After a whole load of hype 4/5 star reviews great IMDB I went and saw this film and what a waste it was. Boring, looked low budget, rubbish story, uneventful and utterly dreadful. I was struggling to keep my eyes open after the first hour.
I have voted this a 2/10 on IMDB and I suggest those who agreed with me to vote low to make the score more accurate.
[deleted]
[deleted]
I agree with your statement. Terrible storytelling.
share[deleted]
Well I'll tell you, I have an excellent attention span, and I enjoy all types of film, from Chaplin to Bergman and Kurosawa. Personally I found this to be very monotonous. Very well photographed and acted, but by the time it was over, I felt like I'd been sitting there for five hours. Let's face it, personal taste is subjective, and whether you love the film or hate it, that's your honest response to it. It's all good; so lets not go telling people they're idiots because they didn't like something you did.
share[deleted]
this is a good post, maybe the best one in the thread. gomorra is a terrible movie, and this post tells us why, by implication. it's entirely true that most viewers don't have the "attention span" to sit through gomorra, and that is because viewers of films, viewers of theater, and even some television, are accustomed to dramatic storytelling. gomorra is not dramatic. at all. not one bit. and that's why most people hate it.
gomorra does indeed expose the Godfather et all as "aestheticized 'entertainments'," because, unlike the Godfather, which is one of the most dramatic, perfect movies ever made, and thus tremendously entertaining, gomorra is entirely undramatic, and thus thoroughly unentertaining.
(neither the Godfather nor gomorra is "romanticized," you'll have to look up a legitimate definition of the word as it pertains to either film or theater if you're currently unaware of its definition. you may have been going for "glamourized," and if you were, then yes, i would agree, as the beautiful photography and costumes of the godfather do glamorize its content to an extent, though that glamor functions dramatically to further align the viewer with the protagonist.)
i don't see where gomorra was labeled as meaningless, but if it was, that was indeed an inane criticism. even things loosely assembled with grotesquely improper/nonexistent dramatic structure have meaning. even a huge dump of steaming feces on a sidewalk has meaning.
Out of curiosity, how old are most of you? 12? 15?
I'm astounded by the amount of people saying this moving is "boring" and "meaningless". This movie is a stunning indictment of organized crime unlike any other. It is a cry for help, and very important, especially to anyone directly effected by this tragedy in Italy. The hand-held camera makes everything that more immediate, and I felt like I was living through this. Far from boring, extremely interesting, and one of the best films out of Italy in years.
You children need to grow up. Judging by the post history of the person above me, he is an adolescent who needs a bit more time to reflect on the power of this film.... He actually saw "Lucky Number Slevin" in theatres.... That explains everything.
Any mature adult will recognize the merits of this film. The critics have universally praised it, and for good reason.
I've GOT to agree with the original poster. I was aware of the "hype" surrounding this film coming out of Cannes and all that - and was greatly looking forward to seeing what it was all about. I finally get ahold of the film, start to watch it and realize it's a borefest. I got through about 50 minutes to an hour of this thing and just couldn't continue.
Now I'm all for deep and thought-provoking films and I do love to watch them, but something about the pacing of this that really turned me off. Perhaps I'll give it another try.
Definitely give it another shot. At least watch the full movie. Let it sit. And it'll grow on you.
shareI found the movie to be gripping from the first moment to the last. In fact, I went to the rating and gave it the highest. You must have missed the point, or else you expected something like a plot driven, American gangster pic. In any event, saying it was boring and uneventful really tells me more about your taste than it does this incredible film.
share2/10 is honestly unfair.this film is a statement for people who,on daily basis ,are losing their lives , spoiling the future of their children and tragically they cant do anything about it.this film unfolds a cruel reality which seems unbelievable but thanks to brave people like roberto schiavone has become undeniable.this film has shaken consciences and outraged the underworld junta.it s a contemporary war film and should be respected as such.and if you think that this war does nt concern you indirectly,think it twice before you eat your fruit milk and vegetables.2/10 is unfair.
shareI'm glad there are some people on this board with brains!!
share[deleted]
"Nor is it the only film of its kind so let's not pretend that demonizing gangsters and showing gritty urban life in an unglamorous way is somehow unique to this film. "
i can see you've provided a lot of examples of similar films. Enlighten me.
[deleted]
"Great films like "City of God" and of course absolute crap like "Menace 2 Society" are two examples off the top of my head that shows life in crime-driven urban areas in all of its squalor and ugliness,. "
I guess this film just went over your head, because aside from the subject matter, City of God and Menace 2 Society are nothing like Gomorra. Menace 2 Society is full of Hollywood melodrama, and City of God is more like a Tarantino film. They are both great, but very different in style compared to Gomorra. Gomorra is almost similar to Italian neorealism. By no means is it a bad film. It attempts to create a realistic crime film with the immediacy of a documentary, and it succeeds. If you didn't like it, fine, but saying it was average at best is moronic.
[deleted]
I realize City of God is a film to be taken seriously, unlike a Tarantino movie. But it's hard not to see similarities to Tarantino. The film is highly stylized and violent, the color is saturated and has the look of an exploitation film. Not to mention the narrative structure, which no doubt was inspired by Pulp Fiction's out-of-order timeline.
share[deleted]
City of God's narrative order is very similar to PF's.The closest movie prior to PF's out of order timeline would be Kubrick's The Killing. But even that movie's order is no where near as innovative as PF's. "He copped it off of foreign films and low budget 1970s pulp movies." Please, dont even start with that argument.
I think to deny that City of God was influenced by Pulp is dumb, just watching it reveals all sorts of similarities, from the look to the structure. It's quite obvious.
[deleted]
[deleted]
This is an impressive, compelling movie made by courageous people.
Stories of brutal, gruesome, despicable, stupid, hopeless, soulless people, in a hellishly dark Naples. Not a single bright spot in the whole movie (except probably the graduate engineer who worked for the waste dumping boss).
Those are exactly what the movie wants to tell us. And they did it extremely effectively and professionally.
For those people who think this movie conveys no messages, they must be having absolutely no clues.
In the various posts I've read it seems a common thread in attacking this film is that it leaves you not caring about anyone and that it's disjointed.
Has anyone stepped back and considered that's EXACTLY what the Camorra would think about YOU? Consider this:
1. Don Ciro is OBVIOUSLY not a soldier but when he asks out, the response is harsh.
2. The waste dumping guy cares nothing about the people he makes sick.
3. The gangsters jumping to conclusions and forcing Toto to betray probably his only friend left in the housing project.
4. The random street killings are VERY indiscriminate.
5. Even a lowly tailor is ambushed.
The disjointedness of the film illustrates just how, without people knowing it, the Camorra touches lives. A common character linking them, IMO, would've cheapened the story because it would telegraph danger to the audience and lessen the paranoia I was starting to feel during the movie. Had Toto appeared to all characters he'd be like an Angel of Death and after 2 hours of this I'd get pretty bored.
The two kids, Marco and Sweet Pea, are just a couple of f-k-ups who, like many in our society, have seen one too many gangster movies and think they can take the mob on single-handedly. Those were the only ones whose ending anyone can see a mile off. Yet don't we know people with misguided bravado?
The only one I cared about was Pasquale the tailor. He was stuck with a large order he couldn't produce and thus turned to the Chinese and betrayed trade secrets. It's just sewing so big deal, right? Not to the Camorra. When he sees his creation at the Oscars being worn by Scarlett Johannsen, it really hit home for me just how far their tentacles reach and of course the disclaimer about the new WTC being built almost makes me not want it rebuilt now.
At the end I felt a sense of terror I haven't felt after watching many a "true life" Mafia movie. There's nothing in this picture we havent seen before (the taking over of a housing project we saw in "New Jack City" after all) and yes it feels nihilistic but there are glimmers of hope. Three people survive. One is lucky, one quits before he gets sucked in and one falls off the radar and becomes a lowly trucker. Yes they survived but these will be scarred people which is why I wrote 'glimmer.' We see how the Camorra has infiltrated every aspect of society (again, Goodfellas and The Godfather tells us this) but linking them to the WTC reconstruction brings it home to me and after seeing how they affect the lives of even the lowliest of people in Naples it scares me to think of that on our shores. In our back yards. Unromantic and raw was "Gamorrah" and so are the real life mobsters. Scary stuff. Sleep well.
Gene(points at his arm pit:Get a waft of that,man stink. See if that doesn't moisten your gusset!
right, I don't give a rat's butt about belly-button lint either.
so let's make a movie about it. . . with compelling, hand-held close-ups of ear hair.
Great post by elgatony!
Very articulate.
I thought it was pretty terrific.
share