The movie “Gomorrah” was hard to follow. I didn’t really know what it was about before I watched it. I only knew it was a crime drama with different story lines throughout the movie, like a Quentin Tarantino movie.
The story lines consist of several different characters. One is a well-known tailor who teaches a Chinese factory. Another is, or what looks like, some type of loan shark or money collector. We see him receiving and paying a few people in the beginning. Another follows a child who is trying to become part of a gang in the local ghetto. Another follows two men who run a toxic waste disposal company. Another: two young men who want to become big, famous gangsters. We see them rob other gangs of drugs and a weapon stash, and also playing out scenes from “Scarface.”
In some scenes, we can see into some aspects of Italian culture. Some may be more accurate than others. With the boy who is trying to become a gang member, we see he is very stylish, very concerned about how he looks. He wears lots of jewelry, designer clothing, even trimming his eyebrows. With his other gang members, they go out clothes shopping together.
The intensity of the gangs, however, I can’t be sure how accurate that really is. Some pretty intense actions are played out by the gangs. They are shown producing and selling a pretty large amount of drugs. And they put the gangster-to-be kids through some pretty intense trials, like shooting them with a pullet-proof vest on to see if they are tough enough. And they make the kid transport a lot of drugs along a busy street.
Throughout the movie, gang violence gradually grows more and more. It’s common knowledge to the neighborhood that a war is about to take place between rival gangs. Murders go back and forth between the two. The two wanna-be gangsters were becoming too much of a pain, so they were lured into a trap and killed.
But I guess this movie is based on the real Camorra gang in Europe. I assume now that most of this movie could be based on real facts. The intensity and grit of the gang life could have been portrayed as very real. It’s hard to realize that a gang of this magnitude could be present in Europe. We don’t think about these parts of society when we think about Italy or Europe. So far the films we’ve seen have been like fairy-tails. Up until now, they have been giving us a picturesque view of Italy. This movie shows the ugly, violent life of Italian underground.
I don't really know much about gangs, so I can't really say much about them. I like how you noticed the increase in violence during the course of the film, (I watched Gomorrah after watching The Road, The Book of Eli, and Doomsday, so my violence meter was filled to capacity with American-scifi violence to notice much Italian real-time violence)
ReplyDeleteIt was a very new experience to see this new lower class portion of Italy. Like you said, all the other films were basically fairy tales compared to this one, and the film actually hits a strong point by showing us the part of Italy that many people try not to see. The director was good in his decision to not romanticize the reality by giving it a positive appeal to viewers.
I agree with you, some of those violence scenes could have been set up to make the movie just extra intense. I find hard to believe that some of those scenes where the exact recreation of those actions in real life. Also very true what you said about the director. I Like how he kind of moved away from the fairy tail, postcard Italy picture of Italy and show us how its really like. I feel like we can learn more about people when we know really where they come from. Because some way or some how being from the slumms and the guetto has a huge impact on that persons life and their culture.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this film is based on facts but more like a painting on what this culture and lifestyle would look like, although I wouldn't be able to say for sure as I've never been in the mob I love that you use the word grit to describe the actions because I do agree that the film has a gritty surface.
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