10/15/2026
People, my father asked me a question once in a prison visiting room. “Son, if you ever had to kill anybody — could you do it?” I’ll tell you what I said. And I’ll tell you why a new mob movie called Redemption made me think about it again.
I sat down with the writer and director, Asif, and his cast. Jon Lemmon — Jack Lemmon’s grandson — plays the lead: a good kid who gets pulled into the life to help his father and ends up in deeper than he ever meant to. Weston Coppola — Francis Ford Coppola’s great-nephew — plays Jackson, the guy who brings him in. Two Hollywood names in one mob picture. The movie also has Robert Davi, Frank Stallone, and Jon Lovitz in a role he told the director he’s never played before. The story isn’t mine — but it’s close enough that I had some things to say.
We get into why good people do bad things, what it actually costs to walk away from that life, the night I told my father I was quitting school to help him, and why I respect a film that shows the human side of the men I knew.
The movie’s coming out in the next couple of months. I’ll tell you when.
There’s a New Mob Movie — And a Coppola’s in It. Former Mob Boss Sits Down With ‘Redemption’ Cast
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00:00 "Son, If You Had to Kill Somebody — Could You?"
00:41 Welcome — A Mob Movie Premiere in Vegas
03:17 How Hard It Is to Get a Movie Made
05:31 Meet the Cast — A Coppola at My Table
06:32 From Cleveland to Hollywood — The Director's Story
07:23 Why Mob Movies Never Die
09:57 Thank You for Showing the Good Side of That Life
10:23 Why Do Good People Do Bad Things?
13:16 The Day I Told My Father I Was Quitting School
13:42 The Question My Father Asked Me
14:02 When Violence Feels Justified
18:28 The Real Informant Behind the Film
20:53 1980s Cleveland — The World of the Movie
22:36 Walking Away Feels Like Betraying Your People
23:48 The Milano Family and the Cleveland Mob
26:35 I Knew Joe Colombo — And I Loved "The Offer"
29:18 My Father Lived to 103
29:54 How Weston Got the Call
35:25 Releasing a Film the Old-School Way
37:24 The World Premiere in Las Vegas
38:31 Written With This Cast in Mind
39:03 Frank Stallone's Character Was Based on a Real Guy
42:14 A Thousand People at the Premiere — What I Saw
43:35 God Bless — See You Next Time
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