WITNESS TO THE MOB (1998)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2004
Coppola's THE GODFATHER is among the most influential films
ever made and its vision of organised crime has inspired many
filmmakers all over the world. But the filmmakers weren't the only
people who took THE GODFATHER as their inspiration. This could
be seen at the very beginning of WITNESS TO THE MOB, 1998
television biopic directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan. In 1972 Sammy
"The Bull" Gravano (played by Nicholas Turturro), small time
criminal from the mean streets of New York, is quite enthusiastic
about Coppola's film and dreams of becoming like silver screen
mobsters. His wish begins to materialise after he commits his first
contract killing, which is enough to join powerful Gambino crime
family. Through years he steadily rises in the organisation,
committing many contract killings while his wife Deborah (played by
Debi Mazar) is blissfully unaware of her own brother being among
Sammy's victims. Along the way Gravano befriends John Gotti
(played by Tom Sizemore), another ambitious mobster. Their
friendship and rising influence begins to worry Paul Castellano
(played by Abe Vigoda), aging but powerful head of Gambino
family. Gotti and Gravano organise Castellano's murder after which
Gotti becomes new head of family and Gravano becomes his right-
hand man. Nothing seems to stand in Gotti's way except federal
government. Once he finds himself behind bars, Gravano begins to
question his loyalty to Gotti.
WITNESS TO THE MOB doesn't bring anything particularly new, at
least to those who had already seen GOTTI, award-winning cable
television film about the most famous mobster in recent American
history. The only exceptions are slightly different perspective and
actors. By concentrating on Gotti's right-hand man and enforcer, this
film portrays much uglier picture of American organised crime than
GOTTI. Nicholas Turturro, one of America's most underused
character actors, tries very hard and for the most part succeeds in
making Gravano as dislikeable as possible. Tom Sizemore and THE
GODFATHER veteran Vigoda use the very same approach and make
WITNESS TO THE MOB very disturbing story to those who expected
glamour and mystique presented in Coppola's film. In our cynical
times the audience has learned some unpleasant truths, but insight
into the world of Mafia still remains fascinating, making this film
worthy of recommendation.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
Review written on October 8th 2004
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
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