Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9786305971757
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
ISBN: 6305971757
Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Pan & Scan
Publisher: Starz / Anchor Bay
Release Date: September 19, 2000
Running Time: 96 minutes
Sales Rank: 33456
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Theatrical Release Date: September 18, 1986
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Chicago, 1963: Lieutenant Mike Torello (Dennis Farina) is a hair-triggered cop who can bend the law and pummel punks in the same breath. Ray Luca (Anthony Denison) is a ruthless young gangster on the rise in the vicious Chicago underworld. Together, these two desperate men will turn the streets of Chicago into their own personal battlefield of justice, revenge, and murder. David Caruso, Stephen Lang, Darlanne Fluegel, and Bill Campbell co-star in this stunning pilot feature from executive producer Michael Mann (Miami Vice, Heat) and director Abel Ferrara (King of New York, Fear City) that launched the cult classic television series.
Amazon.com:
Though Hill Street Blues got all the awards and Miami Vice got all the attention, for some viewers it's the short-lived Crime Story (the second series produced by Vice's Michael Mann) that stands as tall as the great cop show of the 1980s. Set to a gritty rock & roll beat--with Del Shannon's 'Runaway' providing the perfect theme song--the series chronicled the early '60s rise of gangster Ray Luca (Anthony John Dennison) and his hounding by hard-boiled policeman Michael Torrello (Denis Farina, who will never have another part this good). Save for the show's eventual relocation to Las Vegas, the Chicago-based pilot, expertly helmed by cult director Abel Ferrara, lines up all the elements that made Crime Story a classic: vivid performances, slick photography, brutal violence, and a genuine sense of the moral murk cops can be sucked into when they feel that any method is justified. Indeed, it's often Torrello, given to back-alley beatings and possessive stares at his wife (Darlanne Fleugel), who seems the scarier of the two leads; Luca kills without compunction, but with an assassin's dispassionate celerity. Such complexity, combined with the exciting action scenes, makes for wonderful viewing, however much it hurt with the Nielsen ratings. --Bruce Reid
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Awsome TV series
I love Crime Story. I grew up watching it as a kid and I'am glad I finally found it at Amazon. This pilot movie rock and rolls. Really gets you in the mood to watch the series coming out November 4, 2003.
Rating: - Before the Soprano's there was...CRIME STORY!!!
Crime Story. It was Miami Vice but for Italians. If you don't know what I'm saying then forgedboudit!!! The only reason the Soprano's is good is because Crime Story paved the way. Every Italian household should have a poster of Crime Story next to their framed pictures of the Pope and Elvis Presley.
Rating:  - gritty Ellroy-esque crime show
Crime Story is a a lean, mean cop show drama that features politically incorrect police officers battling it out with nasty criminals.
It's a testimony to Michael Mann's reputation at the time that Crime Story was even greenlighted. NBC would have never gone for the casting of Dennis Farina, with his pockmarked face and lack of acting experience, had Mann been a neophyte producer with no proven track record. The choice of cult film director Abel Ferrara (pre-Bad Lieutenant) must have also freaked out network execs. His previous films included a deranged psycho gruesomely killing people with a power tool and a rape survivor viciously killing the men who attacked her with a .45 pistol.
And yet, the final product proves that Mann's instincts were right on the money. Farina delivers the hard-boiled dialogue with the perfect amount of intensity (at one point Farina says menacingly to one goon, "you hurt anybody else, when this is all over I'm gonna find what you love the most and I'm gonna kill it. Your mother, your father, your dog. Don't matter what it is -- it's dead."). You can see it in his eyes and the way he barks out orders that this a no-nonsense guy who isn't going to let anything get in the way of his job.
Ferrara directs with the same proficient skill of crime auteur, Don Siegel. Crime Story depicts a harsh world where life is cheap and characters will do anything -- even if it means bending or breaking the law -- to achieve their goals.
One of the ... Read More
Rating: - Yeah!!!
Oh my Gawd!! I had no idea this was on DVD!! This was one of the best TV shows of the '80s and deserved a longer life. If you're thinking of getting it do not hesitate. Get it. You won't regret it. Now, if we could just PLEASE get ABC's 1991 drama "Homefront" on video life would be just about perfect. :)
Rating: - Set My Series Free!!!!!!
I don't know what gets into the studios sometimes. This was one of my favorite series at the time I would not miss a week night that it was on. Great characters, lots of drama, supense, and tough guys from back in the day. Cooool hair & Cool Cars. Ray Luca, cold as Ice, Paulie, ruthless, stupid and funny, All the cops old skool cool and hard core. I was sad to see this go but a note to the studios who can make it live again: Set it free and I will buy it!!!! The pilot is not enough!!!
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