Lucky Luciano

If you look at the history of Italian mobster Lucky Luciano, you'll find that most of the interesting stuff that happened in his life was when he was young. Forming a street gang as a kid, being arrested numerous times, surviving being stabbed and beaten over and over again. Working for the old school, 'Moustache Pete'-type mafioso, Luciano sought to get rid of the old guard and get rid of the 'boss of all bosses' title that encouraged rivalry and instead put in place a commision of mob families that could be mediated and would avoid gang wars. It's a bit of mystery why this film starts at this point, skips his trial for pandering in the US, and goes almost straight away to his deportation to Italy.

We do get a bit about Luciano's involvement in the preparations of the invasion of Sicily and the immediate events following this (the mob basically controlling the black market while pretending they are doing the opposite, and also assisting the US army in sending intelligence back from Sicily), but a lot of this doesn't acutally involved Luciano at all! This, plus a sub plot involving Rod Steiger as a treacherous drug smuggler, mean that for about three quarters of the film, actor Gian Marie Volonte doesn't have much to do with the Luciano character.

The film jumps between various events which also fractures the narrative a bit more, but the film isn't a disaster, just a bit unengaging. Volonte, when he does have something to play about with, conveys Luciano as a charismatic, confident man, presenting himself as a charmer to the various journalists who follow him about and as an innocent deportee to the police who are trying to hang a drug smuggling charge on him.

Violence and action wise there's not much going for it, save for the murder of the old mafiosi at the start of the film. If you've read any history on Luciano, you'll know what happened to him in the end. It's interesting, but not the best way to end of film!

Reading some of the other reviews of Rossi's Lucky Luciano it is worth remembering that before it's release in 1974 the Italian film censors got their hands on Rossi's final cut and butchered it against his wishes, his protestations falling on deaf ears. It would appear this is the only cut that has survived official interference and, why I suspect it is so disjointed in its chronology. It is with this unwarranted and suspicious interference from the Italian censor that we should view this movie and which makes the content so much more revealing about the Italian state and how it's hidden hand works on different levels.

This is a very powerful and sophisticated film so both character and historical background knowledge is essential before viewing to make this a much more rewarding experience. Rossi is a master of political expose in cinema and deserves credit to agree releasing it in this pared down version - which must have stuck in his throat to do so at 100/110 minutes according to which distributors copy you buy -

If you want to watch Gian Maria, the greatest actor of all time, at his best, watch him in "Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion", "Le Cercle Rouge", "For a Few Dollars More" or "I Am Afraid", he worked much much better with Petri, Melville, Leone and Damiani. This one is very boring and Volontè doesn't appear much. And when he appears, he has the same face that does not say too much. This role did not quite fit him. Rosi's films, most of them, are a special genre, very close to the documentary, very hard to follow, you got to have a patience of steel...

In this country, Lucky Luciano is one of those 20s legends who have so often been glamorized in movies; we tend to be fascinated by such characters, and although films tend to either explicitly condemn them or show them coming to bad ends, they are among the most infallibly popular Hollywood staples. We also would concentrate on Luciano's years in America, which could be a familiar plot of the rise and fall of a gang boss. But Rosi's film begins with him leaving this country; it relates the long career that he had in Italy, in the drug trade, a time that Americans know little of -- it doesn't form part of the legend. Most of all, Rosi deliberately downplays the glamor. The drug trade is big business, and this middle-aged Luciano is a very solid businessman; the director (and the actor) have undercut the expected charisma. The efforts of police and government against him are portrayed as "factually" as possible (which makes aspects of their discussions rather unintelligible to Americans). Of course, all these things will make the movie seem rather boring to many viewers here! If you're looking for gangster thrills, go elsewhere; this is a movie of ideas, a critique directed at Italy in particular.

I would say that i find crime films to be something of a guilty pleasure, from Paul Muni in Scareface (1932) to Marlon Brando in The Godfather (1972) and all the sub genders in between i am normally a fan and gangster films have held audiences interest for as long as the movies have talked. So it was a surprise to me that i found this film such a ordeal to get through, on my viewing copy the language used is Italian and English in equal measure where appropriate, this adds authenticity but since i do not understand Italian, much of this speech dominated film simply passed me bye and there were no sub titles to help out.I also found it's time shifting narrative very confusing as the film did not give us many dates to hang on to. This is i suppose a thinking man's gangster film, i wish i had enjoyed it more for the acting from a unknown cast seemed first rate.A pity but just 5 from 10 from me.