Pai Patrão

The life of an Italian peasant who was forced out of school by his father so as to be a shepherd in the remote country side. The loneliness and the father's brutality has an effect on the boy who grows up to be a late learner in reading and writing. This new knowledge he uses as a weapon against the everlasting battle with his tyrant father. The first half drags on but the second half all comes together.

Padre Padrone was a film that shocked RTP viewers in the late 1970s, mostly for the visceral way in which it exposed the rude habits of shepherds in the Sardinian highlands, especially in sexual practices with animals.

This film by the Taviani brothers, along with others, such as Ugly, Dirty and Bad, by Scola, are part of the end of Italian neo-realism, that I cannot resist calling hyper-realism, in the sense that it is no longer enough to show the harshness of In reality, we need to look for the most unworthy and grotesque aspects of human condition, in this case the violence, isolation and bestiality of small Sardinian pastoral communities.

Other films had already look at this communities, perhaps even better, such as Bandits of Orgosolo, by Vittorio de Seta, in 1961, emphasizing, in this case, "omerta", the law of silence, distrust, ignorance and extreme attachment to the land, the main source of wealth and power, in these extremely closed rural societies.

I would say that Padre Padrone doesn't add much to Banditi à Orgosolo, other than a certain voyeurism through violence and ignorance.

It's a remarkable film, but I clearly prefer de Seta's Bandits.

Despite the other good comments here, I was really shocked at the number of others who put in their two cents who hated this movie. I saw it in a theater shortly after its original release, then several times on video in the late eighties. I hadn't watched it again until a couple of nights ago, mainly as a reaction to seeing some of the imbecilic remarks here. It's scary because after seeing the film again I realize that Hollywood has alot to answer for in manufacturing twisted junkfood audience expectatations with their atrociously slick homogenization of already shallow stories, push button audience emotion manipulation... oh, well, you get the idea. People fed a constant diet of McDonalds don't recognize a good steak when they bite into one.

PADRE PADRONE integrates nearly documentary footage seamlessly with a very realistic, often funny, often poignant but never manipulative depiction of what it's like to grow up the first born son of a nearly impoverished Sardinian shepherd. The beatings the boy receives from his tyrannical father are convincingly shown but in such a way that, especially if you've ever been on a set or involved in filmmaking, you can see that the punches and slaps could be easily pulled without the audience knowing it. The boy's struggle as he grows into a man to express himself and learn how to read and write, no matter how fierce his father's opposition, is truly inspiring because it is so matter-of-fact, so intense but without a shred of the narrative tricks (such as treacly music cues) that Hollywood would pull to needlessly manipulate cheap audience emotion.

There's one scene right near the end just before the young man leaves home again for the final time where he has to go to retrieve the family suitcase from under his parents' bed. His angry, powerless dad sits on the edge as his son gropes under him for the suitcase. The two have already come to blows and life-threatening words. Suddenly the young man sinks his head against his father's leg in a brief second of weary contradictory affection. His father instinctively moves his hand to, at first, comfort the boy. But before his fingers can even touch his son's hair he is possessed by temper and raises his hand to strike him instead. However, we don't see if he strikes him or not because the Tavianis cut to black then we next see the son leaving town, going on to his destiny as a linguist and bestselling writer. This simple scene is one of the most unbearably moving in any film from the last thirty years and indicative of the general excellence of the entire movie. The Taviani brothers have made many other good films from ALLONSANFAN with Marcello Mastroianni, through this, through NIGHT OF SHOOTING STARS and the excellent, 3 hour long anthology of stories by Pirandello, KAOS.

This film made in the late seventies in Italy describes a rural family in the island of Sardinia. One year later, another film on agrarian society, "L'albero degli Zoccoli", also made in Italy, was a smashing success. The success among the italian audiences was attributed to a nostalgic remembrance of agrarian societies and lifestyle, also seen in Bertolucci's "1900". This film had a profound effect in many third-world countries. People from Turkey and from Madascar that came from rural patriarcal families whose economy was based on sheep farming saw this movie as their life manifesto. The struggles of the young son as he grows in his father's sheep farm are depicted in Taviani's style of symbolism. Notable is the army buddy that is a medical school graduate played by Nanni Moretti, who eventually became one of Italy's current leading film directors. See this movie with "Banditi a Orgosolo" (1960) if you can find it.

"Padre Padrone" (Italian, 1977): Directed by Paolo and Vittoria Taviani. A Sardinian boy grows up under the crude and violent shadow of his sheepherder father. Family life is a combination of mind-numbing boredom and crackling moments of fear. The years pass, and almost by accident, the boy (now a man of 20) becomes involved in the larger world. Here begins his struggle to break away from the tyranny of "Father/Master", and make use all that awaits him… but the teachings of his father are NOT that easily left behind. It's an interesting psychological story shown in typical Italian 70's fashion – low production values, lots of overdubbing, and only a slight interest in creating an artful shot (no, most Italian films are NOT Fellini or Antonioni). However, THIS one is worth following. The payoff IS in the story and its message. It's a strong film that reminded me of "Pelle the Conqueror". And a second night of pondering: "Padre Padrone" ("Father Master") is a truly unique look at the relationship between fathers and sons. It's not a pastel image, that's for sure, but it raises some very interesting questions that I think most sons will recognize at some deep, unspoken level. As is always the case with a smart work of Art, the visual level is but the entryway to a broader topic which allows more viewers to relate. No, WE'RE NOT Sardinian, sheep herders, uneducated, or dirt floor poor. No, our fathers probably did not behave exactly as this father did...yet nearly every one of us can sense that the feelings we held towards our fathers (as boys) are somehow addressed in this film. He held the power. To get "out from under" his looming protections and threats, we had to leave. There was no other way to break free of the family dynamic. Upon return, for a visit or temporary living circumstance, we found he had not changed - no one in the family had changed - and the certainty we had that WE had changed while away, was only a facade days away from cracking or collapsing. What did we do? We left again, returned, left, visited, avoided, watched, and waited for "things" to change to SUCH a degree, we could now all settle into a new set of roles.