work from a script write in part by nicholas pileggi and best know for write the book wiseguy and which he adapt into the movie goodfellas and and for write the book and screenplay casino and director harold becker show how connected circle scratch each other back and even in the command of a comparatively honorable mayor like pappa and who be regard a a presidential prospect . a cusack follow the paper trail of the dead mobster probation report and his skepticism be agitate . how do this violent young man get probation rather than a jail sentence . we meet the other player in the plot and not the least of which be danny aiello and the political bos of brooklyn and and tony franciosa and the mafia bos whose nephew be shoot dead . how and why these people be affiliate i leave to the movie to divulge and though there be never any misgiving that they be . the narrative be tell generally through the eye of the cusack character and a visionary from louisiana who admire his bos and hop to learn from him . much be make by everyone of bureaucratic knowledge pass down through the generation . some of the dialogue be ungracefully erudite and but consider i just describe the building block of the story a bureaucratic knowledge and one can not say it doesn not work . the shoot case build against the seasoning of two other issue on the mayor desk represent a charge by aiello for a subway stop and an off ramp in brooklyn to aid a new banking center and and the city bid for the next democratic convention . individual idiosyncrasy be also explore and include aiello emotional bond with the music of rogers and hammerstein . much also be make of menschkeit and a yiddish expression and which and pappa explains to his deputy and be about the bond of honor between two men and about what happen between the two hand in a handshake . this connection doesn not mean much to bridget fonda and the lawyer for the policeman association who defend the dead cop honor and fight for his widow pension even a incriminate evidence appear . little by little and the deputy mayor come to grasp that menschkeit be such an influential notion that it outclass he law . there be various scene of hard impact and include one where the brooklyn bos come home for lunch in the middle of the day and his wife assert her interest through the medium of the dish she have cook and and then the mafia bos drop in by surprise . there be also a compelling and and markedly conjectural and late scene between the mayor and his deputy . one scene handle with delicacy be comprise of the mayor decision to speak at the funeral of the slain child and in a harlem church . his adviser tell him he would not be want there . but he go anyway and and crank himself up for a spiel of unabashed hyperbole and pacino and his character both . it get an impressive reaction from the congregation and but the mayor know and and his deputy know and that it be artificial and and the way they scrupulously evade discuss it and in the limousine take them away and be a subtle employment of composure and innuendo . this be a script that know it have to supply pacino with the reason why most of his fan go to see him and and immediately follow it quota with the reality that silence have much more inherent meaning than speech . pacino and cusack be convince together throughout the movie and the old man unbreakable and aware and the young one anxious to learn and but with ideal that do not sway . pacino be innate with his down to earth capacity to marry common sense and inventive imagination and inspire flair and matter of fact realism . cusack move very freely in spite of his dark defensiveness . the bridget fonda subplot development be unnecessary and but it be a result of veteran screenwriter paul schrader otherwise shrewdly perceptive belief in the worth of every character and and each be flesh into earnest embodiment . aiello and for instance and be a highlight because he evoke his character joie de vivre and sensitivity to his environment .