Year of the Gun

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.

The Red Brigade ( Brigatte Rosse ) was an Italian left wing terrorist organisation that in the 1970s launched a terrorist campaign to over throw the government of Italy and in its place have proletarian dictatorship that would lead to a classless Utopian society . Like its idealogical counterparts in the German Red Army Faction Brigatte Rosse had a problem mobilising the masses . This was undoubtedly due to the fact that hard left wing intellectualism fails to strike a chord in the human condition . Compare this to nationalist instincts that makes people in Northern Ireland want to join the IRA or the UVF or people living in the Gaza Strip or West Bank who join hard line Islamic terrorist organisations . By one of life's ironies the idea of left wing revolution in a democratic European state fails to appeal to few people except left wing middle class intellectuals hence the masses of Germany and Italy fail to mobilise and the terror caused by the German RAF and Italian BR quickly fizzled out

YEAR OF THE GUN starts off by telling the audience that Italy in 1978 was on the brink of revolutian but was it ? True there was shootings and bombings and angry demonstrations against capitalism but as a potential revolution France in 1968 and Northern Ireland in the early 1970s both came closer than Italy in the late 1970s . As the story progresses the audience finds itself becoming more and more clueless to the situation at the time . Why are demonstrators flying red banners fighting with well dressed young men carrying crowbars ? You see the story soon starts ignoring Italian geo-politics and concentrates on the character of David Raybourne an American who has lived in America for several years and is in a loving relationship with an Italian woman . In fact there's so much time taken up with David's relationship you find your self looking at your watch wondering when something is going to happen

There's two problems with the story , or rather one problem with the plot and one problem with the story telling . The plot when you stop to examine it becomes faintly ridiculous . David is writing a novel revolving around the Red Brigade and by an unlikely series of events the terrorists jump to the conclusion that he's a spy because the kidnap target in his novel is someone in real life the Red Brigade are planning to kidnap . I guess you're not supposed to think about this too much but aren't political thrillers supposed to be thought provoking ? The story telling itself is very poor because when Italian characters ( Who are almost always Red Brigade members ) get together they start speaking in Italian . Okay this is logical because for some reason in the cinematic world foreign characters suddenly start speaking in English when there's no English speaking characters present . Only problem is there's no subtitles and these frequent Italian speaking scenes mean any non Italian speaker won't have a clue as to what's going on which is a pity because I was wondering why the female terrorist likes to have men watch her when she goes to the toilet ! No I'm not kidding , there's a scene where this happens

John Frankenheimer was once a highly regarded director who made THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE , BLACK Sunday and SECONDS and who would later make the highly entertaining RONIN . Unfortunately at this stage of his career he was making rubbish like the ecological horror movie PROPHECY and Marlon Brandos swan song that featured a bunch of genetically engineered mammals having acid house parties and shooting each other ( You know the movie I'm talking about ) and in terms of directing this is no different except perhaps that it resembles a TVM in standards . The sound mix is rather poor too A messy political thriller that won't educate you about 1970s European politics and almost certainly won't thrill you much either

All I can say is, Sharon is very well cast here as a reporter. She looks beautiful in a very wild, intelligent way. I can honestly believe she is a reporter who gets off on the danger and is willing to risk her life for materials. The male character is kinda weak though, I don't think he has enough chemistry with Sharon. Vanessa Golino is very beautiful though, saw her in rain man before but she looks gorgeous here as well. The ending is kinda shocking as well. The whole theme of this movie gives off a 70s spy thriller feel. Sharon looked gorgeous holding her camera in the beginning. The motorcycle chase scenes were decent, but the whole plot is a bit messy for me to give the movie a passing grade.

this may not be john frankenhiemers best work but is not one to overlook. i feel at the time of its release andrew mccarthy career was already over and although he does a fare job of it he did not help it's release and sharon stone was not yet a house hold name.plus Italian politics of the 70's doesn't really sound that inviting.

however this little film is exiting,intriguing and well plotted. you feel for andrews plight and you feel lost in a world you don't really understand just like andrew. weather intentionally or not it works for me i don't it want all laid out. the actions of the red brigade are not answered just like the news we watch every night. john frankenhiemer made the best of a hard subject and the last third of the movie is very tense. with a good twist and a message that has not dated.

also the DVD quality is very good but where are the subtitles and how about some extras, the deleted scene is odd to say the least. if your a sharon stone fan its a must one of her better early performances.

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.