Verliebt in die Gefahr

Year of the Gun was a thought provoking film that swept you into a political mind frame. I felt as if i was in Italy in 1978 and being taken on a tour of all of italy's troubles back then. The film is a mix of drama and suspense, it has enough of both to keep you entertained. It is fast paced with a lot of twists and turns and explores many different themes including politics, violence, love, treachery and sex. The only sour note comes from Andrew McCarthy, who doesnt have quite what it takes to be in a film like this. Valeria Golino is ok as McCarthy's italian lover and Sharon Stone, once again delivers a great performance as a photo journalist.

This is easily John Frankenheimer's most interesting and successful film in years. It still doesn't quite work, but it's the kind of combination of character-based storytelling and political thriller that defined him early in his career. Based on a novel by Michael Mewshaw, it's overcomplicated and the characters never quite feel real enough to have emotional impact, but it almost works as a complete package. Almost. Not quite, though.

David Raybourne (Andrew McCarthy) is an American journalist who arrives in Rome in 1978 in order to write a novel inspired by the raging actions of the Red Brigade, a communist group out to overthrow the Italian government. Met by his friend, Italo (John Pankow), an Italian university professor living in Rome, he's also there because his girlfriend, Lia (Valeria Golino), is trying to divorce her husband.

Nothing is quite given enough time to really hit. The political situation is viewed through some riots and a brief explanation by Italo near the beginning, but there's no real view into the Italian government situation that would create this reaction. The film ends up being fairly anti-communist tyranny, but I'd still like to see some concrete examples of the alluded to government corruption, especially around Prime Minister Aldo Moro (Aldo Mengolini) who ends up important late in the film (though in a role where he doesn't speak). In addition, the relationships between David and Lia and, later, David and the photojournalist Alison King (Sharon Stone) feel underdeveloped.

The problem with the relationship with Lia is that Lia is secretly a member of the Red Brigade, so we have what ends up being a huge coincidence that David and Lia are together while David decides to show up in Rome to write a book about the terrorist organization that she's part of. I'm not opposed to coincidence to start drama, but this is probably a step too far. I think there's an implication late that the relationship was created by the Red Brigade (I may be misunderstanding a line of dialogue, to be honest), but even without that, the coincidence is just too weirdly on point for me to wave away. The other relationship, between David and Alison that quickly develops under duress, makes some amount of sense of two attractive people bumping uglies after some strenuous events, but the finale relies heavily on the two having an emotional connection that never seems more than an inch deep.

Anyway, the actual plot is that Italo is actually connected to the Red Brigade, sympathetic to their cause but lamenting their methods. When David reveals to Alison that he's writing his novel, she finds it and discovers that it's a thinly fictionalized portrayal of the Red Brigade and a plot he invented of them kidnapping Aldo Moro. The problem is that they are actually planning on kidnapping Moro, and they find out because Alison lets slip to Italo that David is writing something. This escalates until there are kidnappings, shootings, and murders.

And it's where the film works best. It doesn't quite work well because of my documented issues with the thinness of...everything. However, there's just enough as a foundation beforehand to make it emotionally impactful or involving. It's Frankenheimer working in the genre that made him famous, not necessarily the one he wanted to work (Grand Prix and The Impossible Object were closer, I think), and actually having a stronger basis in the script to work from. His work as director in terms of tone, performances (though...Stone's not exactly great here), and camera placement feel elevated.

Again, I don't think it quite works, but this is the best film Frankenheimer had made since 1977. It's tighter, more focused, and more impactful than stuff like 52 Pick-Up or The Fourth War, even if it's too tight, not as focused as it should be, and not quite as impactful as it could be.

So, it's a solid step in the right direction for Frankenheimer who'd been lost in the wilderness of treating filmmaking like television direction for more than a decade. Maybe it's no more than an accidental mesh of halfway decent script and director talented with thriller mechanics. But, the final result is...okay.

The Red Brigade ( Brigatte Rosse ) was an Italian left wing terrorist organisation that in the 1970s launched a terrorist campaign to over throw the government of Italy and in its place have proletarian dictatorship that would lead to a classless Utopian society . Like its idealogical counterparts in the German Red Army Faction Brigatte Rosse had a problem mobilising the masses . This was undoubtedly due to the fact that hard left wing intellectualism fails to strike a chord in the human condition . Compare this to nationalist instincts that makes people in Northern Ireland want to join the IRA or the UVF or people living in the Gaza Strip or West Bank who join hard line Islamic terrorist organisations . By one of life's ironies the idea of left wing revolution in a democratic European state fails to appeal to few people except left wing middle class intellectuals hence the masses of Germany and Italy fail to mobilise and the terror caused by the German RAF and Italian BR quickly fizzled out

YEAR OF THE GUN starts off by telling the audience that Italy in 1978 was on the brink of revolutian but was it ? True there was shootings and bombings and angry demonstrations against capitalism but as a potential revolution France in 1968 and Northern Ireland in the early 1970s both came closer than Italy in the late 1970s . As the story progresses the audience finds itself becoming more and more clueless to the situation at the time . Why are demonstrators flying red banners fighting with well dressed young men carrying crowbars ? You see the story soon starts ignoring Italian geo-politics and concentrates on the character of David Raybourne an American who has lived in America for several years and is in a loving relationship with an Italian woman . In fact there's so much time taken up with David's relationship you find your self looking at your watch wondering when something is going to happen

There's two problems with the story , or rather one problem with the plot and one problem with the story telling . The plot when you stop to examine it becomes faintly ridiculous . David is writing a novel revolving around the Red Brigade and by an unlikely series of events the terrorists jump to the conclusion that he's a spy because the kidnap target in his novel is someone in real life the Red Brigade are planning to kidnap . I guess you're not supposed to think about this too much but aren't political thrillers supposed to be thought provoking ? The story telling itself is very poor because when Italian characters ( Who are almost always Red Brigade members ) get together they start speaking in Italian . Okay this is logical because for some reason in the cinematic world foreign characters suddenly start speaking in English when there's no English speaking characters present . Only problem is there's no subtitles and these frequent Italian speaking scenes mean any non Italian speaker won't have a clue as to what's going on which is a pity because I was wondering why the female terrorist likes to have men watch her when she goes to the toilet ! No I'm not kidding , there's a scene where this happens

John Frankenheimer was once a highly regarded director who made THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE , BLACK Sunday and SECONDS and who would later make the highly entertaining RONIN . Unfortunately at this stage of his career he was making rubbish like the ecological horror movie PROPHECY and Marlon Brandos swan song that featured a bunch of genetically engineered mammals having acid house parties and shooting each other ( You know the movie I'm talking about ) and in terms of directing this is no different except perhaps that it resembles a TVM in standards . The sound mix is rather poor too A messy political thriller that won't educate you about 1970s European politics and almost certainly won't thrill you much either

All I can say is, Sharon is very well cast here as a reporter. She looks beautiful in a very wild, intelligent way. I can honestly believe she is a reporter who gets off on the danger and is willing to risk her life for materials. The male character is kinda weak though, I don't think he has enough chemistry with Sharon. Vanessa Golino is very beautiful though, saw her in rain man before but she looks gorgeous here as well. The ending is kinda shocking as well. The whole theme of this movie gives off a 70s spy thriller feel. Sharon looked gorgeous holding her camera in the beginning. The motorcycle chase scenes were decent, but the whole plot is a bit messy for me to give the movie a passing grade.

this may not be john frankenhiemers best work but is not one to overlook. i feel at the time of its release andrew mccarthy career was already over and although he does a fare job of it he did not help it's release and sharon stone was not yet a house hold name.plus Italian politics of the 70's doesn't really sound that inviting.

however this little film is exiting,intriguing and well plotted. you feel for andrews plight and you feel lost in a world you don't really understand just like andrew. weather intentionally or not it works for me i don't it want all laid out. the actions of the red brigade are not answered just like the news we watch every night. john frankenhiemer made the best of a hard subject and the last third of the movie is very tense. with a good twist and a message that has not dated.

also the DVD quality is very good but where are the subtitles and how about some extras, the deleted scene is odd to say the least. if your a sharon stone fan its a must one of her better early performances.