Product Details

• Actors: Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, Vincent Guastaferro, J.J. Johnston, Jack Wallace
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: June 23, 1994
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630232811X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #228,214 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

This urban cop thriller, written and directed by David Mamet, is a genre picture with delusions of grandeur. The plot is designed to give the hero-a decent and fairly sensitive Jewish homicide detective named Bobby Gold (Joe Mantegna)-a whopping existential crisis. Gold, who is thoroughly assimilated, becomes involved in a case that has anti-Semitic overtones, and he's forced to reëvaluate his sense of Jewish identity. He discovers a conspiracy, hooks up with a clandestine Jewish-defense organization, and finally blows up the printing press of an Aryan supremacist group-a mission that makes him late for an important stakeout. The plot is ridiculous, but Mamet dramatizes this gamy material with tremendous solemnity. The funereal pace and the melancholy, reflective tone seem intended to mask the story's essential recklessness and irresponsibility, and perhaps also to conceal the trite cop-movie mechanics of its construction. Mamet uses the controversial, hot-button issue of cultural identity simply to give his hero the obligatory "personal" stake in the case, and as a result the movie gives off a pungent odor of opportunism. This picture, for all its pretensions to significance, is as alienating and depressing as the local news; it turns ethnic and racial differences into cheap thrills. Also with William H. Macy. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It just gets better and better., March 11, 2000

By 

John Cobb (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Homicide [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Some David Mamet films have incredible notoriety amongst the literate set (Glengarry Glen Ross, Oleanna, House of Games). His 2 Oscar noms (Wag the Dog, The Verdict) as well as his non-nominated script for The Untouchables have him firmly established with Hollywood's power base as well.

For my money, the oft-overlooked Homicide is a true Mamet gem--startling in its genius.

Put simply, Homicide is a revealing look at a man's journey into himself. Many will be distracted by the subject matter and tune out, but try to hang on.

Joe Mantegna's Bobby Gold is a tough cop who denies his Jewish lineage, until a low priority murder investigation into an aged Holocast survivor forces him to re-evaluate his entire existence. The resulting destruction of the man is cruel and never-ending,...and brilliant.

William H. Macy, an until-now bit player, gets a well-deserved promotion to #2 man among the strong supporting cast as Gold's partner and sounding board.

The intricacies of the plot, the subtleties of the subtext, as well as the perfunctory Mamet attention to detail may mean a second, or third look is necessary for the viewer to get straight with what's going on------- but take the time, if you can, it just keeps getting better and better.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dialogue, Plot, Realism -- Where's the DVD??, June 18, 2005

By 

M. Alley "EVOCDude" (Dutch Flat, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Homicide [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I too, like many of the other reviewers, am tired of viewing my old and worn VHS version of this movie. This is one of a very few movies I absolutely MUST have in DVD.

A 1991 film, "Homicide" opened the careers of two very important stars: William H. Macy, and Ving Rhames. A very under-rated and seldom-seen Joe Mantegna stars as Detective Bobby Gold, who works for an unstated northeastern police department that looks every bit like Baltimore PD.

The department is after the killer of two cops. The FBI attempts to arrest the suspected killer (in a wonderfully understated, quiet but efficient initial scene) but manages to let him vanish. The heat is on the mayor's office and politics rage. Det. Gold is called a "kike" by one of the mayor's black handlers. In the process of tracking down the cops' killer, Gold manages to get himself involved in the homicide of an older Jewish woman killed in her store. Was she the target of everyday thugs, or the mark of someone continuing the Jewish pogrom?

"We'll bust this big criminal; we'll swagger around." And William H. Macy gives an award winning smile.

From there, all is not as it seems. When Det. Gold begins to investigate all that he believes, he discovers, at the end, that all is, in fact, nothing but irony.

And because I am in law enforcement I know, emphatically, that that which you thought was one thing may, in fact, be clearly another. Something that you never anticipated -- but your mind must be open to receive -- has come to fruition.

This movie is ALL about irony. I'll not be the spoiler. But it is also about dialogue (any Mamet movie is not unlike any Howard Hawks movie -- THAT distinctive a discernation about dialogue!).

And the realization that all is not what it seems.

Because I have seen so many, the death scene of William H. Macy particularly strikes home with me. It is clear, it is abrupt, it is disjointed. "Remember the time?"

I bought this VHS tape in 1992 from Tower, as it was marked $92.95. A wonderful movie then and now.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great story - but the execution misses the mark, August 13, 2010

By 

M. Perry - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Homicide (The Criterion Collection) (DVD)

First off, I want to say that I simply could not agree more with the review written by Glenn Gallagher, but I think his 3 star rating is a bit too high.

I really enjoy some of David Mamet's work and was thrilled to find a Criterion release of one of his films that I had never heard of before.

I went into this so excited. David Mamet - Joe Mantegna - William Macy - Ving Rhames in a movie exploring a crime and dealing with issues of faith. How could have I never heard of this before?

Unfortunately the dialogue on this movie is very heavy handed and many times comes across literally like people are reading from a script for a play, (especially when Macy and Mantegna are in the car driving together). It is jarring, bizarre and frankly distracting. As the aformentioned reviewer mentioned before, no one talks to each like that in real life. I suppose if the entire movie was made/written this way, that would be one thing. But the jumping back and forth between "is this a movie/is this a play" takes away from the momentum.

MINI-SPOLIER ALERT

Also, Mantegna's character almost instanteously makes a leap from not caring about his heritage to caring, nearly at the drop of a hat. Why the sudden change? It's not exactly like the folks who won him over did so by digging deep and engaging in many stirring conversations. They literally just asked him who he really was a couple of times and Whammo - insta-conversion to the cause. Next thing you know Mantegna's character is willing to firebomb buildings. Huh? Just not enough meat on those bones for me to buy into the conversion. Sorry.

END SPOILER

Any way, seeing how many folks have had this film resonate with them, I don't imagine this review will be a very popular one. With the recent sale on Criterion Collection DVDs, I almost just up and put this one in the cart and bought it based on the story line, the actors and the reviews here. I am so glad I didn't now.

I guess the main purpose of my review is to tell you to rent this one first before buying. For most, this movie appears to be very appealing and I obviously don't take any issues with that. Art speaks to us all in different ways. For me, this movie was a big time disappointment.