Film Review: The Sicilian (1987)

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drax10.7 K3 years ago5 min read

It’s not uncommon to see criminals transforming into folk heroes, but it usually happens in areas affected by widespread poverty, whether endemic or caused by wars and economic upheaval. One such person is the main character of The Sicilian, 1987 biopic directed by Michael Cimino.

The film is based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Mario Puzo, which was spin-off of his best known work, The Godfather. While the novel was fiction, the main character was not. Due to copyright issues, script by Steve Shagan removed Michael Corleone and all other characters and references to the Godfather cycle. The plot begins in 1950s when Hector Adonis (played by Richard Bauer), University of Palermo professor, comes to prison to visit an old acquintance, Gaspare “Aspanu” Pisciotta (played by John Turturro), convicted bandit. Plot then goes a roughly decade earlier, when Sicily was going to rough times following Allied invasion in Second World War, making many young men turn to smuggling in order to make ends meet. Among those were Pisciotta and his good friend Salvatore Giuliano (played by Christopher Lambert). The pair has misfortune of stumbling into corrupt policemen, which leads to a firefight in which Giuliano gets severely wounded, but manages to kill one of the policemen. Giuliano is brought to monastery and despite severity of its wounds he quickly recovers. Forced to live his life on the other side of the law, Giuliano and Pisciotta raid the prison and liberate inmates, of which many join his gang of bandits in the mountains. Giuliano conducts series of daring armed robberies and kidnappings and spends most of the money to help impoverished farmers, thus creating massive popular support. Giuliano quickly becomes major political force and begins contemplating fight for Sicilian independence or even applying the island for US statehood, while international press begins hailing him as romantic Robin Hood-like figure. All that becomes increasingly troublesome for Italian government, Catholic Church and local aristocrats like Prince Borsa (played by Terrence Stamp). The most powerful man on the island, Don Masino Croce (played by Joss Ackland), initially protects Giuliano and considers him potential asset, but later turns against him when realising that his rise threatens the his and power of other Mafia chieftains. He sets a trap for Giuliano by arranging the deal with the government – in exchange for vague promise of pardon, Giuliano’s gang should prevent Communists and other left-wing parties from winning crucial elections. Giuliano agrees and goes to disperse leftist rally, not knowing that some of his men, under Don Croce’s orders, would shoot in the crowd. This results in massacre that would remove Giuliano’s reputation of a folk hero and force him to spend the rest of his life as a hunted man.

The Sicilian has some similarities with Heaven’s Gate, Michael Cimino’s earlier film which is known as the most infamous flop in Hollywood history. Both films reconstruct real historic events, both have epic scopes and ambitions, both had troubled productions and both flopped at the box office after having their running times shortened by producers against Cimino’s wishees. In this case, however, Cimino had somewhat lesser budget at his disposal, and was a little bit more focused on the set, resulting in better film. The most noticeable improvement is good editing by Françoise Bonnot, which allows the plot to advance quickly. Cinematography by Alex Thomson is very good, putting Sicilian locations to good use and giving the film the proper look of “larger-than-life” Hollywood epic. Same can be said for David Mansfield’s bombastic score, which is well-complemented by 1940s pop standards. Period is well reconstructed with costumes and various props, including extremely rare use of Villar Perosa M 1915, world’s first submachinegun, by a character in a Hollywood film.

However, all that effort was mostly for naught, because Cimino failed to recognise problems with Shagan’s script (which was doctored during production by Gore Vidal). Even worse was miscasting. Christopher Lambert was simply wrong for the lead role and lacked proper charisma of a natural leader. This problem was even worse when his character interacted with women; Lambert lacked any proper chemistry with Giulia Boschi who plays Giuliano’s love interest. Same thing exist with another character, Prince Borsa’s American wife Camilla, whose sole purpose in the film appears to allow Barbara Sukowa to parade naked; while entertaining for a while, her scenes with Lambert make the whole film unconvincing. Apart from Boschi, none of the major roles are played by Sicilian or Italian actors. Some members of the cast struggle to make the best out of sometimes thankless material, like relatively unknown Richard Bauer as Giuliano’s intellectual mentor or Joss Ackland as “grey eminence” of Sicily. John Turturro is passable as Giuliano’s best friend, although at times he tries too hard and his character’s actions near the end aren’t properly explained. Although watchable for cinephiles with enough patience, The Sicilian represents a disappointment for everyone who expected proper Hollywood epic.

RATING: 4/10 (+)