Italian Film Review: Roberto Saviano's Gomorrah

Gomorrah the motion picture, proves to be a departure from the original bestseller, Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples’ Organized Crime System. Albeit the graphic portrayal depicted in the motion picture brings to life a different dimension that filmgoers may-or-may-not appreciate. As for this filmgoer, I appreciated both platforms for what they are - a hard, never-before-seen look at the inner operations of the real mob. Were not talking about some romanticized fiction and glamour soaked Soprano’s genre here.

Gomorrah is based on the life of author Roberto Saviano. To paraphrase Rolling Stone magazine, “Gomorrah is indeed creating a shit storm in Italy” - and yes it is “ripping the mob a new one”. Thanks to the frankness of the scribe, Italian authorities are now aware of names, places and tactics employed by the real life Camorra crime syndicate from Naples Italy. The result: hundreds of real-life arrests, freezing of ill gotten assets, and a systematic global collapse of Camorra operations.

On a personal note, I would strongly recommend the reading of the book prior to seeing the on-screen interpretation. Unless you’re an “insider”, the revelations in the book will come as a shock to most readers. I know we don’t yet use scales or stars to rate anything here at Abbondanza!, but if I had to I would give it a three and a half out of four “fill-in-the-blank-with-your-preferred-symbol-thingys”.

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by Donna Petrongolo