Barbagia (La società del malessere)

Not uninteresting but rather confusing and strangely uninvolving tale of the Barbagis bandits of Sardinia. Apparently turning from stealing sheep to kidnap and blackmail these anti heroes live an uncompromising life within their own strict code. Based on the true story of Graziano Mesina, played by Ternece Hill there is much violence, betrayal and revenge played out in the stark and bleak landscape of Barbara. Almost from the very start this seems to signal it is going nowhere and the insertion of stock footage and voice-over do not help the mood. Most sequences are well shot but the whole is not well put together and this disjointed and brutal movie becomes to feel stretched out. Even the final kidnap and subsequent denouement cannot raise this above the very average.

two things I really enjoyed in this movie: one is the acting of Terence Hill, very energetic and dramatic. The other is the effort to give a historical and political background to the story of the "bandit" Graziano Mesina. The introdution to the movie says ""The Barbagia is the innermost area of Sardinia ... it's a corner of Europe but does not belong to Europe. Here the European culture has not penetrated. From the 4th century BC Sardinia has undergone many dominations. But the rulers, the oppressors, they were never able to conquer the Barbagia. In the rest of Sardinia the populations were affected by the costumes of the rulers, are the Sardi collaborators, before Africanized, Semiticized, Romanized, then later Spanish-ized, piedmont-ized, and now Americanized. The Barbagia instead is the land of the resistance. The Barbagia shepherds might perhaps be at the year zero of technology civilization, but sure they are the year 3000 of their civilization, and that a civilization with barbaric aspects.".

The movie explains also how these "bandits" were in reality maneuvered by much more sophisticated criminals, who finally dropped their help to a uncontrollable Graziano.