Great film with a labyrinthine plot and a powerhouse, force of nature performance from Volonte. Nobody comes undone like this guy! Florinda Balkan was one of the 70's hottest women. Can't recommend this one enough!
shareIt sounds great. Any help is much appreciated.
"Stupid friends are dangerous"
i'm sure you can find a copy floating around on the net, but it's not available on DVD in North America or the UK.
Which is weird, because there is a new print floating around at verious art house theaters with new subtitles and restored picture and audio. Must be a political reason for not being on DVD yet.
Given the high number of votes, I kind of wondered.
"Stupid friends are dangerous"
I've got a vhs of it that I taped off of the Mystery Channel last year. Columbia owns the release rights to it.
shareMaybe Criterion have something in the pipeline that we are not aware of...It is one of those movies that deserve their attention. Great move and brilliant Morricone score. Used for years on Belgian radio for their radio programs on contemporary topics and by the BBC in documentaries on terrorism.
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Looks like it's available in a PAL format Region 2 DVD in its original Italian title:
http://www.mymovies.it/dizionario/recensione.asp?id=11921
"Klaatu Barada AAArrrggh - to" - Ashshare
Hi folks.
Yes the movie is actually avalaible in R2 italian format, but it's very hard2find in my hometown (I live in a small town, not in Rome or Milan) so I downloaded it from Emule yesterday.
I knew this movie, eventhough the last time I saw it I was 13 yrs old. This's a classic of the italian cinema of the period.
But, as every movie of that period (the 70's) it's clearly recognaizable, vintage and too political.
Brief history lesson for all you guys from overseas:
in Italy, during that period, every man and woman working in public charge (actors, poets, politics, journalists, showmen and singers) were part of the leftwing marxist movement. So, due to the fact that the concept of "good" was automatically recognized with Marxism, all the rest was "evil", so it was fascist.
This movie is clearly a representation of that mood: the police inspector is corrupted, evil, twisted, abuses of his power, arrest young students and honest workers....it's obliviously a fascist. (Police slave of power, the power detained by the bourgeois, church and fascist militias).
I know, it sounds crazy, but that was our society in the 70's.
So, I watched this movie with a slight smile on my lips because it's too "innocent", in a certain manner.
I'm not assuming that the movie sucks: the movie rox, it's a piece of high cinema (we don't have such artists no more, here in Italy) but it's too propaganda, too marxist. It's true that fascists made horrible crimes in the 70's, but please don't forget most of the times was aggression=reaction behaviours. Marxist violence was equal to Fascist violence, and everyone who assumes this's a false concept, is a liar.
Gian Maria Volontè's acting is just awesome, Ennio Morricone's score is amazing and Florinda Bolkan is a goddess.
Be cool
D.S.
Italy
I appreciated those comments Dario, very interesting.
'Happiness consists in being able to tell the truth without ever hurting anyone.'
Hi Dario your comment is just an opinion. Ok in the 70s in Italy a big part of culture world "intelligenzia" was left-wing... Ok. How could you put Elio Petri into the maxist wing? Consider all his career.
This masterpiece is just influenced by that atmosphere, OK, on this I agree with you, but please, Petri was not such a militant as you depict. In fact the movie is son of its time, but you must admit it is sizeble on every era. Is just the story (sometime paradoxical) of how, if you are an "untouchable", you could avoid troubles with the law. This didn't happen just in Italy in the 70s... It is also a nowadays story, just think to O.J. Simpson...
I don't think is an "innocent" movie as you said. It is a great movie, influenced by Italian atmosphere of the 70s, but as all Petri works, is an universal story. Stop to categorize it from a political or propaganda (!) point of view. We are now in 2007. And I think it is still actual, even if paradoxical.
A worth watching for story, director (Petri), actors (Volonte above all) and the magic Morricone. It deserved completely its Oscar in 1972 for Best Foreign Movie. It is a classic of the cinema.
Pizza isn't a Pie!
Some days ago I've finally succeed in watching this great movie! I must say that I was happy despite the hour of the broadcast (on italian television after midnight) because is a masterpiece, maybe a little bit difficult to understand todays because of the different political context, but in some ways such story is always possible today...
Volonté is incredibile, unfortunately I haven't seen a lot of movie with him but everytime it was a great moment because he played like few others, always difficult characters and always excellent.He's one of the greatest actors
And another beautiful score by Morricone
I have to agree with 1felco. There might be a very subtle influence from the 1968-69 riots, after which the police was considered an "enemy" (or even openly "fascist") by the left wing/marxist movements for a few years. But I don't think the movie is about the marxist vs. fascist issue.
shareNonsense. The movie is not about Marxist (violence or not) vs Fascist (violence or not). It's about power, the abuse of power.
shareTry your library, Canadian libraries have the two disc Criterion Set.
shareOne of the greatest films of the '70s with some of the best acting ever delivered, period.
Living in the sixth dimension. Things get rough.
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