Don Camillo

This is quite an atypical vehicle for Hill. Though I've never read any of the original stories, apparently they are short stories. This may explain why there is no central plot here, and there being a mass collection of vignettes instead. It may also explain why the tone of the movie is so wildly inconsistant - sometimes it's melancholy, sometimes goofy, sometimes dead serious, sometimes of a (and quite violent at times) slapstick nature. I guess it's supposed to be a comedy at its heart, but I didn't really find that much humorous about it, though there are one or two smiles here and there.

Back in the early nineties (oh, what glorious times), my dad and the 9-year-old version of myself were tremendous fans of the action/comedy duo Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. We videotaped a lot of their films on TV and collected them, including this one. At first it was a minor disappointment that Bud Spencer wasn't the actor playing Mayor Peppone, but it nevertheless became a childhood favorite that I must have seen at least 15 to 20 times! Of course, I was young and didn't pay attention to many things. For example, I was totally unaware that Hill's film was a reboot of a popular film series of the fifties (starring Fernandel) and the political undertones were also completely lost on me. Through the eyes of 9-year-old, this is simply a fun and exhilarating movie about a fit and atypical priest versus a mean and sleazy mayor! They argue, bare-knuckle fight and eventually assemble as many local kids as possible to settle their differences via a soccer game. The game turns into an unforgettable climax, with the church boys in blue and the town hall kids in red, and ending in a giant mass-fight in the pouring rain. Apart from the soccer game, there are numerous sequences that I still know by heart, even though it must have been 25 years since I last saw it. Terence Hill simply was the coolest priest ever! He drove around town on a dirt bike, he had the coolest dog and he talks to God via and old and color-faded Jesus Christ statue.

Note: for once the Dutch title is reasonably clever, as it contains wordplay and can be translated in two equally relevant ways, namely "Don Camillo hits hard" or "Don Camillo goes bonkers".

Terence Hill does a surprisingly adept job of directing this film (according to IMDB, it was his first effort behind the camera), but there isn't much of a script to support him; most of the laughs are supposed to come from seeing a priest do such "outrageous" things as cheating at cards, roller-skating in his church and organizing amateur soccer games. The spirit of the film is just too gentle for a successful satire. At 120 minutes, it's also overlong - especially since the dramatic incidents don't build out of each other. It does have a beautiful score by Pino Donaggio. (**1/2)

This movie lacks the charm and the warmth of the original stories by Guareschi. Transporting the context 30 years forward into present-day (that is: 1980s) Italy was probably the right thing to do, since the distance in time wasn't big enough to film this as a period piece, but turning Don Camillo into such a cool dude rips the heart out of these stories. Mario Girotti plays the character in Trinity style, aloof, quirky, dead-pan; but this Camillo is barely recognisable as the passionately caring priest of the books. I don't think the earlier Camillo incarnation by Fernandel was right either (e.g. Fernandel's Camillo was not physical enough), but at least it exuded the required warmth.

A cool Don Camillo creates another problem: what happens with his constant little battles with Peppone and his party? Peppone's communist shenanigans are similarly toned down and as a result the antagonism between the two sides does not ring true - at least not to the extent the stories require. Thus, this film version also lacks the tension, conflict and hatred between the two camps. Perhaps there was some sensitivity here towards the American market: no children's movies with real communists in them, please!

A few changes to cater for the international market are also embarrassing: the two soccer teams are called "Angels" and "Devils" (in English!) and a couple of the songs performed in Church are in English as well. This is situated in rural Italy!

In my opinion, this is possibly the best movie of Terence Hill. It's funny (the kind of funny you don't laugh loudly but you smile very often) and it is also a warm-hearted comedy with human and credible characters. I think Hill is a very good director and I like the script and the way of describing Camilo and Pepone, both with virtues and shortcomings but above all human beings fighting from opposite sides (Church vs Communism) and at the same time trying to understand each other. I really think the comparison with the films of Fernandel is not necessary, this film is made in eighties and, as another reviewer comments, the times had changed. Nice score and nice (underrated) movie.