Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife

Beautiful love story with a dark twist. I found it informative and digs truth to the psychology behind this relationship. I watched this as a teenager and found it to be inspiring. I plan to have my kids watch it once I find out where we can access the full movie...

Sweet innocent small town gal Melissa Gilbert has met the man of her dreams Joe Penny. He's tall, dark, handsome, a successful attorney with his powerful wealthy Italian family's New York shipping business. What could possible be wrong with him? He's a successful attorney with his powerful wealthy Italian family's New York shipping business!!!

Once Gilbert realizes she's married into the family business it's too late and Uzi toting Cuban hit squads are literally being dropped off via helicopter on the front lawn! Thankfully her new in-laws stock piled enough M-16s to put Charlton Heston to shame in a shootout which makes Stalingrad pale in comparison.

'Blood Vows' certainly isn't 'The Godfather' or 'Goodfellas' but it over delivers what it promises and I really liked the ending.

The establishing shots of NYC are funny as they are desperately trying to conceal the obvious fact this was filmed in Canada not New York.

This is not a bad movie at all. If you look at the Ratings on this site, though, you will see a big difference between men and women. Women (especially younger age groups) love it! Men hate it. It is a very involving love story that succeeds in capturing the emotions. Incredible as this may seem, it is a truly romantic story. The reasons it hasn't done better are:

• Some bad direction has the FBI's attempts to make contact with the heroines look really stupid and clumsy, to the degree that it almost blows your suspension of disbelief.

• Some of the money spent on this movie could have been much better spent. There is a helicopter sequence involving a shootout that was completely overblown and seemed to have ambitions to look like a movie about the Vietnam war. It portrayed gangsters going on what was in effect a suicide mission, and the real gangsters aren't into that. A more limited and under-stated gunfight sequence (more along the lines of THE GODFATHER; short, nasty and brutish) would have been cheaper and better.

• The end is rather excellent and courageous, but it shocks the audience in the way that it NEEDS to shock, without pandering to the demands to indulge the addiction of today's audience for sugary endings, and so the movie gets punished in the Ratings. Nonetheless, maybe the ending could have been handled a little better, to take the sting out of it.

There is plenty of room for a sequel showing what happens next, even though the original was filmed years ago.

OK, the plot, the directing, etc. aren't as good. But it sticks with reality and paints a lease glamorized vision of the mob than Hollywood it the streets like to depict. The ending is logical, doesn't flinch from either side. It's almost funny the mobster review slammed this film as government propaganda. Obviously he doesn't have a brain or just skipped the last five minutes.

I'd like to remind everyone that no federal eyewitness who followed protocols have ever been killed by the people they informed on.

The only quibbles I have are with the actions being pushed towards the end, so the climax was a bit rushed. But then, that is what happens when the Family finds out that it's found out.

Melissa Gilbert should have stayed on the "Prairie." I just watched this again after nearly 20 years, and to say it hasn't aged well is being generous. Maybe I'm more socially aware now, or maybe the Sopranos has raised the bar for portrayals of those involved in the Mafia, but this movie is dreadful. There are so many stereotypes it's hard to keep track. A low point comes when a detective gives Melissa's character his name, which is Italian, and she responds with shock, as though he should be involved in organized crime as well. He is required to educate her by saying "The name on a birth certificate doesn't determine your destiny." Collective groan...

The character of "Mama" is ridiculously stereotypical, with lines of dialog spoken in a cringe-worthy accent, like: "You'll eat lots of pasta and have many babies." Uh, okay...

I'm astounded how many people have given this film a 10. I gave it a 3 thanks to the numerous shirtless scenes with Joe Penny. LOL!