Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #990 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-02-09
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: Italian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 132 minutes

Synopsis
Matteo Garrone's GOMORRAH is a dense, sprawling expose of the corruption plaguing the communities of Naples and Caserta in modern-day Italy. The all-powerful Camorra syndicate influences the lives of even the most innocent citizens. In a manner similar to THE WIRE, Garrone tells his story from many different angles, resulting in a complex narrative that often feels novelistic. In many cases, the revolving stories never overlap or intersect. While that may be jarring to those viewers who are used to having their strings tied neatly for them by a film's conclusion, Garrone's decision results in an experience that feels much more honest and true. We witness the syndicate's impact from the top down and from the inside out, following a cavalcade of characters who are all trying in their own ways to escape the deadly world in which they live.


Based on the book by Roberto Saviano, Garrone's crime epic is a powerful indictment of the corruption that is running rampant in Italy. His decision to present such a wide spectrum of characters enables him to show just how deeply everyone is impacted by this terrifying, unchecked display of criminal power. Cinematically, he employs a dizzying array of styles in order to further establish the frighteningly ungoverned atmosphere that pervades this community. GOMORRAH succeeds as both visceral entertainment and thoughtful social commentary.

Customer Reviews

Gomorrah
The Plot
On the outskirts of Naples, past the beautifully historic buildings and tourist trappings, lie the city's crumbling estates. Here the city is slowing by torn apart by the Camorra.

The Review
There are many things which the Italians do well - pasta, football, Catholicism - but most importantly, crime. The Camorra, the Mafia-esque mob at the heart of Gomorrah, isn't like the mob seen in a Martin Scorsese film or the Sopranos - there are no gentlemen's agreements and no second chances. This is primal violence of the highest degree - survival of the fittest.

After its bloody beginnings, Gomorrah veers off in five different directions, examining how this poisonous crime organization seeps into every faucet of society in Naples. We follow Don Ciro (Gianfelice Imparato), an old hand at the business, who pays off the families of mob members who are currently in jail; simple dress maker (Salvatore Cantalupo), who makes the mistake of crossing the mob and helping out their Chinese rivals; two young upstarts (Marco Macor, Toni Petroni) who think they're the next Tony Montana; 13 year old Toto (Salvatore Abruzzese) who falls in with one of the criminal gangs; and Roberto (Carmine Paternoster), a graduate who becomes disillusioned with this new job of managing illegal toxic waster. The entire cast, some of which are new to the acting world, all give sterling performances, especially so the youngsters.

With a few artistic tweaks to the original story, Gomorrah could have easily been made into a `different lives slowly coming together' film in the same vein of Crash or Magnolia. But the Camorra is different. They've fingers in every pie, and their corruption and influence have seeped their way into every area of life in Naples - young to old, rich to poor, white to black, no-one escapes the clutches of the Camorra.

Gomorrah doesn't end with any big set piece and not all the loose ends are tied up. This only serves to show that these are just five individual stories; a snapshot of a city which finds itself unable to rid itself of the Camorra - they can't live with it and they can't live without it.

As the film draws to a close though, the reality of life with the Camorra comes to bear: they have murdered 4,000 people in the last thirty years (more deaths than caused by the IRA or ETA); one clan's daily earnings from drugs are estimated at 500,000 euros; most of their operations are completely legal, including a share in the reconstruction of Ground Zero in New York; they have members in every social class, from doctors to grocery store owners; and they have a monopoly on toxic waste in Italy. Although it'll leave a grim taste in the mouth, staying for these details simply brings home the fact that the last two hours and 17 minutes have been as close to the real Italian mob as any film as going to get.

The Verdict
A bleak view of a broken city, which is both an entirely compelling, but extremely difficult watch.

The grimy, squalid, unglamorous truth
This is a hugely powerful movie, and could make for a hard watch for some people. Why I enjoyed it - and why I think it is an important book, turned into an important film - is that it highlights a reality of the Camorra that they probably would rather wasn't made public; in the sense that it is not the glamorous life of Al Pacino in the second half of Scarface; its more akin to throwing someone in the canal in Eastenders after shooting them in the back. Lots of big fat men, eating lots of pasta, playing cards with the TV on in the background, wearing wife-beaters are the main protagonists in this world. Occasionally, trying to exert their authority, they get up from their cards and pasta and go out and sweatily murder some kids who have aspirations of being one of the next bosses - a medium sized fish in a massive pond.

The film paints a picture of the Camorra's flat structure (as opposed to the Mafia's hierarchy) with the factions in a state of constant flux and in-fighting. The overall message you are left with is one of small-timers living in squalid conditions and an overriding sense of futility and fragility.

I can easily understand why the Camorra are so cross about this film and the book, as it is, as a policeman from Naples said on Radio 4, one of the most powerful ways of breaking their control, by showing the image they would like to present themselves as (Goodfellas, Sopranos, etc) is a far cry from the reality. The person I watched this didn't enjoy it so much, probably because of the nihilistic message. Sugar-coated this film is not. The author deserves the full extent of government protection.

Ignore the other review
Ignore the other reviewer. You can't trust someone who marks a film down for being in a foreign language with English subtitles (added to which, that is mentioned in the blurb about the disc).

And to address the other complaint - it's an adaptation of the book so some things have to be cut out. You don't get the same all round picture in a 2 hour movie that you do in a book, naturally. What this has is a compelling story, full immersion into the criminal world, well directed, well acted, a beautifully crafted film to sit highly in the pantheon of gangster movies...