Porte aperte

This Italian film actually makes a multiple-murderer into a sympathetic characters, almost a hero! Now that is just plain wrong.

Yup, it's another super Liberal filmmaker and his main point is to give us another anti-capital punishment film. In this movie, people who support the death penalty are called "fascists." Well, I used to be a flaming Left Winger and I remember calling anyone who disagreed with us a "fascist" back in the '60s, so I guess nothing has changed in that regard.

The main problem with this film isn't the obvious agenda - it's simply that it is boring. It starts off fine, then begins to lag very quickly and by halfway through, I think I began to start snoring. This movie is a "yawner." Pass it up.

On 10 March 1937, in Palermo, the clerk Tommaso Scalia (Ennio Fantastichini) that was the scapegoat for embezzlement in the Confederation Building kills with a bayonet his former chief, the lawyer Spadafora Vincenzo (Tuccio Musumeci), and his replacement, the accountant Speciale Antonio. Then he drives his car through a lonely road and rapes and executes his wife with a shot on her head. He goes to trial expecting to receive the capital punishment, but Judge Vito Di Francesco (Gian Maria Volonté) that is against the death penalty finds evidences that the murder has a passionate motive. However, the defendant wants to be executed by the firing squad in an eccentric situation.

"Porte Aperte" has the intention of discussing the capital punishment, using the Fascist Italy as background and a judge that does not agree with this sentence that serves to politicians but not to the citizens in his opinion. The theme is disclosed in slow pace and using a very unusual situation, with the defendant declaring himself guilty and wishing to be executed by the firing squad. Gian Maria Volonté has a great performance, as usual, but this movie is confused and boring. In Brazil, it was released on VHS by Top Tape Distributor. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "As Portas da Justiça" ("The Doors of the Justice")

Sober, slow, beautifully photographed study of a murder trial in 1930s fascist Italy.

The accused is clearly guilty, but one judge, opposed to the death penalty, is determined to understand the man and his motives rather than join the rush to execute him and be done with it.

Some terrific, subtle acting. But the ideas get a bit clunky in the last third – more didactic, less nuanced. And while I enjoyed and admired the film, I wasn't really moved by it. That said, I will certainly re-watch it at some point, and moments have really stuck with me over time.

This film had the tension and intellectual underpinning of a Doestoyevski novel. The cinematography was superb, but the main focus of interest was in the acting, particularly that of the judge and the accused.The tenderness and general humanity of the judge and above all his compassion, is an example for all of us, and it is what each human being should strive to be like. A beautiful, poignant and evocative movie, that makes one think and think hours afterwards about the nature of crime and punishment.

In my opinion, this film is the top of Gian Maria Volonte's presence in the cinema. It undoubtfully says that before judging someone people should try to find an answer to the question what the reasons for his behavior and his acts are. This production is a very convincing message about the only way of overcoming the General Capital sentence over all the humanity - the way of repentance.