I haven't really seen another "true' mafia or organized crime movie that I can relate to Gomorrah. (Apparently, according to my friend, I've been living under rock all these years having not seen The Godfather, Scarface, Casino, Goodfellas, The Untouchables, or Once Upon A Time in America) The one movie I can recall that had any kind of gang-relation is West Side Story. Given that it is indeed a Romeo and Juliet - type musical, I'm not sure how good a comparison I can come up with, but it's the best I got. So, in West Side Story there are these two competing groups, the Sharks, who are Puerto Rican, and the Jets, who are working-class whites. Tony of the Jets falls in love with Maria, sister to the leader of the Sharks. Long story short, the two gangs are not happy about this relationship, guns go off, and *SPOILER* Tony dies. The one thing I can say about West Side Story is that it involves you with your characters, where as in Gomorrah, you sort of just jump around a bit, and don't really know what's going on. Also, the shootings in West Side Story were "babied", I could say, as opposed to the bloody violence in Gormorrah. (Consider also, that one is a Broadway musical, the other a high-budget film)
I think that Gomorrah would have better been conceived as a documentary rather than a dramatic account. In a documentary, there is a narrator giving you all sorts of back story and explaining what is happening on screen; in the film, you sort of just have to watch and figure it out for yourself. For someone like me, who knows absolutely nothing about organized crime, gangs, or the mafia (other than Al Capone, who was there leader right?), the documentary definitely would have been the best choice, and , if directed correctly, could have been equally entertaining. People like to watch visuals, rather than still pictures, so the same shots in the film could be used in the documentary, just with narration going on.
I didn't really learn much about Camorra while watching the film, they seemed to have the same qualities as all other gangs that I heard of - mean and violent. I definitely would not want to live in any city controlled by the mafia. I would be afraid to walk out of my own door each morning. The way Italy is portrayed in this film is not romanticized like in many of the other films we saw. Gomorrah shows the slums, the lower levels of life, and the truth is that most people actually live that way. It's depressing.
I do disagree with you. Although this would have made a good documentary as well, I think it did a great job as a crime thriller. In the beginning, it did take me a while to figure out all the different characters stories, but about a third of the way through the film, it all clicked and I really started to enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteThe Camorra is portrayed differently in this movie because, unlike in other mafia movies, they are not centered around family. This organization will drop their family in a heartbeat if they feel the need to. There is really no loyalty at all among these people, unlike it is portrayed in American crime films.
A documentary on this subject would of course do a better job at just getting the plain and simple facts to the public, but this film engaged the audience more and made us actually feel for the characters and the choices they had to make. So with this genre selection, the audience was more emotionally involved than they would have been with a factual documentary.
I learned a lot about the Camorra also. Not a solid organization, everyone out for themselves, no "code" of honor etc., and no sense of planning or intelligence. No wealth, no glamour. You get the sense that it is not the smartest guy that ends up on top, just the one that kills the most people, and he can be overturned in an instant by the next guy.
ReplyDeleteI think the dramatic account speaks loads more about the film than a documentary one. In a documentary you would have had trouble seeing what it's actually like inside the organization (an oxy-moronic word to use I know, but still). The intention of this film was to just follow and let the message speak for itself, not teach or preach and I think that the film really accomplishes that in this way. Yes in some cases the killings seemed harsh and some scenes were just out right boring...but that's just life in the Gomorrah/Comorra, you know?
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