Once upon a time in Washington

If I'm to understand the cinematic morality of mafia movies, in which mafia enterprises in The British Isles, the Mediterranean, and the United States of America are dramatically portrayed, I'm led to three moral certainties:

1. Everything you believe in is worthless, except god and family.

2. The police need to be bribed.

3. Once the police are bribed, property may be acquired and the appearance of living righteously as a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen may be fully embraced.

As plotlines develop, the obscure becomes obvious and the obvious becomes obscure until the time is reached when nobody tells the truth because no one knows what the truth is. It is this kind of storytelling that keeps us on the edge of our seats.