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Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Crappy film

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This is a film I watched only because I am a big fan of Gian Maria Volante. I'm not aware of the political context of this film.The film came across as a one sided political satire that is severely critical of a right wing newspaper and its almost godlike ability to manufacture popular opinion. The film is also a sort of a murder mystery with a brief account of a love triangle.The murder of a teenage girl provides an opportunity for a right-wing newspaper to blame the crime on a communist activist, just before an important election. The film provides a detailed account of how the editor of the newspaper (played by Volante)and his colleagues goes about manipulating the public opinion against the communists.Laura Betti was very good as a jealous lover. The scene where she reads out of her rival's (the teenage girl) diary is quite hilarious. Volante's performance seemed to be uninspired. His role as the evil conniving editor of the right wing newspaper where he simply walks into witnesses, reporters and suspects houses and convinces them to support the case against the communists was hard to digest. The scene where he manipulates Betti's character was rubbish.The editing was flawed because scenes seemed to end rather abruptly. Background score was quite good but was used minimally.There were some nice directorial flourishes like the ending with a dry canal being filled with polluted waste filled water.

Marco Bellocchio's indictment of the press as an opinion-making machine that turns the public into sheep is a bit in-your-face, but it's also a well thought out and well put together thriller. In Milan, when a young girl is found murdered, a highly regarded newspaper blames a trouble-making radical and whips the public and the police into a frenzy. The paper's editor-in-chief (Gian Maria Volonté) assigns idealistic cub reporter Fabio Garriba to cover the story. Garriba soon realizes that he too is being manipulated by Volonté. It's a brutal and frank movie that makes it clear that the established press is the enemy, fabricating stories, printing half truths and innuendo over facts. Volonté, well-known for his left-wing leanings in real life, is great in a role that has him representing the establishment as both impeccable and oily at the same time. He dons three piece suits, dines with the bourgeois and comes across as a pillar of respectability when in fact he is a lying bastard. Laura Betti gives a brilliant performance as a pathetic would-be radical cut down to size by Volonté. The music is by Nicola Piovani and Ennio Morricone.

Really good, solid, political film making from a new fave of mine, Marco Belloccio. Indeed this taut thriller mixes the murky world of newspapers with the equally murky world of politics. This opens with in your face real footage of early 70s street riots in Milan. Such is the ferocity and spectacle it seems likely that once the narrative begins there will be an anti-climatic lull. Not at all, Gian Maria Volonte stars as the newspaper boss prepared to do anything for his fascist friends and the survival of his newspaper. His cynicism and by implication that of the director knows no bounds. An innocent schoolgirl is raped, there is a clear guilty party but does it suit the ends of those in charge for matters to proceed as they should? Volonte is masterly in the role, as he was in the slightly earlier, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion but he is aided here by more than adequate support from all involved. Thrilling, disturbing and very provocative.

After a punchy start, the political banners of a coming election across Milanese streets and a leftist demonstration that leads to fire bombing the news paper office where editor Volonte is quick to take advantage of the story, this one weaves through what looks like it will be a complicated account of class warfare but ends up being a simple minded polemic. It's hard to swallow an editor personally intimidating the guilty party into silence for his own purposes.However this is the Volonte of L'ATTENTAT and INDAGINE SU UN CITTADINO, dominating the screen with a stops out performance and just watching him is worth the ticket price. Laura Betti, as the party faithful he makes look as if she has betrayed her cause, can go head to head with him. No one else stands much of a chance.There is a great Morricone sounding score and expert camera-work - zooming down passage ways to provide menace. The use of a working newspaper as background is particularly effective.These European political thrillers, of which Volonte was the mast head star, are a rewarding collection and should have wider circulation.