Hollywood has spent decades glamorizing the idea of what the life of a gangster is all about. We are shown images of wads of cash, mountains of cocaine, and bikini clad woman everywhere. It seems that in the movies a life of crime pays rather well. Gomorrah on the other hand, a very bleak and horrifying film from Italy shows what the life of a gangster really entails. For all of those people out there who worship Scarface and live by the motto: "The world is yours". This is the true gangster film you should be watching. It may very well prove that this life my not be as glamorous as you think.
I walked into this film knowing very little about it, other than it was a critically acclaimed foreign film about how harsh a life of crime can be. It tells very interesting and multiple tales of how crime affects everyone. Old, young, poor, and wealthy all are subjected to this shady way of life. There are five separate stories that the film focuses on and in a rather odd move the stories do not intersect with one another, even though I expected them to.
There is the delivery kid who is looking for his big break into the gang. Part of his initiation involves wearing a bulletproof vest and then intentionally taking a round to get the fear out of his system. The pacifist Don of the neighborhood who slowly realizes that his power is slipping out of his hands and into the hands of violent street gangs. The shady dealer and his protegee looking to find and use land to fill with deadly toxic waste. The tailor who decides to go against the mob and start designing dresses for rival Chinese corporations. Then there are the two most memorable characters of the film, a couple of really stupid Tony Montana wannabes who find out the hard way that stealing guns from the wrong people can have disastrous consequences.
As the film played out I couldn't help but make comparisons to both City of God and Syriana. Two very different films about two very different kinds of crime. In this film the stories that follow the youngsters looking to find a way in mostly resembled City of God. The brutally harsh way of life that is hard to watch adults live out suddenly becomes more horrifying when you realize the adults have vanished and the children have taken their place. Then comes the white collar crime where deals are struck, and backs are stabbed. No one gets their finger nails pulled out here, but if you are doing an under-the-table deal and your new employer asks you to ride in the trunk that can't be a good sign.
In the end some of these characters are lucky enough to find a way out, and some were doomed from the start. Just about every character ends up with the dilemma of having to sell their soul or having their blood spilled. Sometimes it's both. Gomorrah may not paint a very pretty picture, but it does paint an honest one. Apparently this is a way of life in this part of the world, and much of the film stems from true stories. I will end this review with some of the best advice I've ever received from a gangster film that many characters in this film could have used. Layer Cake: "Avoid like the plague, loud attention seeking wannabe gangsters who are in it for the glory, to be a face, to be a name. They don't mean to fuck up. They just do." B
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