Gomorrah (Gomorra) (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Crime	Interviews-Crew-Interview with director Matteo Garrone Interviews-Crew-Interview with auth Roberto Saviano Interviews-Cast-Cast interviews Featurette-Making Of-5 Stories: a 60-minute making-of documentary Deleted Scenes-Eight deleted scenes Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Last Ride, Cocaine Cowboys 2, Balibo and Samson & Delilah.
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	131:22
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (64:49) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Matteo Garrone
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Toni Servillo Gianfelice Imparato Maria Nazionale Salvatore Cantalupo Gigio Morra Salvatore Abruzzese Marco Macor Ciro Petrone Carmine Paternoster
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$34.95	Music	Giovanni Guardi Massive Attack

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Gomorrah is not your standard mafia-themed film. For starters, the main character is not a person, it is a system, the Camorra mafia organisation who have a large influence in the political, economic and social life of modern day Naples. Then, you have five stories of ordinary people who are affected by the influence of the Camorra organisation, and the audience sees the choices, or lack there of, that these individuals have over their encounters with the Camorra. The movie is based on author Roberto Saviano's bestselling 2006 book detailing the business and social affairs of the Camorra mafia organisation, with these five stories based on factual, true-to-life events. The success of the book led to the Italian Minister of the Interior granting Saviano a permanent Police escort.

    Director Matteo Garrone has sought to present his adaptation of the film as real to the events of the book as possible. This has meant the film is a conscious attempt to de-glamorise mafia life, unlike Hollywood films which emphasise money, success and power, the main characters in Gomorrah are average people who struggle to earn a living. The best way to describe the film, therefore, is to say that is a 'revisionist' gangster film, in the same way that revisionist westerns portray heroes as flawed, so Gomorrah shows it's audience a mafia organisation that is faceless, calculating and brutal. The retributive killings in this film really come out of left field, unlike Hollywood gangster films where revenge can be predictable.

    To make sense of the plot, spoilers follow so if you don't wish to read more of the plot synopsis move to the next section of the review now. The five stories recount the experiences of an accountant, a grocery boy, a university graduate, a tailor and two youths. In the first story, Don Ciro (Gianfelice Imparato) is a middleman who distributes money for incarcerated clan members. When he comes across two angry clan members seeking revenge, he offers to swap sides. He soon finds the price of betrayal though when the two clan members infiltrate a meeting where Ciro is handling money, whereby they take the money, kill all the clan members present and leave Ciro alive, awaiting a certain confrontation with the Camorra.

    The second story sees Toto (Salvatore Abruzzese) is a 13-year-old grocery delivery boy who witnesses a Police raid and returns some drugs and guns dropped by gang members. For his loyalty, he is initiated by a test of valour, being shot while wearing a bulletproof vest. The gang demand retribution by taking revenge on Maria as a punishment against her son Simone, who has joined a secessionist gang. The irony here is that before Toto was involved with the gang, Simone and he were friends.

    In the third story, Roberto (Carmine Paternoster) is a university graduate who works in toxic waste management. His boss Franco (Toni Servillo) dumps the waste illegally. During a waste operation a worker is hurt, and when help is refused, Franco gets children to drive his trucks to continue the operation. Roberto quits as a result of this unsympathetic and callous action.

    The fourth story stars Pasquale (Salvatore Cantalupo) as a specialist tailor who seeks to earn extra money by training foreigner Chinese garment workers. Unfortunately for Pasquale, this is in direct competition with Camorra controlled businesses, so the Chinese factory owners drive Pasquale to their factories in the trunk of their car. The Camorra find out and ambush the car on scooters with a drive-by shooting. Pasquale takes a job as a truck driver where he sees actress Scarlett Johansson on TV wearing one of his dresses.

    The final story centres on Marco (Marco Macor) and Ciro (Ciro Petrone) who are two arrogant youths who emulate to be gangsters like Tony Montana in the film, Scarface. One day they spy Camorra members stashing weapons at a hideout, so they they decide to take the weapons and use them to hold up a video-game parlour. From their robbery they visit a strip-joint, whereby they are warned by clan members to return the weapons. The two brash youths ignore their warnings so one of the gangsters approaches them in a bar with an offer of €10,000 if they return the weapons and conduct a killing. They accept the deal and are subsequently ambushed and killed at the location of their supposed target.

    The tone of Gomorrah is set from the beginning in the first six minutes of the film with the slaying of the gangsters in the tanning salon, it is clinical and the Camorra have a clandestine presence in all the scenes of the movie from then on.

Video

    Due to the theme of the film being the harsh reality of everyday life for ordinary citizens in Camorra controlled urbanised areas, the cinematography resembles the look of a documentary. The camerawork is roving and mobile, and the look of the film has been compared to Fernando Merrielle and Katia Lund's City of God.

    The aspect ratio is 2:35:1, 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

    Gomorrah is presented on a 7.2 gb dual-layered disc, with the main feature 7 gb in size with an average bitrate of 7.3 Mb/s. There is slight film grain evident as some scenes use natural lighting to highlight the documentary 'feel' of the film.

    The colour is also natural, with no muting or saturation.

    There are no standout film artefacts present in the video transfer.

    Subtitles are in yellow and are easy to follow.

    The RSDL change occurs at 64:49, during a scene transition, unfortunately the soundtrack is paused and therefore it is noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack of the film does not over-emphasise background music, with most scenes in the film being dialogue based.

    There are two audio tracks, an Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 track encoded at 448 kbps and a Italian Dolby Digital 2,0 stereo track encoded at 256 kbps.

    Dialogue is clear and the audio is synchronised throughout.

    The music for Gomorrah was supervised by Giovanni Guardi, and it focuses on modern European pop, with Massive Attack's instrumental Herculaneum utilised as the main theme song, metaphorically representing the secretive influence of the Camorra in the movie. This song went on the win the Italian film award (the David De Donatello prize) for best song.

    Surround channel usage is infrequent, with most action centred at the front channels, but when it is used it is emphatic, in all channels.

    The subwoofer is used for background music and when guns are fired, with a lot of bass reverberation to make the shooting effects distinctive and real.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Interviews-Crew-David Stratton interviews director Matteo Garrone (3:20) (1:85:1, 16x9 enhanced)

    This is a short interview with director Matteo Garrone which looks at the background to the project and it's emphasis on it's gritty, reality-focused style.

Interviews-Crew-author Roberto Saviano (41:49) (1:85:1, not 16x9 enhanced)

    By far this is the highlight extra featurette, available on the special features on disc two. The interview is presented with sub-headings: The War of Secondigliano, the System, the Land of Fires, Angelina Jolie and Hollywood. This interview sheds more information behind the stories shown in the film, with a lot of information on the secessionist gangs and the motivation behind people who want to join the Camorra organisation by carrying out killings.

    Don't miss out on this extra, Saviano also discusses his preparations for the book, his part in writing the script, and the lifestyle of the Camorra bosses, who idolise Hollywood-themed gangsters such as Tony Montana.

Interviews-Cast (10:08) (1:85:1, not 16x9 enhanced)

Featurette-Making Of-5 Stories: a 60-minute making-of documentary (59:59) (Various aspect ratios, not 16x9 enhanced)

    This behind the scenes look at preparation for the shooting of scenes acts as a fly-on-the-wall featurette for the viewer. We get to see how the film was shot with multiple mobile cameras, how scenes are prepared so that they are authentic, even disagreements between the actor who shoots the two brash youths and the director, with the actor insisting on doing it as it happened. This featurette is a welcome change from Hollywood styled electronic press kit extras where everybody seems to state how great it is working with other fantastic actors and directors in a vain and clichéd way.

Deleted Scenes (13:19) (2:35:1, 16x9 enhanced)

    Eight deleted scenes are shown in sequence. These scenes do not add much to the film in terms of character and plot development, but are interesting nonetheless.

Theatrical Trailer (2:00) (2:35:1, 16x9 enhanced)

    The theatrical trailer contains many spoilers so don't watch it until you have seen the film.

Madman Trailers

    Four Madman trailers are included for Last Ride, Cocaine Cowboys 2, Balibo and Samson & Delilah.

    Gomorrah has been released in Region 2 in The United Kingdom, France and The Netherlands with the same video and audio specifications and the same extras, minus the David Stratton interview.

    The Region 1 Criterion Collection version released in the United States has identical video and audio specifications as the Region 2 and Region 4 releases, and the same extras, with a new video interview with director Matteo Garrone and actor Tony Servillo and an essay by critic Chuck Stephens.

    In my opinion, the extra interview with Garrone and Servillo and essay by Chuck Stephens does not make the Region 1 release stand out from other Regional releases. The Region 4 version by Madman is more than adequate for Region 4 fans of the film.

    The 2008 Grand Prix prize winner, Gomorrah is certainly not your standard-fare mafia film. Comparisons to City of God are warranted, if you enjoyed that film, you may seek to view this also. The assertion on the DVD cover from The Times newspaper that the film is a 'masterpiece' is perhaps hyped, Gomorrah is better described as a good realist film which seeks to challenge the stereotypical portrayals of Hollywood mafia films.

    The extras on disc two, especially author Roberto Saviano's interview support this release well, making the Region 4 version of Gomorrah another quality DVD production by Australian distributor, Madman.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall