Witness to the Mob (1998)

Truly Dreadful Film

Lack of good storyline.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Boss of Bosses told us the story of Paul Castalano, Gotti profiled the Dapper Don, and finally Witness To The Mob is the story of mob enforcer, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. Unlike the other two films, for some inexplicable reason, Witness To The Mob was made for network television. While the film turned out to be very accurate, it was also twice as long as the other two and lacked the typical violence associated with a mafia movie. Sammy Gravano was John Gotti's second in charge, an enforcer, who eventually turned states evidence and testified against the Mob. He was an interesting guy, but should his bio film really be longer and more in depth than that of John Gotti's? NYPD Blue's Nicholas Turturro stars and while his performance didn't blow me away, he wasn't nearly as bad as I thought he would be. The story is further given credibility by it's supporting cast, which is the same people you've seen in every mafia movie since the late 80s. There were actually seven members of the Sopranos cast, who had some type of part in this film. It's not surprising, as some guys just have the right look and do mafia type films almost exclusively. Witness To The Mob is very accurate and has the typical large cast associated with these films, but being over three hours long and made for TV, really hurts a film like this. You can make the case that the language and violence aren't really necessary to the story, but I really felt like it took a lot of credibility away from the film. How believable is a gangster that constantly says "freaking?" It was interesting to see things from The Bull's point of view, but the producers of this film really should have held out for a cable or direct to video deal, in order to make this type of film what it should be, raw and emotional.

I saw this movie when I happened to catch it on CBS a few years back. I only saw part of it but I have always liked the subject since I was eight years old. I recently bought a copy and it has become one of my favorite films. The acting is good and they really did a magnificent job on casting, costumes, and locations. I thought Turturro's role was fantastic and Sizemore didn't do badly either though I think Assante was more realistic in Gotti. I would have liked to have seen Turturro as Gravano in Gotti it would have been a real treat to see him and Armand square off. This movie captures the backstabbing, badmouthing, lying, rip offs, and betrayal that goes on in the mob families just like Donnie Brasco did the only difference being that this was no "crazy messed up love story" as Depp put it. This is a movie that bluntly depicts the merciless killing of so called friends and the treacherous deceit that follows without any hint of feelings or "real" friendship as he would have you believe. Turturro's Gravano is a detached and pitiless killer who is as bad as the people he whacks and his rise like Gotti's is as meteoric as his fall. This film leaves you asking Gravano this question: If you killed cheaters, double crossers, dope heads, and people who broke the rules shouldn't you have been killed too? Witness to the mob gives you both sides of the story and lets you make the call.

All mafia films seem to be excellent. They just have that edge, tension and suspense to them which bulids up during the movie and then which is all released at the climax. Witness to the Mob is no exception. However what was unusual, being a mafia film, was that I cant remember any swear word said during the whole film nor was there hardly any blood. Most of the killings were done with quick, clean silencers. Violence was very limited. But it did not detract much from being a good well done movie which will keep the viewer's interest from start to finish. Tom Sizemore is the highlight and is just great, especially when he loses his temper, and is perfect for his role. I would defnitely recommend Witness to the Mob to all mafia film lovers. 8/10.

This movie is based on the true story of "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, a self-confessed killer who helps prosecute Mafia boss John Gotti, in exchange for immunity. Yes, the acting is a bit wooden, and the script full of cliches, but it's an interesting study of a real life Mafia case - definitely worth a look, but certainly not a classic.