Product Details

• Actors: Gianfelice Imparato, Salvatore Abruzzese, Toni Servillo, Maria Nazionale, Salvatore Cantalupo
• Directors: Matteo Garrone, Melania Cacucci
• Writers: Matteo Garrone, Melania Cacucci, Gianni Di Gregorio, Massimo Gaudioso, Maurizio Braucci
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Italian
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Criterion
• DVD Release Date: November 24, 2009
• Run Time: 137 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002M36R2I
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,594 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #8 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > By Original Language > Italian
  #79 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > By Genre > Drama

• For more information about "Gomorrah (The Criterion Collection)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Though no one ever utters the name in Matteo Garrone's powerful and disturbing Gomorrah, the Roman director drags the dark deeds of the Camorra into the cold light of day (the mob is based primarily in Naples and Caserta). Inspired by co-writer Roberto Saviano's explosive exposé, Garrone (The Embalmer) takes an observant, documentary-like approach to the Neapolitan Mafia and their not-so-covert infiltration into Italian society, from waste disposal to high fashion--with the US in their steely-eyed sights. Though the timeline is brief, a large cast creates the impression of an organized-crime epic on par with The Godfather or The Sopranos, but without a similar sense of style or glamour (since the film's release, several of the non-professional actors have even gotten into trouble due to their real-life Camorra connections). Unlike those Italian-American predecessors, it also takes awhile to sort everyone out; once their identities become clear, the narrative picks up speed, with no direction for any of these characters to go but down into no-questions-asked conformity or ignominious death. Three of the five narrative strands revolve around a 13-year-old gangster wannabe (Salvatore Abruzzese), a decent dressmaker (Salvatore Cantalupo), and two delusional thugs (Ciro Petrone and Marco Macor), who look to Al Pacino's Scarface for inspiration. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Gomorrah arrives in the States with the highest accolade an Italian movie can hope to receive: the imprimatur of Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese, who knows a thing or two about thugs and wannabes. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah is a stark, shocking vision of contemporary gangsterdom, and one of cinema’s most authentic depictions of organized crime. In this tour de force adaptation of undercover Italian reporter Roberto Saviano’s best-selling exposé of Naples’ Mafia underworld (known as the Camorra), Garrone links five disparate tales in which men and children are caught up in a corrupt system that extends from the housing projects to the world of haute couture. Filmed with an exquisite detachment interrupted by bursts of violence, Gomorrah is a shattering, socially engaged true-crime story from a major new voice in Italian cinema.


Stills from Gomorrah (Click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark Tales Of Old Napoli, October 5, 2009

By	darklordzden "darklordzden" (Australia) - See all my reviews

Gomorrah was one of the old testament cities judged and laid waste by God on the grounds of it's sin and corruption.

Scampia is a district in contemporary Naples.

At first glance, the council estate in Scampia on which the majority of Matteo Garrone's "Gomorrah" takes place appears to be your usual raffish, rough-around-the-edges melting pot of low income families, wannabes, try-hards and dreamers: there's Toto, who works as a delivery boy for his mother's grocery store; Pasquale, who works as the lead tailor in a factory which creates high-end fashion designs; Roberto who, after years of unemployment has just managed to land a prestigious job with a councilor, Franco, and is in the process of learning the ropes; Ciro, who, at first glance, appears to be a kindly, middle-aged building manager who looks after the welfare of families on the estate; then there are Marco and Ciro, two bored teenagers who spend their days imitating Al Pacino in "Scarface" and getting into trouble. However, before the final percussive strains of the film's minimalist soundtrack play out over some devastatingly well-placed captions which detail the current reach of contemporary organised crime, the comparisons between the corrupt old testament city-state and the contemporary housing estate will have been made explicit in the most visceral way possible and the viewer will observe just how corruption and criminality insinuates its way into virtually every level of Neapolitan society (as well as every one of the previously mentioned characters' lives).

The lexicon of modern cinema has inculcated contemporary audiences with a fascination of all things Mafiosi (or "Camorra" as the Neapolitan organisation is known). Cinematic short-hand has bombarded us with a fictionalized, glamourous world of sleek suits, pearl-handled revolvers and witty profanity. "Gomorrah", although a work of fiction, is not concerned with screen artifice or the rewards reaped by crime; it is explicitly concerned with those who have to live under the yoke and suffer the consequences of organised crime's insinuation into every level of private and public life.

If you want to see what a world ruled by Tony Soprano or Vito Corleone would really look like, then look no further. But believe me, its not pretty. And there is very little in the way of "honour" to be seen here.

Garrone eschews the grandiose operatic flourishes of a Scorsese or a Coppola and instead favours a laconic, naturalistic tone which resembles the Neo-Realism of Rossellini's, Open City. Many of the film's scenes have an almost improvised quality to them which only compounds the frighteningly realistic nature of the film. Garrone doesn't spoon-feed the plot or the relationships between the characters to you and, depending on how eagle-eyed you are, it may take you a fair deal of time to ascertain just 'what is what' and 'who is who to whom'. Make no bones about it - this is not a film to be watched whilst surfing the internet on your mobile phone; this is a film to which you must pay full attention.

An epic in every sense of the world and probably the best big-screen feature ever made about the Mafia/Camorra, I recommend it unreservedly.

It makes an ideal companion piece to Roberto Saviano's expose of the Neapolitan crime syndicates, which I haven't read, but which apparently provided the film's inspiration, as well as the more conventionally told, but similarly brilliant tale of the Milanese Mafia, Romanzo criminale / Crime Novel (Original Italian Version - with English Subtitles), and Ricky Tognazzi's chilling examination of a group of "sitting-duck" Police Bodyguards, La Scorta.

33 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stark reality of Naples, December 29, 2008

By	British Commentator (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)

A stark ultra realistic film about the organised crime operations of the Naopolitan "Mafia", called The Camorra. Do not expect "The Sopranos" or "Goodfellas" in style, no slick lines or flashy clothes. This film is almost documentary style, showing the slow dail grind and grim reality of the struggle to get paid. A must see for fans of mob films, with superb cinematography.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rough and tumble of gangland Naples, August 21, 2009

By	Jean E. Pouliot (Newburyport, MA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Think of this movie as an Neapolitan version of "Slumdog Millionaire," but without the charm, happiness or stubborn sense of hope. The movie's 5 interweaving stories are sometimes hard to follow, but they involve down-and-out city dwellers trying to live an a world infested by Camorra gangs, drugs, murder, sectarian infighting and unrelieved violence. The inhabitants live in a bombed-out cement building - -a parking-garage-like edifice built to withstand explosions, but bereft of any charm. The film has wonderful original characters and some stunning imaginary. While thugs chase a fugitive on one level of concrete walkways, a wedding procession takes place on a walkway below them. The title is a play on the name of the Camorra gang, hinting broadly at the relationship with Gomorrah, biblical Sodom's evil-twin sister city, a place so full of vice and lawlessness that only complete destruction was sufficient to deal with it.

Masterfully shot, splendidly written and well acted, "Gomorra" is not a film to watch when you're trying to pull out of a tough week at work.