Sacco & Vanzetti ****½ (1971, Gian Maria Volontè, Riccardo Cucciolla, Cyril Cusack, Geoffrey Keen, Milo O’Shea) – Classic Movie Review 3196

Director Giuliano Montaldo’s splendidly acted, provocative, sterling 1971 biopic of 1920s Italian-born US immigrant anarchists Nicola Sacco (Riccardo Cucciolla) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (Gian Maria Volonté), who are tired on trumped-up charges of robbery and murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair.

They are convicted of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company on April 15 1920 in South Braintree, Massachusetts. In reality, they are condemned for their political convictions as members of an anarchist movement that advocated relentless warfare against the government.

Made in the neo-realist noir style, Sacco & Vanzetti is one of the most eloquent and notable Italian films of its time.

Cucciolla (1924-99) won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival but Volonté (1933-94) is also equally remarkable in another outstanding performance. There’s a typically notable score by Ennio Morricone. Joan Baez sings The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti and Here’s To You.

UK based actors Cyril Cusack as Frederick Katzmann, Geoffrey Keen as the trial judge Webster Thayer, Milo O’Shea, William Prince and Edward Jewesbury mix with Euro actors Rosanna Fratello as Rosa Sacco, Claude Man, Valentino Orfeo and Armenia Balducci.

Finally, in 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis proclaimed that Sacco and Vanzetti were unfairly tried and convicted and that ‘any disgrace should be forever removed from their names’ but still stopped short of proclaiming them innocent.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3196

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