El año rojo

From the first moment I felt myself well entertained. I did not check the specifics, before after watching it, so I was surprised that it was made so many years after the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. The lighting and filming was stimulating from start to finish. And nothing wrong with the cutting neither. I remember nothing about the sound, so it much have done its job well. The filming ( the grittyness/grain ) and the format, made it seem a true timepiece, that maybe because of that, sometimes balances on the edge of kitsch.

John Frankenheimer's "Year of the Gun" has an interesting plot, especially considering the setting (Italy's so-called Years of Lead: an undeclared civil war between protesters and the government throughout the 1970s). Unfortunately, the focus is primarily on the US journalists covering the events. It would've made more sense to get into the politics. Even ignoring the Red Brigades, the Vietnam War had riled up the younger generation (especially since so many fascist-adjacent people were in positions of authority). The government used a lot of questionable methods to arrest the terrorists; seems like the whole thing could be an analogy for events of the past twenty years (or twenty-one, if you want to include the G8 summit in Genoa).

In terms of form, the movie has some respectable merits in its characters, cinematography, etc. I particularly liked Sharon Stone's character. It's just that they could've expanded the story.

From right away, I wanted to yell at this film: get your plot straight, and tell it properly! OK, so, it would seem that David(Andrew, who returns to Rome to author a book, that turns out to be fictional - though it uses the real names of people, seeming to potentially get them in serious trouble... and in a twist that wouldn't have played out in a Saturday morning cartoon, what he writes is mistaken as documenting it) is with this chick who is divorcing a wife-beater and who she has a son with. And terrorists(who are only made out to look pure evil, which I could have understood if this had been made back in '78, but not in '91, where it was becoming clearer that calling such individuals and organizations freedom fighters can be more reasonable) are causing bad stuff to go down in Italy, though it's never made clear to what end, or if the government really *is* corrupt. All we know is that they're Communist, rendering this potentially a propaganda tool for the red scare. If we could at least care about the characters, however, the very introductions to our main characters ensures that they are wholly unappealing human beings(Stone is almost getting herself killed taking freaking photographs, obnoxious McCarthey wants to blow people up that we know nothing about(at that point or at all), etc.) and I couldn't care about them for the rest of this. Not one person in this had me engaged. Frankenheimer does infuse some scenes with tension and excitement... although this is definitely a thriller, with next to no real action, if it can be effective when it is there. The filming isn't bad, and the editing, as well(if some of the FX shots and stunts are poorly hidden). There is some moderate to strong language and a little female nudity and sexuality(at least one of the sequences is hot and with Sharon(the two are connected) in this. The DVD comes with a trailer. I recommend this to those who never support the people rising against those in power. 5/10

Two things didn't help this film, the first might've been the channel I watched it on, no subtitles for the Italian parts. The second was McCarthy and Stone as leads, they try hard but in a serious subject like this they play it as if it's Douglas / Turner in Romancing the Stone 3.

On the plus side the scenes in Roma are very well done, especially the demonstration scenes and you do get a hint of what it was like in the Italian capital during the terrorist happenings.

The other thing about the movie is it tells about what happened to Aldo Moro, the kidnapped Italian PM, but nothing of what happened after. I've tried looking into this but it could take a while.

A decent film even with it's limitations.

A good title, but more applicable to 1981, since that was the year that saw attempts to assassinate the President of the United States and the Pope.

This film sounds of interest on paper for the prospect of seeing John Frankenheimer address the abduction and murder of Aldo Moro. It doesn't stint on the gunplay (one particularly nasty moment depicts a horse getting caught in the crossfire). But there's even more talk - some of it in Italian - while the old dynamism that brought us 'The Manchurian Candidate' is sorely lacking, and Andrew McCarthy makes a very passive hero.

In compensation Sharon Stone brings a feral power to the role of an American photojournalist who never lets a little aggro get in the way of a photo opportunity. While it concludes with one of Frankenheimer's trademark closeups of a TV screen.