71 Slap the Monster on Page One

[ryannichols7]

there's no rhyme or reason to Italian cinema for me, because I ended up really liking this, and arguably a lot more than the two other big Volonte movies I've seen (Investigation of a Citizen... and The Working Class Goes to Heaven). a big reason for this is unquestionably Marco Belocchio's direction. while the message was heavy at times (again, typical for Italian cinema I've found) and some points (which Murdoch nailed) were the laziest possible path, I felt that Belocchio's deftness at keeping this to a tight 87 minutes was fantastic. so often these kinds of films run a little long and the ending gets overly preachy, but I thought everything was admirable and kept at a good pace. Volonte was terrific in the lead, a lot more menacing and believable to me, and as stated elsewhere the movie seems very "present" due to what's going on.

Spoiler

I felt the censored scene (I got the US edition from Barnes and Noble so I was good) actually really did add a lot to the movie, giving us more of a reveal of how messed up this dude was. I did really enjoy how the interrogation was inter-cut with shots of the actual rape and murder after that reveal. all of this adding a Psycho kind of twist to this very Z-ish feeling movie. but then I really didn't think we needed to see the assault play out after that. this was made up for with the tremendous final shots, which were a total accident according to Bellocchio!

Bellocchio's interview was good, this was my first movie by him (never got around to Fists in the Pocket) and I was intrigued knowing that this was a for hire job for him and usually he likes to take on his own material. given how inspiring his direction seemed here, I'm excited to see his other films. Mario Sesti was great, I was really pleased to hear him tie this to Sweet Smell of Success as I genuinely think direction and editing wise, this felt a lot more like a taut Hollywood thriller, and in a good way. the fact that it predated All the President's Men is wild, but it did come after Z, so hey. his breakdown of this movie's place in the Years of Lead has me wanting to dig into that Arrow boxset of the Years of Lead films that I picked up cheap but haven't touched. lastly, I agree with Chris that Alex Cox's interview was a total standout of the set. I actually haven't seen any recent extras that Cox has done on movies that aren't his own, but I'm in favor of bringing him in for just about any movie he could potentially talk about. his passion for it was tremendous and I really got a kick out of him just casually sitting in front of his computer breaking down scenes for us. more of that, please!

in all a great release. the transfer was really stunning to me and if this was more popular, I'm sure a 4K would've looked lovely, but it looks great as it is. I love the cover art a lot too. of Radiance's big three (Japan, Italy, and France), I feel like the Italian releases are easily the best so far, and I do hope that continues.

[domino harvey]

For the first hour or so, this was an excellent and prescient movie about not just journalism but politics in general, with the notion being that the higher up you get on a ladder in these things, the more everything becomes an intellectual game (and with the fools who actually believe it not knowing the score). And like any good game, there have to be rules, and it's more interesting to play by following them rather than cheating (though invariably some players will). So when the film treats the audience with respect and lets us piece everything together, and crucially, when it requires Volonte to follow some kind of guardrails (note him scrapping the story about his cub reporter getting beat up when he hears that nothing happened that could be spun in that direction-- a crucial beat), the film is interesting. But hoo boy, that last half hour, where the film just beats you over the head with its message like we're all idiots and couldn't figure it out, things just go off the rails. This movie started with respect for the audience and ends with one of the right wing baddies blithely quoting Goebbels ffs

I do think the film missed an obvious trick here to make this much more interesting and cutting:

Spoiler

They should have pulled a Fuhrman and framed a guilty man, and for much of the film it looks like this will be a possibility. But then we get completely ridiculous moments like Volonte beating first a confession out of the janitor and then offering him protection, and any hopes of this being an intelligent or unexpected treatment of familiar material are long gone

EDIT: Wow, I just read Murdoch's post and we had an almost identical response!

[Murdoch]

The final reveal is so obnoxious that it really tosses out whatever good will the film built up (which wasn't much by that last act). It's a shame since right-wing propaganda journalism during the height of the Years of Lead is a topic ripe for dissection, but I think the rage the creators of this film clearly display for the subject matter blinded them to a more even hand.