Review: Gomorra

Gomorra (2008)
starring: Salvatore Abruzzese, Simone Sacchettino, Salvatore Ruocco, Vincenzo Altamura, Toni Servillo, Carmine Paternoster
dir. Matteo Garone


I wasn't ready for what I was about to see when sitting down for this film. I knew it was a crime film from Italy and that it was "different" than any other gangster movie. This hurt my viewing of the picture, but at the same time made the entire process that much more compelling.

At first I was trying to decipher the various story lines to see if they were going to start to come together for a giant climax. That's the Hollywood moviegoer in me. Then as I was beginning to learn the language and form of the film I came to understand it as a much more serious and important version of Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993). Like Altman's film there are various characters who's lives never directly intercede with each other, but are all connected through the world they live in, Los Angeles. All of the stories in Gomorra may not be directly linked to each other, but are connected through a gigantic crime syndicate, the Camorra, that is involved in everything. This isn't your gangster movie about whacking the guy who offends you, it's about greed and a crime organization so forceful that it doesn't care who it destroys, including the environment, the kid next door or anyone who gets in the way of a dollar.

Gamorra shows a world so completely corrupt that there is no way out accept through death. Even attempting to walk away, giving up all dreams and resolving ones self to working a meniall job may end up some how connecting back to a Camorra clan. It is a scary world that is depicted with a lens that prides itself on depicting reality.

The closest this film ever gets to resembling the classic gangster film that we know of is the story of two teens who want to be big time gangsters. They imitate Tony Montana and try to live the romantic angle by playing big and acting tough. But those ideals are quickly shattered as the boys are brought into the real world of organized crime. There is no romance in this world, there is no code or pecking order, there is only survival of the greediest.

This is the one time where going in knowing what you are about to witness helps in the viewing of this movie. Like Pontecorvo's Battle of Algiers (1966) or Costa-Gavras' Z (1969), Matteo Garone has worked hard to strip away every ounce of artifice and show the modern day Italian crime world for what it really is. Harsh and hearless.

9.8 out of 10