Bagman in Popular Culture
James Caan's character was referred to as "a bagman" in Christopher McQuarrie's film The Way of the Gun. George Clooney's character was referred to as "a bagman" in Tony Gilroy's film Michael Clayton. The first season episode 6 of Law & Order was called "Everyone's Favorite Bagman." In Oliver Stone's film JFK, the character of David Ferrie (Joe Pesci) alleges that Jack Ruby "was a bagman for the Dallas mob." In John Luessenhop's film Takers, Paul Walker's character, John Rahway, is considered the "bagman" of the group of bank robbers. A song on the album Picaresque by indie rock band The Decemberists' is titled "The Bagman's Gambit," and describes romance and espionage during the Cold War.
Perhaps the most famous Hollywood depiction of a police corruption and its "bagmen" is in the 1973 drama Serpico starring Al Pacino. In this film the lead character, based on the experiences of the real life Frank Serpico, is faced with exposing the corruption of his Police Department and is shown going along with corrupt partners collecting money for their precincts protection racket. Various partners during the film refer to themselves as "bagmen", and significant time is given over to why they collect and what the criminals paying receive in return, namely being allowed to continue in their criminal activity without fear of arrest.
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Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“Like other secret lovers, many speak mockingly about popular culture to conceal their passion for it.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“There’s that popular misconception of man as something between a brute and an angel. Actually man is in transit between brute and God.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Culture is the suggestion, from certain best thoughts, that a man has a range of affinities through which he can modulate the violence of any master-tones that have a droning preponderance in his scale, and succor him against himself. Culture redresses this imbalance, puts him among equals and superiors, revives the delicious sense of sympathy, and warns him of the dangers of solitude and repulsion.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)