Salvatore Giuliano (1962, Francesco Rosi)

Quest Status: 760 / 1000

TSPDT Rank #377

Usually when a person's name is the title of a film, it means that that person is the film's main character. But in Francesco Rosi's multi-genre, quasi-neorealist magnum opus Salvatore Giuliano, the titular character is often talked about, but seen only as a corpse. Giuliano's dead body opens the film, as a crowd of detectives stares vacantly on, examining and describing the position of the "male corpse" as if it were an object on display at some corpse auction.

Giuliano, as we soon find out (in a complex series of flashbacks), was an influential outlaw leader who ruled a small Sicilian town from a mountain outpost. He was involved in everything from political revolution to communist massacres, from petty theft to big time Mafia rackets. Those without a firm grip on the Sicilian societal structure of the time period will be hard-pressed to keep track of all the various groups and individuals who play a part in the convoluted series of events surrounding the elusive Giuliano. This is not a simple world of cops and robbers. In this world, Giuliano's outlaws might work together with the Mafia, but that doesn't mean that these two organizations are not interchangeable. There are soldiers fighting for independence, soldiers fighting for the Italian authorities, and outlaws fighting for the revolutionary soldiers. Then, once independence is finally achieved, not only are there the police to contend with, but also the local vigilante police who wield the real power.

 

 

Rosi's style has something in common with the neorealist masters like Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini, particularly in his use of non-professional actors from the Sicilian town where the film takes place to tell the film's real-life story. In a title card that precedes the macabre opening scene, he even tells us as that the courtyard where Giuliano's body is found is the actual location! At the same time, while some sequences have a documentary feel, Rosi doesn't confine himself to any one particular style. After the documentary-style flashback detailing Giuliano's involvement in the Sicilian independence movement, the film becomes a mix of neorealist-style crime thriller and courtroom drama - often alternating between the two. Martin Scorsese is a fan of Salvatore Giuliano because of its rich portrayal of his ancestral Sicily, but it's also a vital piece of Italian cinema history, blending various styles to create a whirlwind snapshot of a time and place that is now all but forgotten.

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