Product Description

From five-time Oscar®-nominee Sidney Lumet (Serpico, Network, Dog Day Afternoon) comes the most hysterically funny testament to bad courtroom behavior since My Cousin Vinny! Vin Diesel (Saving Private Ryan) "gives a sensational performance" (The New York Times) in the true story of the most remarkable criminal trial in US history. Find Me Guilty proves beyond a reasonable doubt that justice has a strange sense of humor!

When police arrest twenty members of the Lucchese crime family, the authorities offer Jackie Dee DiNorscio (Diesel) a bargain: a shortened prison term if he'll testify against his own. But the wisecracking DiNorscio has other ideas. Refusing to cooperate, he decides to defend himself at his own trial... and proceeds to turn the courtroom upside-down in a hilarious fight that culminates in one of the most shocking verdicts in judicial history!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32043 in DVD
• Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
• Released on: 2006-06-27
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 125 minutes

Features

• Accomplished director Sidney Lumet has based some of his most notable films on true crime stories, and FIND ME GUILTY is similar in this respect to such work as SERPICO and DOG DAY AFTERNOON. The difference lies in the comedic, almost cartoonish aspect of the later movie, which stars an astonishingly charming Vin Deisel as lifelong Mafioso Jackie DiNorscio. Perennially cheerful and always cracking

Amazon.com
Vin Diesel gives his best performance to date in Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty, a courtroom comedy-drama (based on the true story of Mafia soldier "Fat Jack" DiNorscio) about the longest criminal trial in U.S. history. Diesel plays Giacomo "Jackie Dee" DiNorscio, a loyal member of New Jersey's notorious Lucchese crime family, who's already serving a 30-year jail term when he's offered an opportunity to shorten his sentence if he agrees to testify against many of his closest friends. He refuses, choosing instead to defend himself in a 21-month courtroom trial that involves 20 other Mafia members, each with their own defense attorney, all brought to trial on 76 charges ranging from criminal conspiracy to narcotics trafficking. As the lead defense attorney (Peter Dinklage) and prosecutor (Linus Roache) guide the trial through a maze of legal triumphs and setbacks, Lumet (still going strong at age 81) turns this goombah gab-fest into the kind of edgy New York comedy that only he could direct, drawing heavily on his experience with such courtroom classics as The Verdict and 12 Angry Men. And while he's filled the screen with a marvelous supporting cast including Alex Rocco, Ron Silver (as the no-nonsense judge) and Annabella Sciorra, Lumet can't quite overcome the confined, theatrical nature of the material, much of it drawn directly from actual courtroom transcripts. Find Me Guilty lacks the dramatic impact of The Verdict, favoring instead the rich absurdity of the DiNorscio case and its equally outrageous outcome after the jury's surprisingly brief deliberation. This is comfortable territory for Lumet, and he brings out the best in his extensive cast – especially Diesel, who walks a fine line between courtroom shenanigans and fierce loyalty to his criminal clan.--Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
In the late nineteen-eighties, twenty members of the Lucchese crime family were indicted on a variety of charges, and the government tried them all at once, in the same courtroom. All the defendants had lawyers, except for Jackie DiNorscio, who represented himself in a trial that lasted nearly two years. As DiNorscio, Vin Diesel hits some impressive comic and dramatic notes in his portrayal of a raw and halting hulk who is transformed, with the help of the lead attorney (Peter Dinklage) and the tough-love judge (Ron Silver), into an effective, if highly unorthodox, legal presence. Unfortunately, Diesel is about twenty-five years too young for the role, and the director, Sidney Lumet, has not served him well in the wig-and-makeup department. The drama around the character is equally unconvincing; a really interesting story is trapped inside a poorly made film.
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

The Funny Side of the Longest Mafia Trial in History.
"Find Me Guilty" is a comedic take on what was at the time the longest criminal trial in American history, the 1987-1988 trial of 20 members of the New Jersey Lucchese crime family on 76 charges under the RICO Act. Most of the courtroom testimony is taken from the real trial transcripts. The film focuses on Giacomo "Jackie" DiNorscio (Vin Diesel), called "Fat Jack" in real life, who, frustrated with his lawyer, insists on representing himself. Jackie is already serving a 30-year prison sentence for narcotics distribution, so the outcome of this trial is somewhat academic to him. Prosecutor Sean Kierney (Linus Roache) offers him a reduction in his current sentence in exchange for testimony at the RICO trial, but Jackie refuses to rat out his friends. Untrained in the law, Jackie's only defense is to make the jury like him more than they like the prosecutors. "A laughing jury is never a hanging jury," says defense attorney Ben Klandis (Peter Dinklage). "I'm not a gangster. I'm a gagster," says Jackie. And he puts on quite a show over the course of the 21-month trial.

"Find Me Guilty" does make light of Jackie's crimes, presenting him as a loyal, affable guy. It could hardly do otherwise, since Jackie made light of them, and he seems to have been a loyal, affable criminal. (Giacomo DiNorscio died while this movie was being filmed.) This obviously isn't a catalog of the Lucchese family's misdeeds. There were some very disreputable people on trial whose victims were not limited to their fellow Mafioso. "Find Me Guilty" is about Jackie's role in this long, remarkable trial. Vin Diesel does the best work of his career thus far. Perhaps due to his laconic, tough-guy image, Diesel can play Jackie's silliness, foolishness, and melodrama without the audience losing sight of his hoodlum toughness. He's a big presence that carries the film through courtroom testimony that might otherwise be tedious. DiNorscio is an interesting character, whose conviction that he must love his mob family, and they must love him, carried him through the trial and many years in prison. "Find Me Guilty"'s comedic approach to courtroom and mafia dramas is new and entertaining.

The DVD (20th Century Fox 2006): "A Conversation with Sidney Lumet" (5 min) is a series of snippets in which director Lumet talks about meeting the real Jackie DiNorscio, Jackie's motives, and authenticity in the film. There is a theatrical trailer (2 ½ min) and 3 television spots for the film (30 sec. each), as well as a trailer for the 1992 movie "My Cousin Vinny" (1 ½ min). Subtitles for the film are available in English and Spanish.

If you go in with an open mind, its great entertainment!
I had the pleasure of watching this film on opening weekend in Times Square in NY. I saw the trailers but wasn't really sure what to expect from Vin Diesel in a very different role. I have to say, that after about 10 minutes, I stopped seeing Vin Diesel in make up and totally bought into his portrayal of "Fat Jack" DiNorscio. There was a good bit of crass gangster humor, but I ate it up in the same way you would a naughty secret. Peter Dinklage was wonderful as a lead attorney (and yes, his height was a non-issue, because he is such a strong actor), Ron Silver's strength and sensitivity as the judge was excellent and Linus Roache as the prosecutor was engaging (I didn't know whether to cheer for or against him and he was the "good guy"). I can't even begin to speak of the supporting actors whose mob idiosyncrisies were wonderfully played. I only wish we could have seen more of Annabella Sciorra and Vin Diesel on screen together. They were powerful and had excellent chemistry. I can't wait for the DVD if only to hope there are deleted scenes of these two! Trust me, they'd be worth the price of the DVD alone.

3.5 stars for this effective Mafia courtroom dramedy
Fans of "The Sopranos", "Goodfellas", Mafia and courtroom flicks will enjoy this fact-based (but probably not completely factual) look at the lengthiest RICO trail in American history starring Vin Diesel and directed by octogenarian Sidney Lumet.

Diesel plays New Jersey mobster Jack DiNorscio defending himself in the longest Mafia trial in U.S. history. Diesel is effective in the role as a disruptive force in judge Ron Silver's court. Alex Rocco, a Mafioso going back to "The Godfather" and through roles he played in TV's "Kojak", is the ring leader in the trial and the main guy the feds are after. Why DiNorscio became the focus of this movie is a question looking for an answer.

In any event, the courtroom "drama" is unlike most of what you see in this kind of movie. Diesel's character is uneducated, has little or no knowledge of courtroom requirements or decorum, and shows these shortcomings regularly through his inappropriate and often unbearable behavior as a litigator.

The other gangsters on trial turn against him after they come to view him as a force out for himself. Prosecutors too see him as a hazard insofar as his comedy act seems to appeal to jurors. True or not, you've probably never seen an attorney ask these kind of questions in court!

Ironically, the film lionizes DiNorscio as a heroic figure that carries out the Mafia credo of not ratting out a brother. Throughout the film he protests his love for his Cosa Nostra brethren, even when they are working against him, and continually states his case against being a rat. This, to me, was the principal theme of the film -- that this lowlife gangster was somehow a hero. The outcome of the movie seems also to support that view.

Several bit players from "The Sopranos", including Junior Soprano's lawyer and one of Tony Soprano's dead love interests, fill out the supporting cast in this New York production. This flick is probably at the level of "The Valachi Papers" but with a far different perspective. It has little of the sizzle of "Goodfellas" but is interesting in its courtroom scenes, where much of the script allegedly mimicked the real trial the went on for more than 500 days.

So fans of gangster and courtroom flicks can cast aside any doubt and go for this movie, which is probably the best characterization Vin Diesel has put on so far. He deservedly wasn't nominated for any awards for this but it shows he can do a bit more than simply play Vin Diesel on screen.