L'anno del terrore

A good title, but more applicable to 1981, since that was the year that saw attempts to assassinate the President of the United States and the Pope.

This film sounds of interest on paper for the prospect of seeing John Frankenheimer address the abduction and murder of Aldo Moro. It doesn't stint on the gunplay (one particularly nasty moment depicts a horse getting caught in the crossfire). But there's even more talk - some of it in Italian - while the old dynamism that brought us 'The Manchurian Candidate' is sorely lacking, and Andrew McCarthy makes a very passive hero.

In compensation Sharon Stone brings a feral power to the role of an American photojournalist who never lets a little aggro get in the way of a photo opportunity. While it concludes with one of Frankenheimer's trademark closeups of a TV screen.

From the first moment I felt myself well entertained. I did not check the specifics, before after watching it, so I was surprised that it was made so many years after the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. The lighting and filming was stimulating from start to finish. And nothing wrong with the cutting neither. I remember nothing about the sound, so it much have done its job well. The filming ( the grittyness/grain ) and the format, made it seem a true timepiece, that maybe because of that, sometimes balances on the edge of kitsch.

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

From right away, I wanted to yell at this film: get your plot straight, and tell it properly! OK, so, it would seem that David(Andrew, who returns to Rome to author a book, that turns out to be fictional - though it uses the real names of people, seeming to potentially get them in serious trouble... and in a twist that wouldn't have played out in a Saturday morning cartoon, what he writes is mistaken as documenting it) is with this chick who is divorcing a wife-beater and who she has a son with. And terrorists(who are only made out to look pure evil, which I could have understood if this had been made back in '78, but not in '91, where it was becoming clearer that calling such individuals and organizations freedom fighters can be more reasonable) are causing bad stuff to go down in Italy, though it's never made clear to what end, or if the government really *is* corrupt. All we know is that they're Communist, rendering this potentially a propaganda tool for the red scare. If we could at least care about the characters, however, the very introductions to our main characters ensures that they are wholly unappealing human beings(Stone is almost getting herself killed taking freaking photographs, obnoxious McCarthey wants to blow people up that we know nothing about(at that point or at all), etc.) and I couldn't care about them for the rest of this. Not one person in this had me engaged. Frankenheimer does infuse some scenes with tension and excitement... although this is definitely a thriller, with next to no real action, if it can be effective when it is there. The filming isn't bad, and the editing, as well(if some of the FX shots and stunts are poorly hidden). There is some moderate to strong language and a little female nudity and sexuality(at least one of the sequences is hot and with Sharon(the two are connected) in this. The DVD comes with a trailer. I recommend this to those who never support the people rising against those in power. 5/10

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.