Witness to the Mob (1998)

Nice effects though.

Fantastic!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

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.

All in all Witness to the Mob is superior to the HBO fairy tale called Gotti - but the former fails at what the latter did right: the portrayal of Sammy Gravano. Strangely, it seems that most filmmakers think they need a hero or at least a resemblance thereof. In HBO's Gotti it was Gotti, a charismatic, smart leader with comprehensible morals, whose downfall was the egoism of his underlings. In WttM, Sammy the Bull is portrayed as a misunderstood, dutiful voice of reason and overall goody two-shoes. Both portrayals are as far from the truth as it gets.WttM shows Gotti the way he was: an egomaniacal braggart with delusions of grandeur. (I am at a loss as to how some folks can criticize Sizemore's take on Gotti which unlike Assante's is very close to the original.) A blend of these two movies would yield *the* authoritative adaptation of the subject. In direct comparison, though, WttM takes less liberties with the story, which is why I vastly prefer it over HBO's version.On its own WttM is a very enjoyable LCN movie - even more so for those who are interested in the subject, provided they can generously overlook the factual inaccuracies.

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.