Sacco y Vanzetti

It is perhaps not without significance that Guiliano Montaldo worked as Assistant Director on Gillo Pontecorvo's brilliant KAPO, since there is a tangible link in terms of attitude, emotional power and political commitment between this film and Pontecorvo's other outstanding films.

Great films are, very often, a means of conveying ideas, and, as Pudovkin once said, film is the greatest teacher because it reaches us both through the head and the emotions. Maybe this is why politically correct authoritarians are always chiding us `not to be sentimental' since emotions are something these control freaks can't orchestrate!

Whatever one's views about the political sympathies of Sacco and Vanzetti, this film shows that they were victims of the hysterical climate of the times and place in which they found themselves, and their plight is represented with great humanism, empathy and power, helped in no small measure by the superb musical score of Ennio Morricone, which must rank as one of his very best. Montaldo's whole technique is thoroughly cinematic, and the acting and all technical credits are faultless.

One somewhat disturbing aspect of this film however, was when I saw it in the USA, Sacco in his final speech from the dock declared, `We stand here because we are anarchists', (it struck at the time because I never thought I'd live to see the day that such a piece of dialogue would be delivered in a film distributed by MGM!), but, in its only screening in the UK on BBC television, this line was changed to `We stand here because we are radicals'. Hmmm! Not quite the same thing. On two other occasions I have noticed `creative subtitling' on French speaking movies, so maybe we should start a campaign for accurate and faithful subtitles!

A brilliant film, in my all-time top 100, so when is anyone going to issue it on video?

What great roles for Gian Maria Volontè and Riccardo Cucciolla, two excellent actors! Very good Cyril Cusack and Geoffrey Keen too, in two roles of villains law enforcement officials! Milo O'Shea and William Prince are also very good as the lawyers trying to save Nicola and Bart. Another film that demonstrates that the idea of humanity is only a lie, real democracy doesn't exist, and the justice is just a bad joke. Morricone and Joan Baez are excellent too.

My comment could not possibly add anything to the ones already available. I just want to say that the latest scandal in this story is that the film has not been made available on DVD ! Is there a conspiracy still going on to prevent such films from being watched by new generations ? I am exasperated to see that thousands of trash films are published on DVD every month while such masterpieces are still ignored. Sacco e Vanzetti reaches far beyond the subject of the two anarchists ignominiously put to death in a misconducted trial. The ghosts of the two men are still behind every prejudiced account by the media, every lie by politicians all over the world. It calls for better institutions, better democracy all over the world. The fact that so many film buffs bothered to express their admiration for this outstanding movie should entice a publisher to make this film at last available. I have kept checking for years, but nothing so far.

Magnificent rendition of the people, circumstances and atmosphere surrounding the infamous "Palmer Raids", the paranoia of the keepers of law and order and the status quo, and of course the frame-up of Sacco and Vanzetti.It is worthwhile to know that the governor of Massachussets recently exonerated Sacco and Vanzetti, calling their trial a shameful mark on the face of American judiciary system.

A very gripping and moving film with a very fine cast and strong performances. This film makes a very strong impact and will make you think of Sacco and Vanzetti and the reasons why they were executed on the electric chair.