Product Details

• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English, Italian, Polish
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: June 2, 1998
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302871344
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,683 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

The actor John Turturro makes his début as a director with "Mac." The first inkling that this might not be a carnival of laughs comes in the opening credits, when somebody scrapes the title into the ground with a stick. Set in Queens in the fifties, this is solemn, impassioned, brow-furrowing stuff, the kind of movie that makes you put aside your popcorn in shame. The story is set in the construction industry, and set pretty firm; no audience is going to feel too frisky with this much concrete around. Turturro stars as Mac, one of three brothers (the others are played by Michael Badalucco and Carl Capotorto) who inherit their father's business and fall out just as they begin to flourish. The film is a hymn to hard work and fine workmanship, which is fine, except that it whacks you over the head with its elegy for better times: "Today it's the man who can talk," moans Mac. "Then it was the man who could do.'' In pushing himself to the forefront of a movie, Turturro seems to have left something behind, the vulnerable good temper that bore him through "Barton Fink" and "Do the Right Thing." His sweetness has turned sour, and the movie follows suit; it feels grouchy and joyless. Things improve briefly when Ellen Barkin shows up as a kooky artist's model, and writhes naked in a pile of sliced bread; but Turturro soon leaves her stranded. He thinks he has better, more worthy things to do with his film. It's hard to agree. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Turturro has ever been, April 27, 1999

By A Customer

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

A fine film and tribute to John Turturro's father. A must see for anyone who ever worked construction,has a wackey Catholic family or just plain likes an entertaining movie.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Turtorro hits home with this viewer, September 8, 2006

By 

John J. Regan (Bellevue, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mac (DVD)

I first saw this film in Seattle in a tiny theatre that my friend, Carpenter Bill had remodeled by the sweat of his own brow. From the opening cement scene to the haunting conclusion, this film inspires on many levels. I own the DVD and watch it whenever I need to be feel good inside.

Disregard the esoteric tripe above in the elitist New Yorker review. If you are a real, breathing human who has ever worked a physical job for a living, you will treasure this movie. A lean creation with economy of statement and flairs for the dramatic as well as the comedic, John Turtorro's uncompromisingly gritty film is a work of art just like the homes him and his Dad built.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars MADE IN AMERICA WITH PRIDE..., December 8, 2002

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

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

This film was made in loving memory of John Turturro's father and is directed by John Turturro himself. The film pays homage to the small businessman for whom thing must be done "the right way and his way", which are one and the same. Here the business man is a construction worker, Niccolo (Mac) Vitelli (John Turturro), who along with his two brothers, Vico (MIchael Badalucco) and Bruno (Carl Capotorto), gets disgusted with the shoddy workmanship that is the standard with the construction concern for whom he works. Mindful of the high standards set by his late father, Mac begins his own construction company on a shoestring budget and brings his brothers in with him, calling the company "Vitelli Brothers Construction." He and his brothers set about building quality housing on a small scale in suburbia.

The pressure of building and running a business takes its toll on Mac and his relationship with his brothers. The film is about a man with a dollar and a dream and how his dream seems not to be shared by those whom he loves most. Michael Badalucco is excellent as Vico, as is Carlo Capotorto as Bruno. Mac's wife, Alice, a young woman with a contemporary veneer, is well played by Katherine Borowitz, though she seems a tad out of place in Queens, New York of the nineteen fifties, where the film takes place. Ellen Barkin strikes a wrong note as the free spirited Oona, and Jon Amos as Nat, a fellow construction worker who throws in his lot with those of the Vitelli Brothers, is excellent, though one wonders at the racial harmony displayed by the construction industry of the nineteen fifties. This, too, strikes a false note.

A number of John Turturro's relatives crop up throughout the film. Aida Turturro of Soprano fame pops up as part of a husband and wife team who are among the first to buy one of Mac's houses. Nicholas Turturro of NYPD Blue fame appears in the role of Tony Gloves. John Turturro, himself, is excellent as Mac, but falters in the directorial department. The film, a loving look at an Italian American family in the construction trade, is a little too choppy to pass muster, though it gamely tries. It lack cohesiveness. This directorial effort is a game venture by John Turturro but one that, nonetheless, falters, given the number of wrong notes sounded throughout the film. Still, the film shows promise of things to come.