Film Forum

U.S., 1992
Co-written and directed by John Turturro
Screenplay by John Turturro and Brandon Cole
with John Turturro, Michael Badalucco, Ellen Barkin, Carl Capotorto, Matthew Sussman, Katherine Borowitz, John Amos, Aida Turturro
Approx. 117 min. 35mm print courtesy John Turturro and George Eastman Museum.
30th anniversary

"[Set in the early 1950s], John Turturro's MAC is inspired by the story of his own father, a hard-working Italian American from Queens who began as a carpenter and ended as a contractor... Turturro plays Mac himself, as a man who works hard and holds himself to high standards, and sometimes loses his temper when others don't see things his way. [His] brothers, Vico (Badalucco) and Bruno (Caportorto), are more easygoing, but Mac is the one who has inherited his father's fierce pride. Mac can be a hard man to live with, but he represents something real in the modern American character, and at the end of the film we feel that Mac's qualities are needed in an age when people would rather make money out of money than houses out of lumber.” – Roger Ebert.

Winner of the Camera D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Reviews

“A loving and contemplative eulogy to Turturro's own father and to a kind of immigrant experience that is probably forever gone… A movie that is rich in characters and scenes, that wanders, often creatively, and that expresses as much affection for the craft of the actor as it does for the craft of the blue collar laborer who takes pride in his work.”
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times

“One of the most passionate films I’ve ever seen.”
– Robert Altman

“Has an honesty and truth rarely seen before on screen.”
– Martin Scorsese