evil, by showing the little girl destroyed by a bomb in the second scene of the movie, and later showing the girl’s mother coming to talk to Ness. This movie is sophisticated, but not post-modern. Sophistication means that it shows the world to be an ambiguous place, difficult to navigate (Prohibition laws are questioned). Not post-modern, classical, means that good and evil are real principles, and the principled man can tell them apart. That we see the great man Mallone (Sean Connery) taking a secret drink, that Ness’s final line is “I believe I’ll have a drink,” shows us their human foibles. But they are always true to their stated principles, especially the crusading Ness. And he is a Crusader — the movie repeatedly shows the press using this term to describe him. Today that term is dirty… but it once meant something noble. Crusaders strike fear into people today because they are strong, and “untouchable.” They cannot be corrupted. This terrifies the devil. And the devil’s main response, as always, is to sneer. Ness and Mallone are not great because they are perfect; they are great because they are upright and true.
Mallone’s golden chain of St. Jude represents his faith. The faith passes to Ness after his death. Ness puts the chain in his pocket, and takes off his gun. For Ness, the war is over; faith will protect him now. But then he sees the loyal lieutenant, George Stone (Andy Garcia). He realizes Stone will need the protection now, as he continues to fight the next battle. He passes the golden charm to Stone, in a handshake of brotherhood. And he says he is “going home.” Home to his wife and daughter. Home to the place where “picking kitchen colors still matters”: to the hearth, which he has done his part to protect and defend.
Near the beginning, when the four knights Ness, Mallone, Stone, and Wallace, conduct their first successful raid, they are the only four men in the city who dare to stand up to the corruption. They strap on their swords and walk, brothers-in-arms, directly into the cave of the dragon. Their strength is not in numbers, or in allies. It is in their hearts, their faith, and their belief in the Good.
What matters is not the ambiguity of the temporal world. A smart man must recognize it, and take it into account. But it is not what truly matters. What truly matters is faith in the Good, and loyalty to one’s own. The discursive, post-modern mind will immediately suggest that if all are loyal to their own, then there is a logical contradiction: After all, they can’t all be right about their principles, can they? But that’s the devil’s argument. They can, and among those that are true, they are. The superior sneer of the one without principles — the one who feels to wise to have true principles — is the real enemy of the True Knight. The True Knight must sometimes fight the True Knight of another clan, and when this is so, Faith recognizes Faith, and honorable battle may be done. And when honorable combat is done, the two True Knights often find they are brothers after all, and their clans can intermarry in joy. No, the steadfast opponent is not the real enemy. The real enemy is the Sneering Japer, the one who claims that there are no true principles, there is no true faith. For that one seduces, and mocks, and sneaks. This is the true enemy of the True Knight.
Al Capone in the movie (Robert DeNiro), is not a True Opponent Knight. He is a sneering japer. He lies unguently to the press, charming with his devil’s ways. He cries at the opera then, when informed of Mallone’s murder, we see a sickly, gloating smile creep over his face, even as he keeps up the outward appearance of artistic pathos. It is the very picture of the devil. This is the true opponent of the White Knight, Ness. The man with no principles, and loyalty only to himself. This is the Enemy. The White Knight fights for hearth and home, for truth and faith and friends, and for the Good.
