MVD Entertainment Group has come up with a gem for
its next Rewind Collection inductee.
Heading to the home entertainment marketplace on Sept. 17 as a
newly-minted Blu-ray release will be none other than writer/director Sidney
Lumet’s 2006 courtroom tale, Find Me Guilty.
Lumet saw this bit of American history — the true
story of the longest recorded criminal trial — just too good to pass up. He was no stranger to court room drama,
having been nominated for Best Director for his 1983 film, The
Verdict (nominated Best Picture and Paul
Newman for Best Actor), and having delivered 12 Angry
Men (nominated for Best Picture and Best
Director), how could he say no to a collection of Wise Guys on trail in a slam
dunk case!
It gets even better, one of the defendants — all were
members of the Lucchese crime family — was ordered “whacked” and shot five
times by his own cousin. He was serving
a thirty-year jolt and was offered a deal … squeal and your sentence will be
“looked at.” He said no.
This particular Wise Guy was named Giacomo
"Jackie" DiNorscio and action star Vin Diesel was given the
role. Already the star of The Fast
and the Furious, Pitch
Black and The
Chronicles of Riddick, Diesel got to play against type
and was given a real “make-over” (makeup wise) to play the wisecracking,
nothing-to-lose mobster.
The trial itself turned into something of a farce as
the Feds thought that it would go quickly and piled 20 defendants into one
case. Once it became clear that it was
not going smoothly, the judge refused to separate the individuals into separate
trials for fear of the whole thing ending up as a mistrial. And then, DiNorscio elected to represent
himself, which made his co-defendants actually very nervous, but as Lumet’s
film unfolds we soon learn two things — there were no good guys or bad guys in
this mess (the Feds were playing fast and loose) and DiNorscio had a natural
way about how he presented himself (Vin Diesel has a ball with this) ... a real “wise guy,” if you will.
In the end, the jury liked him … and acquitted the
entire group of defendants. 18 months
wasted.
Bonus features include the featurette titled “A
Conversation with Director Sidney Lumet.”
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