Product Details

• Actors: Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, Vincent Guastaferro, J.J. Johnston, Jack Wallace
• Directors: David Mamet
• Writers: David Mamet
• Producers: Andy Armstrong, Edward R. Pressman, Matthew Carlisle, Michael Hausman, Ron Rotholz
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: June 23, 1994
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630232811X
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,697 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #26 in	Video > Drama > Crime & Criminals
  #27 in	Video > Drama > By Genre > Mystery & Thriller
  #50 in	Video > Mystery & Suspense > Blackmail, Murder & Mayhem > Murder

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

18 of 20 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

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.

13 of 14 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)

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 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where's the DVD!?!?, April 15, 2004

By	Gregory Hess "Mut-Ant" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a great film, and one of the few in the ever-shrinking list of films I want on DVD but are not released. I'm so tired of watching this on a crappy VHS, especially because the photography by Juan Ruiz-Anchia (also of glengarry glen ross)is so beautiful. Attention whomever owns the rights to this! Lets have a DVD!!
-note to amazon.com; it would be nice if there were a link as you have on many other titles to submit my email to be notified when this is available on DVD!