User Reviews

The news of himself having gotten away was as much a letdown as the ascension of that "Caan" individual all too soon ago, though they both lived long & left a legacy of filmwork which others - the 1 which shall remain nameless here but managed to "act" its way into the nation's highest office, there to do incalculable damage that's rippled for 4 decades - can/could only dream of attaining. This little hunk of tv crime documentary is a good example. While Paul Sorvino's indelible impression in Goodfellas (1990) will carry down through the cinematic ages, his voiceover work here should be studied as a How To guide for (unfortunately all too) many people who sit/stand in front of a mike & proceed to horrify audiences' ears with nails-on-a-blackboard voices & line deliveries that are as even as a sunkissed record album. (That, save only Lester Holt, every other tv news babbling head - especially "in the field" - adds Hysterical Hannah physical exaggerations to their onscreen appearances is why I confine myself to reading articles.) I am even now revisiting this series on a stree-ming marathon - the segment on that penal paradise Parchman Farm is now running - marveling yet again (& saddened anew by the loss) at his utterly composed speaking, in that singular voice, with rarely misplaced syllabic/word stresses. Thankfully the writing - sure as in the Goofs there's a few stumbles, but nobody/thing is perfect - provides enlightening information, which blended with Paul Sorvino's narration makes for an absorbing hour in this kind of televised "history class." I can only wonder why it didn't last longer - certainly not for lack of subject matter; it was only by seeing the backstory on Fort Leavenworth that I discovered the too-little-known fiction about that Birdman de Alcatraz, which he actually wasn't - but, like the legend's total filmography which itself isn't filling enough, we fans must needs apply my longtime philosophy of "some beats none" & appreciate what there are of these proceedings. Even now the 1 scene out of Goodfellas that I never forget - when Henry Hill came begging for money & Paul Cicero took the time from his cooking to both hand over a (small) bundle of money & to admonish Henry, voice quivering, body quaking & eyes seething, that that was all he was gonna get & don't come back No Mo - comes to me. Paul Sorvino "lived inside" the roles he played whatever they were, imbuing them with old-school realism that swept the audience up & took them along for the ride. We don't get to see him in these The Big House expostulations, but the effect of his voice is, as Bob Seger said once, Still The Same - we are drawn inside these myriad worlds thereby, & for those so inclined, hopefully deterred from doing things that actually land them there. So they will ever remain, a handful of instructive hours both aiming a gleam into some dark corners of the past & present, & a warning/wakeup call to the shortsighted & ignorant that yet exist (& still are to come) that they had better straighten out & do (a whole lot) better. Big Paulie will be now eternally watching. M. H. R. E. I. P.