Salvatore Giuliano

Hero, outlaw, bandit, revolutionary, Robin Hood, all names to describe a historic figure who fought against the government or authority in some fashion. Depending on their motivations, tactics, techniques and ultimate goals, one and all of those descriptions can apply. As for their film stories, how are they portrayed? Pancho Villa, Che Guevara, and Salvatore Giuliano, an Italian bandit from the 1940s. Let's go with an Italian film of the same name, 1962's Salvatore Giuliano.

It's 1950 in a Sicilian town in the hills and a dead body has been found in an alleyway. Authorities identify the body as Salvatore Giuliano (Pietro Cammarata), an infamous bandit who has terrorized the countryside since late in WWII. In the wake of the Allied victory in Sicily, a power void was created with many different groups trying to grab that power. One group, the MIS, approaches Salvatore with an offer. Can he continue to cause the government and police as much trouble and chaos as possible? The Italian bandit takes up the offer, his group of bandits and gunmen wreaking havoc. The power is there, but one government change after another, one election after another, his group's desires aren't met, putting Salvatore on the outlaw path again. How does he end up dead in the alleyway? What led him to the situation that eventually led to his death?

Ready for a twist? Are you sure? The titular character, the one who was the only character mentioned in that plot description....is a secondary, even minor character. By my count, he had maybe three lines, and those are simple orders to his men as they prepare for battle. He has little to no dialogue, has no real close-ups and is a key character in name only. It's what his name represents that's important. He's discussed in just about every scene, and we actually see him more as a corpse than a living human being. What's more surprising? How well it works. His name and the idea of his name becomes more than he ever could have hoped. The film from director Francesco Rosi obviously takes a favorable point of view upon Giuliano so his intentions, motivations and personal relationships become secondary to what his name actually means to the people. I would have never thought this would have worked, but it ends up working on just about all levels.

Filmed almost like a documentary -- a neo-realist documentary style according to the InterHighway -- 'Giuliano' can also be viewed and appreciated solely in terms of style. It is filmed in black and white, giving the story an eerie calmness throughout. Rosi films on location in Italy, the Italian countryside providing a criminally simplistic background that gives the story quite an air of authenticity. Also, Rosi and cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo shoots in a variety of fashions. The neo-realist style comes into play here with an almost complete lack of editing. Rosi and Di Venanzo set the camera up and let things go, long, interrupted shots that are a marvel to watch. We see scenes come together -- action or drama or both -- and the camera simply follows the action, countless extras walking in and out of frame as needed. It's less editing than just about any movie you'll see out there now, but by doing so much less in terms of filmmaking, they actually do a lot more. Again, it's crazy how well it works on a very simple, aesthetic level.

Actually delving into some story, there's actually more style to be discussed. The opening scene is an eerie, unsettling scene, police and investigators milling around Salvatore's bullet-riddled, bloody corpse just lying in the dirt in an alley. For starters, once we learn it's Salvatore, we know in a sense how the movie will end. Salvatore Giuliano will die. The rest of the story is told in a non-linear flashback style, scenes bouncing back and forth between Giuliano's rise to power (of sorts) and the fallout following his death. It's tough to keep up with -- reading Italian subtitles aside -- because there aren't very obvious transitions. Sometimes, it took me quite awhile to realize the story had bounced back and forth. You get into a rhythm, but it is an atypical story that definitely forces you to pay attention scene in and scene out.

Now, everything can't be perfect so here we go. The movie runs 125 minutes, and for the first 60-plus minutes, things are pretty perfect. I loved the first half of the movie. LOVED it. Then the bouncing story bounces forward, following the fallout of Salvatore's death including a trial as some of his men/followers, including right hand man and deputy, Gaspare Pisciotta (Frank Wolff), who may or may not have betrayed Salvatore. Wolff is one of two true actors in the film (and hams it up), along with Salvo Randone as the judge presiding over the trial, the rest of the roles being given to locals and peasants in the area while filming. The court sessions go on for too long, dragging on with screaming matches about principles, guilt and ideologies. It's the opposite of what's good about the first half, and the resolution just isn't satisfying enough for all the build-up.

This movie is one that has lots going on, most of it very good, some of it difficult to get through. Without having much knowledge of the Sicilian fight for freedom in the 1940s, it is a tough movie and story to keep up with. Lots of groups, lots of individuals with their own motivations, it's hard to know who is on what side when Salvatore, the Mafia, the changing governments, the police, and the Carabinieri (the national military) are discussed from scene to scene. There are flaws here and there, but for me, the strength and power of the first hour wins out. If it's a little heavy-handed at times, so be it -- ooh, Salvatore's dead body looks like Jesus! -- but when it works, it's a great example of the power of film.

Salvatore Giuliano (1962): ***/****

Caliber 9

The entertaining and originally titled 'Thug City Chronicles' sat in the 'Saved' portion of my Netflix queue for months, and all the while I waited for it to become available. A four-movie collection, I really only wanted to see one of the four -- 1972's The Italian Connection -- but four movies on one disc? Yes, please. I'll give a bunch of Italian crime movies a chance any day of the week. In other words? Expect a wave of those reviews, starting today with 1972's Caliber 9.

Fresh out of prison three years into a much longer sentence thanks to a general pardon, ex-con Ugo Piazza (Gastone Moschin) is looking to go straight and leave his criminal past behind. Too bad for Ugo though because he's immediately approached by former partner, Rocco (Mario Adorf). Apparently Ugo was up to no good before he was sent away, hijacking $300,000 meant for an American drug dealer, but no one was ever able to find out if he did it, and if he did, where he hid it. Everyone wants their hands on the money, especially Rocco's boss, mob kingpin dubbed the Americano (Lionel Stander). Ugo just wants to put it all behind him, and he's got a plan to get out clean.

I grew up watching and continue to watch spaghetti westerns as I can find them. It's a natural jump then to Italian crime movies. Instead of the wild west setting, we get city-scapes full of hired guns, mob bosses, killers, hookers, and anything the criminal underworld can offer. The time is obviously different, but just about everything else is similar. It's a nasty, filthy world where you can be killed for the change in your pocket, and your killer? He won't think twice about it. Writer/director Fernando Di Leo specialized in these movies and knew exactly what the audiences wanted. Watch the opening six minutes HERE, and tell me you're not curious about the rest of the movie. Talk about a real, legit shocker of an opening.

And what would that be exactly? These movies have a distinct look, a shoot from the hip, rogue filmmaker type of feel. A B-movie for the 1970s if that makes sense. The style is part of the appeal from the bad 1970s suits and haircuts to the Italian cities serving as a backdrop. There's a look to the movies that's hard to explain (some of that probably due to the average to below average quality of the DVD). Like the spaghetti westerns, the soundtrack -- here from Luis Bacalov -- is key, an eclectic mix of spaghetti western themed singing, electric guitar, big orchestras and psychedelic 1970s rock. Listen to a very good, very catchy sample HERE. The music and style is aggressive and in your face. So what else do you need?

Those nasty characters, ranging from an anti-hero to the filthiest of villains, and this one's got it all. Moschin is a perfect anti-hero as Ugo, the stoic, nearly silent ex-con who wants nothing more to do with the world he's a part of. He just wants out and to get back with the girlfriend who sort of waited for him, Nelly (Barbara Bouchet), who also happens to be an exotic/belly dancer. Adorf hams it up like nobody's business as Rocco, the possibly psychotic thug who always gets his way. Adorf especially gets a bad dub, hamstringing his character. Stander is oddly menacing with Mario Novelli and Giuseppe Castellano as two of his hired guns working with Rocco. In small but essential supporting parts, Ivo Garrani and Philippe Leroy play Don Vincenzo, a former don now blinded, and Chino, his bodyguard. Lots of particularly nasty characters, and it doesn't end well for most of them in this blood-stained criminal underworld.

The finale especially doesn't disappoint, two major plot points being revealed. The ending is appropriately dark because if nothing else, I've learned European audiences weren't demanding Hollywood happy endings. So with all that said, I can still only give 'Calibre' a slightly above average score. The story drifts too much in the midsection, and thanks to the dubbing, I wasn't always sure what was going on. On top of that, whole scenes with Frank Wolff and Luigi Pistilli's police officers talking about crime and its impact on society are out of place and bring the story to a screeching halt. Still, the positives are there. A good Italian crime flick that could have been great.

Caliber 9 <---trailer (1972): ** 1/2 /****

Ski Troop Attack

Being a night owl has its benefits when it comes to stumbling across movies. Awhile back, I flipped through the channels and found that one of Chicago's two PBS channels broadcasts public domain movies every morning at 2 a.m. Now in most cases, there's a reason they are public domain, but hey, if nothing else it saves me the $6 or 7 I'd have spent on those cheap DVDs you see at any number of stores. Like 1960's Ski Troop Attack, a good bad movie if there ever was.

Directed by cheapie director and B-movie master Roger Corman, you have to know what you're getting into when you see Ski Troop Attack. At just 63 minutes, it's short even for a short movie. But filming on what had to be a miniscule budget over a two-week period, Corman churned out a pretty bad B-movie that is so bad, it's actually pretty good. In other movies, like 1964's The Secret Invasion, Corman showed he was actually capable of making a quality movie, but four years earlier, he had this not-so classic WWII story.

It's winter 1944 in the Ardennes, and Lt. Factor (Michael Forest) is leading a four-man ski patrol behind German lines. Joining him are Sgt. Potter (Frank Wolff), a tough NCO who loves nothing more than a good fight with the Krauts, Pvt. Ciccola (Wally Campo), Pvt. Herman Grammelsbacher (Richard Sinatra), a Southern yokel who went through officer's training, and Pvt. Roost (second unit director Paul Rapp getting a shot on the other side of the camera), the radio operator. Out on patrol, they're caught up in a German advance, the Battle of the Bulge, and must decide what to do; head for their own lines or continue scouting behind the advance and radioing the info back in?

The positive of all this is Corman shot the movie in South Dakota in black and white and got some great footage of snow-capped mountains. The negative is that with the lack of budget/script/story, we get a lot of footage of the patrol skiing across these mountains. There's not a real flow to the story, just the patrol wandering around trying to avoid German soldiers, who never total more than 5 or 6 men, once again with the small budget. Late in the movie, Lt. Factor and the patrol do decide to blow up a key bridge with a German squad close behind them.

If you needed to introduce someone to a B-movie, this would be a good place to start with the cheapness of it obvious at all times. The German officer following them never gets a close-up, and we only hear someone talking in German, apparently a voiceover. The action scenes are similarly bad, a character shoots, a German soldier yells and falls, all blended in with archival war footage. There is a real doozy with the guns used with the patrol firing single-action rifles, but when fired, they sound like heavy-duty automatic machine guns.

Another gem is the jazzy, completely out of place music that plays almost constantly and loudly no matter whether the scene calls for it. Wolff's Potter almost falling to his death? Cue the saxophone solo! To be fair, it's not like the script helps the actors overcome any of these deficencies. Lines here are really only meant to move the patrol along. My personal favorite; 'Go help him, I'm going to climb that tree!' No joke, someone actually says that.

As negative as it all sounds, I did enjoy this movie in spite of all its cheesiness. Roger Corman never set out to make Gone With the Wind or Lawrence of Arabia, he was making low-budget B-movies that could be shown at drive in theaters across the country and around the world. If you stumble across this one, plop yourself down and enjoy the epic badness of it all.

Ski Troop Attack <---opening 5 minutes (1960): */****

The Four Days of Naples

All too often war movies are thrown by the wayside, and some for good reason; they're not very good. I still love them though, the good and the bad. TCM, officially the best channel ever, aired a WWII drama that I'd never come across this week called "The Four Days of Naples." When I saw some of the cast and recognized names from the spaghetti westerns, I figured I had to give it a try.

This was renegade filmmaking before anyone knew what that meant. There's no big picture here, just the story of resistance fighters going toe to toe with the German troops occupying Naples. The movie starts with a description of how the war is going, Mussolini has been overthrown and the talk of an Italian surrender is rumored all over the country. When it seems like the war may be over for Naples, German troops move into the city to prepare for the upcoming Allied advance.

At first, the Neapolitans go along with the occupation, unwillingly of course but what else is there to do? It takes one moment to push the population to resistance. Two young boys, teenagers maybe, are killed in a brief firefight. One is known, but the other is a mystery. No one recognizes him. In the chaos that results, small resistance units take to the streets with weapons left behind by the Italian army. In the narrow streets of Naples, battles erupt as these inexperienced citizens fight it out with veteran German troops.

What jumped out from the movie was the casting. There's not one main star here, no huge name, just lots of characters the movie follows as the fightings in Naples develops. There's Stimoli (Gian Maria Volonte), an Italian captain who finds himself the unlikely leader of a large group trying to rescue hostages in an abandoned stadium. There's Livornese (Jean Sorel) and Pitrella (Aldo Guiffre, the drunk captain from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), a lieutenant and his sergeant dragging an artillery piece all over the city looking for a fight. There's Gennaro, a young boy separated from his mother who sees the fighting as a bizarre sort of game, joining in with his German helmet he found. Ayello (Raffaele Barbato) is a student at a reformatory, leaving the principal (Georges Wilson) behind, only to have the older man join his band of youngsters. Frank Wolff plays Salvatore, a man looking for revenge after his friend is shot down, his widow joining him. That's just a sampling with many more characters and plot lines jumping out.

One character especially jumps out, and he doesn't even have a name. Charles Belmont plays Sailor, an Italian sailor not quite sure what's going on with a rumored surrender. He begins to move across the city with a German soldier and ends up serving as an example to the Italian people of those who rebel. It's a small part, but a memorable one.

With so many characters, the movie works because director Nanni Loy puts the camera right there in the streets and on the rooftops with the resistance fighters as they tangle with German troops. The black and white cinematography adds something to the feel of realism all the way until the final shot of Italians celebrating their victory. The battles aren't staged or too Hollywood either; people die, there's no immortal hero gunning down hundreds of Nazis.

Of course there's no VHS or DVD so hopefully TCM airs the movie again so more people can see this underappreciated WWII story. The Four Days of Naples trailer, unfortunately with some bad dubbing, the TCM version had subtitles.