User reviews

A classic mafia film from Italy that calmly and concentratedly deals with the development of the Sicilian mafia.

Giuliano GEMMA plays a secretly consumptive quasi-illiterate named Vito who fights his way to the top step by step. His best friend Michele (Michele PLACIDO) is well-read and a committed communist and also has a beautiful girlfriend (Claudia CARDINALE). When local boss Don Giusto (Francisco RABAL) has Vito in his hands for something nasty, he demands a favor. Michele's political activities have long been a thorn in the Don's side...

At the beginning of the 1950s, the Sicilian mafia was able to take off. The fight for the land, which was becoming more and more valuable, was fully on. Then came the real estate and tourism projects, and later the even more lucrative drug deals. Pasquale SQUITIERI's film, which is well worth seeing, tells all this calmly and concentratedly over a period of 25 years. Incidentally, Tony KENDALL, who is known from the KOMMISSAR-X film series with Brad HARRIS, can be seen in a supporting role. The music comes from OSCAR winner Ennio MORRICONE. The film was very successful in Italy at the time: it grossed ITL 2.3 billion at the box office.

You can also learn a lot about the special development of the Sicilian mafia in the early 1950s from the Italian series "L'Ora - Words against Weapons", which tells about the daring daily newspaper from Palermo that uncovered these machinations.

That's exactly the kind of movie I love in the Italian thriller. Powerful, realistic and a thousand times better than the action packed but empty other spaghetti features with bloody sequences and so gratuitous violence. Films that are actually inspired from US movies such as DIRTY HARRY, BULLIT, THE GODFATHER; copycats, no more.

Italy is the country of mafia and corruption everywhere in the society, even in the politics. So, the film makers from there have no need to copy the US products, US schemes. They can do pretty good work with their own "culture". Film makers such as Pasquale Squietieri and Damiano Damiani have perfectly understood this. The pictures they describe are believable, authentic, even if they are shown in a minimal way, with no artificial and superficial means.

This movie makes you want to go make a great movie its just such a powerful authentic beautifully directed and written movie prefect for those who enjoy film making at its core even dub its a great movie although i prefer watching "Corleone" in its native tongue Italiano. Well that's all for now major thank you too Pasquale Squitieri for making this classic master piece and for inspire other great movies such as the "GodFather"