Witness to the Mob

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.

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.

While arguably not as good as his book or podcast, Witness to the Mob is still a good adaptation of the life of Sammy Gravano.

An all-star cast comprised of the actors that basically acted in every mafia flick in that era, who most people will recognize from the Sopranos. Nicholas Turturro's acting skills are decent enough, but looks nothing like "the Bull." Not exactly a neutral telling of these events either, since this is adapted from his autobiography. Even taking those into account, this is still a decent-to-good film.

If you want Sammy's side of the story in movie form, this is pretty good, personally.

This is got to be Tom Sizemore's greatest acting performance. Sizemore as John Gotti was absolutely brilliant it couldn't be any more perfect than that. I was blown away by this film, but Tom Sizemore blew the doors off in this film he clearly stole the show.

And this movie was excellent. The acting, the plot, the story line was spot on. Loved it.

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.