Product Details

• Actors: Tom Sizemore, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Shawn Hatosy, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Forest Whitaker
• Directors: Richard Pearce
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• DVD Release Date: June 13, 2000
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0783116799
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #74,778 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Witness Protection" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Lifelong Mafia hood Bobby "Bats" Batton (Tom Sizemore) wakes up one night to discover a price on his head and nowhere to go but to the cops...under protection as a federal witness. Based on the article "The Invisible Family" by Robert Sabbag, this HBO original film drops us into the volatile period between lives as Bats takes his family off the streets and into a federal bunker where they begin shaping their new identities. Surrounded by surveillance cameras and locked in an apartment that feels like a fancy prison block, the formerly prosperous family starts to suffocate and self-destruct while it becomes clear just what a "readjustment of expectations" really means. Sizemore is excellent as the hotheaded gangster paralyzed by helplessness, but Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is especially moving as the once-hopeful wife who buckles as her husband's secrets and lies are revealed. It's an interesting dynamic: The swaggering goodfella forced into a working-class life elicits little sympathy, but the toll on the family torn apart by recriminations, blame, and frustration is affecting and powerful. They're undergoing a crash course in family therapy with federal official Forest Whitaker as their tough-love crisis counselor. Director Richard Pearce has made some excellent portraits of families under pressure (Country, Heartland), and while the screenplay at times feels contrived, the drama is always potent. --Sean Axmaker

Product Description

When mobster Bobby Batton awakens to find his home under attack by a relentless hit-man he makes a life or death decision to save his family by entering the witness protection program. Now they must each leave friends and family forever change their names and destroy their past. Not every family can do it - but failing can be a death sentence. Only Bobby can hold it together - but Bobby's starting to fall apart...Running Time: 105 min.System Requirements:Running Time 101 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 026359170324

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An engaging drama, June 24, 2000

By	Mr. B. J. Dutton (North Wales) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Witness Protection is a bit of a curiousity. It takes the viewer into a world that is a little alien - the infamous witness protection program that is run by the US government to protect witnesses from major criminals. The epilogue to the film tells us that 16,000 people have entered the program to date - this is the story of one such family. Tom Sizemore plays the father, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio the mother and with their two children they spend five days in the Witness Protection safe-house where, instead of the family coming together, they are slowly ripped apart by unspoken anger, fear and terror. Yet the movie is neither depressing or solemn - you do feel for these people who have ended up in this situation, but as Forrest Whitaker keeps reminding the family as their liason in the program, they only have themselves to blame for entering this world in the first place. The direction is sharp, and though the writing is sometimes sluggish, it picks up again shortly afterward. Another great movie from HBO.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This one is a good one to rent, June 27, 2000

By A Customer

Witness Protection is one of the few movies that focuses on the guys behind the scenes. In this mob story of a man who goes into hiding with his family, few things are clearly stated to the viewer. The acting is decent, a good director is in the making with Richard Pearce, but the story moves slowly and is very choppy. You are left to wonder how they got from one place to another. It had a well-developed plot, but it never followed through. I was particularly disappointed with the ending and the fact that the wife really had no idea what her husband did. All in all it was a decent movie. But rent it before you consider buying it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transition into the witness protection program isn't easy, June 11, 2005

By	Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This 1992 HBO film dealt with a subject that has always fascinated me and yet I knew little about. What happens to a family that goes into the witness protection program? What kind of problems do they face? And how, exactly, does the transformation work. This film attempts to answer some of these questions. And, if the characters are a little larger than life, and the story sometimes dips to the level of a soap opera, it really didn't matter to me. Because by then, I was so involved with the story and the personalities of this particular fictional family that I was too caught up to care.

The story starts out strong and continues its hectic pace. We soon learn that Tom Sizemore is involved with the mob who are out to kill him. It becomes apparent that his wife and children are also in danger. That's when Tom Sizemore goes to the FBI and agrees to testify in exchange for his family's protection.

The teenage son who is doing so well is school that he could get into a prestigious college is heartbroken. He has to leave his girlfriend too. And give up what looks like his whole future. The little 5-year old girl has to learn to lie about her name. And the wife, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, has to give up all the luxuries she's become adjusted to. This family is going to be poor in their new location and the father is going to have to work as a laborer.

This change doesn't happen overnight however. First, the family must spend 5 days in an FBI relocation house which looks like a house but is really a fancy prison. Here, they have to learn how to behave in their new environment. Forest Whitiker is cast as the FBI agent who will help make this happen. He plays his "tough love" part well and keeps saying he doesn't care. But it is clear that he does care about this family.

There are arguments between the husband and wife and one scene where the dishes fly and she hits him with a frying pan. There is one scene where the son refuses to go along with the relocation. The little girl cries a lot and we wonder how this will all affect her little life. Tensions do more than mount. They explode. And there were times that my own emotions were touched and I found my eyes tearing up.

I enjoyed this film and its unique angle on what the witness protection program means in the lives of one particular family. It made me think.