La scuola cattolica

The film seems to be a little bit boring in some parts, decent acting from some, bad from others. The real story of the murder hasn't been explicated well, a lot of missing parts that the plot needed hasn't been added to the work. However the picture and the good aesthetic of the 70's save this film from a worst vote.

La scuola cattolica is a bad film that mistreats a story that should have been handled with more care, or rather, that exploits it to gain more visibility. The film has nothing to say and, in an attempt to hide it, it crumples over an empty and confusing structure accompanied by a narrator's voice blurting out what appear to be introspective profundities. As an Italian, I already knew this case, and hoped it would be treated with more justice, as an attempt to really understand why what happened happened, and to give a voice to the victims of the case. Instead, it is not clear what the director wants to do, other than displaying a gratuitous attempt to shock, some vague form of social polemic, and pointless observations on religion.

At first, there was nothing much to it. It was all about just boys experiencing sex for the first time. And then it became very sinister. I wish they had things explained a little bit more clearly because I could not really understand what was going on at the beginning. However towards the end, it became pretty clear. Acting was great and the cinematography was excellent. But I still feel like they could have made storyline more simpler, so it wouldn't confuse the audience. Specially going back and forth in time, was unnecessary because it did pretty much nothing to make the movie more interesting other than confusing. I guess that's why most people felt like they were watching some random Clips. This movie had potential to be excellent unfortunately it failed to deliver. 6 out of 10 for me!

Summary

The film tries to deploy, in a quite unconnected way, the family and educational framework in which the youth of the wealthy class criminals who perpetrated the macho crime known as Circeo Massacre, of enormous event in Italy.

It is a pity that the director Stefano Mordini escamotee almost completely the political dimension of the crime, since he does not mention the fascist sympathies of the criminals, at a time when neo -fascism rises victorious precisely in Italy for the first time since the 2nd World War and advances with its instigations and hate crimes in many parts of the world, including Argentina.

Review.

This film describes the crime known as "Circeo Massacre", which occurred from 1975, as well as some students of the Catholic School for Men Leone Magno, among whom were their young perpetrators.

The film begins with the trunk of a car from which a female voice asks for help. Then it continues in a series of flashbacks where director Stefano Mordini tries to describe the cultivation broth from which the criminals came. There are a series of unconnected vignettes about classes at school, some of their rites and the families of some of the students (the voice of one of them acts as the rapporteur in off), some of which seem to conduct narratively to anywhere . From all these scenes a macho, misogyn and homophobic class matrix is released. Finally, we are shown the criminal act itself (which should not reveal so as not to subtract dramatic impact) from which those who would be their executors and who their victims in the anterior part of the film were emerging. Anyway, I consider that a dramatic progression is missing or, in any case, surprising the violence deployed with a certain conjunction of coldness and cruelty that it vaguely remembers (and saving the distances) to Saló from Pasolini. Perhaps physical violence has something that always implies an abrupt jump on its precedents.

Crime is an act of all these dimensions of hatred: a ruthless act of gender violence with its strong macho and misogynistic elements and also classist here that marked a before and after in Italian legislation. Unfortunately, and unlike Edoardo Albinati's novel on which it is based, Mordini almost totally hides the political dimension of crime, since it does not mention the fascist sympathies of criminals, at a time when neo -fascism rises victorious precisely in Italy for the first time since World War 2nd and advances with their instigations and hate crimes in many parts of the world, including Argentina.

I grew up in a catholic school so i can relate to this however its a step above in all honesty. At no time during my time in Catholic school in NYC did I feel above the law or the feelings of human decency, in that aspect the few portrayed here obviously had major personality / mental issues with how they seen other human beings, especially young woman. My wife took offense to this movie, the arrogance & lack of human decency among the teenage boys was very over the top for her.

I do not feel on the whole, Catholicism is the subject here but a few bad eggs with no regard for others, the total lack of empathy made it clear it was more than a religious situation, but poor upbringing & moral quality.

The title is flawed as religion had nothing to do with the horrible criminal behavior.

I would of rated it better but the religion is not the issue and it should not be in the title.