Il capo dei capi

Truth & fiction Having read the John Dickie's Cosa Nostra I found the Corleone series a bit disappointing.The main reason is the introduction of the fictitious police officer Bragio Shiro. Unfortunately a most common interspersing strategy in series based on a true story. In this case the trick did not function very well in my opinion. Too much of the story was focusing on the relationship between Schiro and Riino from an early stage, and then later Falcone and Schiro. A series that started out most promising ended up in irritation on my account. A rating of 4 points are all I'm willing to give.

Terje Ådland Bergen Norway..

I am a Sicilian and I also happen to know quite well all the characters represented, apart from Schiro' which is the only fictional one. I am amazed at the way Sicily and the Sicilians are portrayed: so accurate. The dialogues, the accents, the tics, the looks in their eyes are incredibly real. A lot of the actors are not Sicilians yet they manage to capture the essence of the culture of the island. Never during the series does anyone speaks in a less than perfect Sicilian (with a Palermo accent even). The Sicilian dialogues in the Godfather are ridiculous... But apart from this, the series manages to show how it is possible that someone after all so ignorant like Riina becomes so powerful, because he's very smart and clever, and uses his own code of communication in which he's very articulate. The mixture between reality and fiction never comes to the detriment of one or the other, it's a perfectly fine balance. I appreciate that Sicily is not abused in the photography, the background is never too idyllic or too crude. A real masterpiece!

After I bought this series on DVD and watched the first episodes, I found myself glued to the television, and finished the 4DVD set in two days. Riveting stuff! The Series follows 4 young boys from the town of Corleone. Two of these are celebrities like Toto Riina and Bernando Provenzano, eventual leaders of the Cosa Nostra, and the hero Biagio Schiro – who in the face of Mafiosi turns to the straight and narrow path (something of a rarity in the mafia stronghold of Corleone). Biagio vs Riina drives the story throughout the better part of 50 years and it is a classic case of cat and mouse.

The Main characters and the people connected to them (wifes and children) are well developed. I quite often found myself in the mindsets of both Schiro and Riina, and the actors portraying this pair did a great job. The only character I felt lacked something was Provenzano. He was a very important figure to the corleonesi-cosa nostra but is not as prominent as one would expect. However, acting, directing and dialogue are top notch in general. The hours just fly by! I particularly enjoyed the scenes between Schiro and Boris/Falcone, where there is some much needed comic relief and nice one-liners.

Don't get scared by the Italian, put the subtitles on and enjoy one of the best mafia tales of the 00's!

A TV series I liked after a long time. Watched it on TV as a 12 part series. Engrossing from the beginning. They could have easily made it a much longer series as there are so many stories within the story it its the editing and streamline presentation which makes it that's much more intense. Not being Italian had to use the subtitles which I think is more beneficial as you tend to have to concentrate and hence enjoy it more. Also not being Italian I didn't realise notably that these were based on real events but got the clues when I started to see real clippings from TV news etc. The acting from all the central characters is so laid back and real that you'd be forgiven if you thought they were the real characters. The direction is good and does justice to such a difficult story and like I said earlier the editing was the key and a job well done. Occasionally story flow seemed disjointed but I almost felt like it added to the whole charm. A must watch series !

Firstly, if you are looking for the early story of Corleone, the godfather. This isn't it. Secondly, if you can find it, the version I got was almost unwatchable for first few seasons (unless you speak fluent Italian) the subtitles available are completely out of synch. Finally, there are more plot holes/gaps than bank station. Enjoyable in so many ways but could have been so so much better.