The DVD cuts the best line!!!!!   July 27, 2005

No DVD?   May 21, 2005

Mob Hit!   December 2, 2002

Good alright, almost as good as Gotti   August 2, 2000

Excellent film--Not to be missed by fans of "mob" films   July 5, 2000

Gravano was raised to revere and respect "the mob" the same way other kids in the U.S. learn to idolize sports heros and financial wizards today. To get into the mob was to "make it", and Sammy Gravano did just that as few others have, ultimately rising to be second-in-command of one of the country's most powerful mobs.

This is the story of the decline in power of the Gambino crime "family" following the death of its formidable founder, the low-key but lethal Carlo Gambino. His replacement, "Big Paul" Castillano proved not as devoted to "the family" or to his own family his forerunner, both colossal faux pas for a crime boss. His being replaced with the flashy, all-too-public "Teflon Don" John Gotti dealt the Gambino organization a blow from which it has yet to recover (it may be supposed; who knows what underground operations may yet be going on?).

Gravano's hands somehow appear much bloodier in the movie than in the book--perhaps because the book allows more time for the protagonist to tell his side of the story and come up, if not smelling like a rose, at least not smelling quite as much like stinkweed. In Witness for the Mob, his true status is more clearly spelled out as that of a serial killer who was granted immunity in exchange for the testimony that put John Gotti, among others, away for life. Gravano entered the witness protection program and, the film tells us, is now "doing business somewhere in the United States."

This film makes it appear that at least as late as the 1980's, before the fall of Gotti, members of "the mob" enjoyed the same sort of glory and hero-worship as the bankrobbers of the American Old West and Depression-era. Every little boy dreamed of growing up to be a gangster, and every woman of marriageable age wanted to marry into the lavish lifestyle such a life afforded. In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of this story is the way the mob wives lived in luxury while turning a very practiced blind eye to the means by which the money rolled in.

"Sammy the Bull" employs a candor in his book that spills over into this movie. At no time does he claim to be a hero of any sort and freely admits that saving his own skin was his primary motivation in becoming a federal witness against his former partners. That candor becomes a reason to believe, if not admire, him.

Nicholas Turturro is outstanding in this roll, portraying Sammy the Bull in the way that Gravano himself would probably have preferred, judging from his book. Tom Sizemore is totally believable as the "Dapper/Teflon Don" whose love of being in the public eye began to tighten the snare set for him. And it is great to see Abe Vigoda again, this time as "Big Paul" at the end of his reign, too smug and self-satisfied to think that the new "up and coming" members of his own gang might break long-standing Cosa Nostra taboos to get rid of a leader they came to regard as ineffective at best. And it is amusing to see Gotti, as portrayed by Sizemore, make the same mistake of thinking that once you are "the boss", no one can take you down, even though he was very actively involved in the assassination of his predecessor.

There are no heros in this film, which adds to the veracity of its story. What the viewer gets is a far above average look into the world of the mob, a world that is confusing, horrific, and occasionalliy amusing in a dark, sardonic sort of way. For three hours, you see it all through the eyes of "underboss" Salvatore Gravano. And that is about as close an observation as you can get and still live to tell about it.