I cento passi

I was well surprised to see how with intelligence a film with a plot which could be easily mixed up to the typical "mafia's films serie" has been excellently directed and extremely well acted.

Normally I do not make any type of comparison to the "golden years" (sixties-seventies) of the Italian cinema but for me is a must today to say that this film and the director: Giordana does not have anything to envy to Francesco Rosi and his films. The actor Luigi Lo Cascio is just excellent well deep involved in his character.

Do not miss the film it worths even in DVD or VHS.

Rating: 7/10

I stumbled across this movie tonight and am so glad I did. I had never heard of it, or of this story. Was refreshing to not see the glorified 'mafia' we see in films. Well cast and well written. And will always remember this film when I hear the song 'A whiter shade of pale'. A side note, I noticed during one scene they were watching a film and I had to pause. It was the film 'Hands over the city', which I had just watched the night before on the Criterion channel. In these times it was a well timed movie for me. Not many people are ready to stand up for their beliefs, and be the one who speaks up.

A very careful reconstruction of a real episode developing in Sicily from the '50s to the '70s. The film has the pace and the political idealism of "Z" by Costa Gavras. Americans might be interested to see the Mafia depicted in its Italian home-base, and relations between the (poorer, but more "original") Sicilian Mafiosi and their American counterparts / relations. This is a film on the protesting youth of the '70s, as well, with a lot of music like in the THE BIG CHILL. In Italy the film has been much discussed for its Mafia theme, but underneath there is a lot of family psychology.

Somebody say that it is a classical italian movie about Mafia, but I'm sure that `I cento passi'is something more. It talks about the real story of Peppino Impastato. Peppinpo was a boy who lived in a small village in Sicily in the 70's. After his grandfather's murder he knew a printer who was communist and becoming communist and through he tried to fight the Mafia and the boss in particular, because he was the mandant of grandfather's murder. `I cento passi' means ` 100 steps' which was the distance between his home and the boss' house. He was killed by dynamite the same day of Moro's murder (a famous italian politician) but the police said that it was an accident. It is a real story and it make you thing how the pawer is dangerous but also how is important the bravery.

This has quite a poignant underlying message of complicity and compliance as it tells the true story of firebrand young man Peppino Impastato (Luigi Lo Cascio). He lives on a mafia-dominated Sicily in a family led by his acquiescing father Luigi (Luigi Maria Burruano). It's not that his dad is cowardly, far from it, but he has a wife (Lucia Sardo) and another son, Giovanni (Paolo Briguglia), so is constantly conscious that any resistance to the established order could prove perilous. Peppino has all the vigour and irresponsibility of his age and together with some friends sets up a local radio station that mixes a contemporary mix of classic rock music with some fairly direct rantings about the local "don" - comparing him to legendary Sioux chief Sitting Bull holding court over a tribe full of drug users and sleazy hookers. This isn't a gun-toting organisation. It doesn't need to be. It gets it's way by a combination of carrot and stick approaches. If the population co-operate then life can be good, but if they stray from the arbitrary control of "Tano" (Tony Sperandeo) then they might find themselves starring in their own personal version of a Buster Keaton film. Cascio is on strong form here offering us quite a compelling presentation of a young man who genuinely believed that his on-air protestations could elicit change for good and when his family warn him of the risks - to them and to him - that just seems to galvanise him. The conclusion is history; a sad and depressing history that rather well illustrated the extent of the collusion that existed between the authorities and the "authorities" and the disposability of an inconvenient life. Briguglia also contributes well as does Sardo as his strong-willed but increasingly wary mother whilst the writing offers us a lively bedrock for characters that mingled passion with prescience in an entertaining and engaging fashion. The production looks good and it's well worth a watch.