Review by arzewski

We all know the masterpiece by Francesco Rosi, "Cristo si e' fermato ad Eboli". A Northerner educated man, finding himself in an isolated remote mountain village in the deep south of Italy. A city person learning what it means to conduct an agrarian life, with crops and farm animals, and little modernity and sophistication. In that film, the only "educated" person in the village is the priest, representing the institution of the catholic church, as to provide guidance in the meaning of life.

So, here too we have a Northerner that comes from the North into the South. And here too we have a priest. And we have peasant population, with their crops, farm animals, hand tools, and basic necessities.

But, unlike Francesco Rosi's masterpiece, this film is ineffective in rendering the same emotional and artistic value. Even the shooting scene is so amateurish that a graduate student must have choreographed it. Had they had a young Sergio Leone from the early 1960s on staff, that shooting scene would have been much different and more realistic.

The entire film felt like it was a dud. At the end, a line of text appeared on the screen: "Dedicated to the people of Calabria". There were a few people from Calabria in the audience, and they weren't clapping. So, no thanks.

As Cheyenne says about Harmonica, in Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West", "He not only plays, he shoots too". Here, they just play, but don't know how to shoot.