Customer Reviews

Witness to the Mob [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Minute You Start to View this Movie, You know your in for a true treat, the actors, are all wonderfull, protrayed perfectly, my only gripe is paul castelano's charactor, couldn't he have been more intimidating? -regardless, the scenes, the cinematography, the advancing story, the narratives, all so reminds me of Goodfellas, my personal favorite movie of all time, you can just, feel, there, it's so engrossing, I watched it twice, the first day, six ours of complete bliss, easily the best movie of the year, came out right before christmas, it will blow you away,and have you coming back for more, terrific cast, terrific music, justified violence, hardly any language, this is the film to see, if you don't you've missed out, nicholas, has done a wonderfull job,and tom sizemore as john gotti, you won't recognize him, he's that good, he is so believable it's scary, see the movie, nuff said.

If you loved GOODFELLAS and THE SOPRANOS, this should be on your Christmas list. Vincent Pastore (Big Pussy), Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltasanti) and Kathrine Narducci (Charmine Bucco) all appear in this film along with Nicholas Turturro, the first cousin of Aida Turturro (Janice Soprano). As with most mob films the story tends to be cliche but well acted. The only disappointment, aside from the incrediably long wait for this movie's release, is that the film isn't available on DVD. Let's hope the DVD version isn't far behind and that Kathrine Narducci won't be lost in the transfer.

This film is an excellent adaptation of the story told in "Sammy the Bull" Gravano's book, *Underboss*, the reading of which would actually enhance this film for any viewer. Nicholas Turturro does with his acting the same magic Gravano performs with the written word--taking you directly into the mind and the world of a real gangster with few excuses offered.

Gravano was raised to revere and respect "the mob" the same way other kids in the U.S. learn to idolize sports heros and financial wizards today. To get into the mob was to "make it", and Sammy Gravano did just that as few others have, ultimately rising to be second-in-command of one of the country's most powerful mobs.

This is the story of the decline in power of the Gambino crime "family" following the death of its formidable founder, the low-key but lethal Carlo Gambino. His replacement, "Big Paul" Castillano proved not as devoted to "the family" or to his own family his forerunner, both colossal faux pas for a crime boss. His being replaced with the flashy, all-too-public "Teflon Don" John Gotti dealt the Gambino organization a blow from which it has yet to recover (it may be supposed; who knows what underground operations may yet be going on?).

Gravano's hands somehow appear much bloodier in the movie than in the book--perhaps because the book allows more time for the protagonist to tell his side of the story and come up, if not smelling like a rose, at least not smelling quite as much like stinkweed. In Witness for the Mob, his true status is more clearly spelled out as that of a serial killer who was granted immunity in exchange for the testimony that put John Gotti, among others, away for life. Gravano entered the witness protection program and, the film tells us, is now "doing business somewhere in the United States."

This film makes it appear that at least as late as the 1980's, before the fall of Gotti, members of "the mob" enjoyed the same sort of glory and hero-worship as the bankrobbers of the American Old West and Depression-era. Every little boy dreamed of growing up to be a gangster, and every woman of marriageable age wanted to marry into the lavish lifestyle such a life afforded. In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of this story is the way the mob wives lived in luxury while turning a very practiced blind eye to the means by which the money rolled in.

"Sammy the Bull" employs a candor in his book that spills over into this movie. At no time does he claim to be a hero of any sort and freely admits that saving his own skin was his primary motivation in becoming a federal witness against his former partners. That candor becomes a reason to believe, if not admire, him.

Nicholas Turturro is outstanding in this roll, portraying Sammy the Bull in the way that Gravano himself would probably have preferred, judging from his book. Tom Sizemore is totally believable as the "Dapper/Teflon Don" whose love of being in the public eye began to tighten the snare set for him. And it is great to see Abe Vigoda again, this time as "Big Paul" at the end of his reign, too smug and self-satisfied to think that the new "up and coming" members of his own gang might break long-standing Cosa Nostra taboos to get rid of a leader they came to regard as ineffective at best. And it is amusing to see Gotti, as portrayed by Sizemore, make the same mistake of thinking that once you are "the boss", no one can take you down, even though he was very actively involved in the assassination of his predecessor.

There are no heros in this film, which adds to the veracity of its story. What the viewer gets is a far above average look into the world of the mob, a world that is confusing, horrific, and occasionalliy amusing in a dark, sardonic sort of way. For three hours, you see it all through the eyes of "underboss" Salvatore Gravano. And that is about as close an observation as you can get and still live to tell about it.

This movie is about the rise of mobster Sam Gravano, whose testimony put John Gotti and others in jail. Some may find this movie too long. I thought the nearly three-hour length allowed the story to develop more fully. The story drew me in. The film raises the question of what is ethical. According to this movie, it depends upon one's point of reference. The mob has its own code of ethics. Gravano is depicted as striving to live according to that code. It is a code that jusifies murder. This film has plenty of executions but I did not think the violence was overdone. This movie draws the viewer into the mad world of the mob. We are enticed to see Gravano, who murdered 19 people, as an honorable hero. This view is questioned at the end, however, when we begin to emerge from the darkness of the crime world and see the cost of crime to all of us.

I just bought the DVD but they (...) cut the best line from the DVD! The scene where they shoot Johnny Keys - right after they shoot him they walk away and one of the crew comments "That's a shame..." and everyone thinks it's because they had to kill a guy they respected - but then he says "those shoes are going to keep me up all night." It was great irony! WHY DID THEY CUT THAT LINE FROM THE DVD???????!!!!!!!!!! It is still a great movie!

Hey This is a great movie any fan of mob movies will like this flim..how come no one got it on dvd in america? i live in australia and i have it on dvd???

"Witness To The Mob" is a fairly accurate portrayal of the dirty, evil, and horrific world of organized crime--along with the strange loyalties and demented codependent dynamics which keep it spinning while everything slowly collapses.

Nicholas Turturro does a pretty good job of playing Mafia enforcer Sammy "The Bull" Gravano but occasionally borders on exaggeration with the swaggering, arrogance, and machismo that informs his every movement. It is likely that Gravano probably thought very highly of himself within the deranged prism of a mobster's psyche.

Around the time this film was released, John Gotti was already in Marion Prison in Illinois and Sammy was playing the reformed murderer in Arizona.
That wouldn't last long, as King Scumbag ended up dragging his entire family (including his son Gerard) into a drug ring while in Witness Protection: perhaps the ultimate f**k you to the FBI, an act of lawlessness greater than anything he could have accomplished while still a stand up guy. Everyone was still curious about how the Gambino crime family remained so powerful even after the devastating blows dealt to all five crime families in the 1970's. John Gotti had been a figure in the public eye and despite his imprisonment, the swashbuckling antics he displayed beating case after case still had a grip on the public imagination.

As portrayed in this film Gravano's every move puzzled the FBI and made it harder for them to finally send all these guys to jail, including Gotti. Nothing could be further from the truth. People were dying all over the place by the time the Ravenite Social Club was subject to its last sting and he wasn't the criminal genius he's painted as in this movie. Nicholas Turturro met Gravano during production (this guy commits 19 murders and he's consulting on the movie set of his cinematic autobiography with the actor playing him), so that might have something to do with the attempts to make him look a little remorseful here, passionately loyal there, etc.

Still, it does reality some justice; we see how the bloodthirsty "Bull" urged John Gotti on to authorize more and more hits, inspiring more and more bloodshed. Tom Sizemore does a great job as the Teflon Don: a stone cold criminal who gets caught up in his own celebrity, eventually leading to his downfall. Gravano is so unrepentant in his rampages that he actually helps facilitate the death of wife's brother because he had a cocaine addiction.

The scenes with Paul Castellano are hilarious. They look less like mafia meetings than an adult Boy Scout Reunion with a lot of hotheads. Whoever played him shouldn't have. In these films you can't quite favor anyone because all of them are hollow psychopaths; after watching this film, though, I choose John Gotti over Sammy Gravano. At least within the twisted ethics of the mob Gotti was true to form and remained in his cell, while Gravano ran to Arizona and then did more evil--destroying not only his own life but his family's as well.

This is a good picture alright, Although I would have preferedto have done the casting my self, However I disagree with Michael Cellio regarding Abe Vigoda from the godfather who's playing Big Paul Castellano, I think he's the perfect guy for the role. But Tom Sizemore and Nicholas Turturro could have a number of replacers though. But I am a big fan of mob movies and cant judge this picture to hard, my final words are: "It was good but not as good as Gotti with Armand Assante". And Michael take a look at the real Paul Castellano and maybe you'll see that Abe Vigoda is pretty similar...

What do you rate a good mob movie on. Maybe how it compares to Godfather or Goodfellas. No, you rank them based on the material in the movie and in this case I would have to say that they used alot of useless parts of this story and put it in the movie. They(mafia rats) all tell stories to make them selves look like the victim. But the truth about Sam gravano is that he was a stone cold killer and the movie gives you the idea that he was just doing what he was told. Not true, instead of puttng the courting of his wife, who left him because he was a rat and killed her brother, the movie should have focused on why he became a killer.