Analysis Of The Films "Gomorrah" And "Terraferma"

According to readings of Mignone, Allum and Duggan, issues of huge in-migration and federated criminality that confront Italy today are explicitly portrayed in both films, Gomorrah and Terraferma. Gomorrah portrays the issues of federated criminality and how criminal organizations created devastating outcomes to victims of the society by demonstrating the clear divisions between victims and victimizers. Victims in the film are murdered, violently beaten and ignored of their values because victimizers kill victims mostly for money and their profits. Terraferma demonstrates the issues of huge in-migration and how characters are confused between following laws and moral ethics. The movie portrays the problems and challenges refugees face when they attempt to survive and how people in the island react to their migrations.

The films, Gomorrah and Terraferma, offer an imaginary solution to the problems of the present for the Italian audience compared to other films such as Open City, Bicycle Thief and Life is Beautiful. For instance, The Open City, Bicycle Thief and Life is Beautiful did not contain real solutions to societal problems. The Open City explicitly expresses the problems of betrayal and resistance but it does not provide the audience with solution to betrayal or resistance movements. Bicycle Thief successfully demonstrates the economic burden that characters go through and how a thief’s stealing of the bike brings detrimental outcomes to the main characters, however, the ending of the scene ends with Antonio stealing someone else’s bike. This offers no solution to economic crises but rather the main character commits the same crime, which shows that the problem is intensified. Life is Beautiful demonstrates how the Holocaust was a huge event that killed so many Jewish but it does not offer a solution. The event was a real historical event and because it was a real event, the solution was not possible at all. However, Gomorrah seems to provide the audience with solutions of accommodating the Italian society and enforcing changes so that criminal organizations are less active. For instance, in the movie, people are clearly divided as victims or victimizers and the director criticizes the separation to be wrong and immoral. The criminal organizations, also known as the mafia, are not portrayed as heroes or masculine men but rather they are shown as ruthless and stupid figures. This implies the audience that changes are necessary and criminal organizations should be banned from intervening into ordinary people’s daily lives. Another example would be Terraferma, which includes the controversies between the police and refugees and how refugees find it so challenging to survive. This explicitly demonstrates the hardships of refugees and implies that the audience should consider morality as well instead of considering only laws. Terraferma delivers a message of morality and how moral ethics can be important when considering people who need help.

The first scene of the movie, Gomorrah, contains a juxtaposition of dead bodies that correlates with the rest of the movie. Throughout the movie, murders, violence and betrayals exist all over the place, making the audience fearful and intensified. When the movie, Gomorrah was released, the situations in Naples and Campania were not morally upright. For instance, in Campania, there was news of mafia who committed disposal crises, released toxic substances to waste and attacked innocent African-American people. The instability got worsened, causing people to riots and resistance movements, and eventually, the government initiated to control organized crimes. According to Christopher Duggan, “the fight against organized crime ran intothe same sort of difficulties that many earlier operations had faced.” (Duggan, 574) The director of the movie portrays criminal organizations to be cruel, uneducated, distasteful, unappealing and foolish. Those portrayals are emphasized when mafia commits crimes, such as disposing toxic substances to trash, being as drug dealers and murdering people for their own goods. Instead of portraying mafia as courageous, strong and masculine organizations, the director chooses to display them as gross and unjustified. In the movie, Gomorrah, the people in the movie do not have many choices in their lives. For instance, people are either victims or victimizers. They are involved in crimes or they get damaged by criminal organizations. The audience is able to see that people are hard to change, especially the mafia who commits crimes but finds it hard to adjust to justifiable lives. Things happen without some people’s wills and such crimes affect people.

According to class lecture, Gomorrah is “a mix of Realism and Formalism and creates a wealth of jarring, disturbing images. With Realism, it shares the focus on those that are the bottom of the social ladder and struggle for daily survival, the "laborers" of the criminal organization, rather than the bosses; the on-location shooting, the use of natural lighting, the attention to the details of everyday-life; the use of non-professional actors; long takes and uncut sequences; use of hand-held camera.” (Lecture notes) Gomorrah is very realistic, portraying the world as it is rather than making it as abstract or artistic. The whole film focuses on the actors and languages and behaviors they do. For instance, there is a scene in which two boys who find guns and shoot, the boys are portrayed as unrealistic characters that are gloriously handsome and masculine. Instead, they are portrayed as not good-looking and ordinary characters that could exist in real lives too. The movie did not contain attractive settings and bright lighting that attract audiences but rather it portrays realistic settings of real world.

According to lecture notes, Gomorrah also contains elements of Formalism in that “it uses artificial lighting; manipulates key; contains highly staged mise-en-scene and composition; develops the 5 stories through rapid cuts, indicating a more thematic editing; brings in motifs from film noir and sci-fi (i.E., the play of dark and light of the key; the big Camorrista boss in the shadow; the opening scene at the tanning salon; the mise-en-scene on the hazardous material scene where Franco and Roberto are in protective suits).” (Lecture notes) The film puts the audience as the first point of view. For instance, when there is a scene in which three people speak, instead of focusing the camera on the person who speaks, the director chooses to give focus on the person who listens. This makes the audience to feel they are more involved in the film and thus makes them more focused on the story.

According to Percy Allum, “The Camorra underwent an impot1ant transformation in the post-war period: in the 1950s, it started out as a basic form of crime unde11aken as a survival strategy, but by the 1990s it had become a sophisticated economic and political system.” (Allum, 189) The clear moral message of Gomorrah includes criticism of Camorrah on Italian society and how hope is not visible in the society. For instance, there is a scene in which a boy from a sales department eventually becomes a drug dealer because he needs money. This demonstrates how the society is corrupted and children find no hope in the society. The movie implies that criminal organizations such as Camorrah should be banned because they influence other ordinary people to be criminals as well. Camorrah seems to have absolute power and money, whereas other citizens are weak, poor and tragic. Their impacts are negative on the society and such negative influences should be banned. For instance, there is a scene in which victimizers dump trash on farmers’ lands, not only ruining the crops but also cutting their supplies for lives.

According to class lecture, Terraferma contains themes of “modernization; modernity and its outcasts, migration; traditional versus contemporary society; old values (i.E., “law of the sea”, hospitality, etc.) versus contemporary values (i.E., national laws; citizens’ rights, etc.); compassion, empathy; coming of age story.” (Class lectures) The main message that the film delivers is that justified and good morality overthrows brutal laws that make refugees to be in trouble. Even though it is true that people should follow laws and what the police says, people should also be able to recognize the consequences of such laws. People should be able to enforce morality and ethics rather than just imposing laws to be the absolute truths in real lives.

According to Mario Mignone, “Because a relatively high percentage of crime in the country is committed by poor illegal immigrants, racism (xenophobia) has emerged as a serious problem.” (Mignone, 221) This eventually led the government to control refugees from entering the island, creating tensions and resistant fights. In the end of the film, there is a scene in which Filippo breaks the guard line of the boat so that all refugees can climb onto the boat. This scene is shot from the top and then it is zoomed out which demonstrates confusion and hesitation of the characters. Throughout the film, the director demonstrates confusion and complexity of Filippo who hesitates between laws and ethical concerns. However, in the end, the director rather provides a solution, making Filippo to commit a crime but also choosing morality as better than following ruthless laws.

According to Louis Giannetti, “to make their transitions smooth, filmmakers generally use establishing shots at the beginning of their stories or at the beginning of any new scene within the narrative. (Giannetti,151) In the beginning of the film, there is an establishing shot when Filippos’s grandfather and her mother argue about whether traditions are better or modern ideas are better. Filippo’s view of the world changes as he goes through his journey of encountering refugees. For instance, in the beginning of the movie, Filippo is a selfish and immature boy who considers laws to be important and he should follow what the police enforce him to do so that he does not get arrested. However, as the movie goes on, he considers other people, such as refugees, to be important and he eventually chooses moral ethics to be more important than strict laws that harm other people.

Both movies, Gomorrah and Terraforma, seem to contain solutions to their stories. For instance, Gomorrah demonstrates hope for children and justice to be necessary for the society to thrive and get rid of crimes from criminal organizations. Terraforma also demonstrates the importance of considering and living with people what we find to be different and following moral ethics is a solution to unjust laws that damage other people who need help.