The film that established Francesco Rosi's international reputation, this is the first of his signature mosaic-style expos�s of real characters and incidents, a semi-documentary style that Rosi borrowed from Rossellini and made entirely his own. The historical Salvatore Giuliano was a Sicilian bandit turned Mafia boss who, after the war, became an important player in Sicily's guerrilla movement. The film opens on Giuliano's corpse and unfolds back to his life and times, and forward to events following his death. Giuliano himself is barely glimpsed, but this portrait of betrayal and compromises with authority -- gangsters and government in collusion to keep the peasants and urban poor in their place -- set against the scarred landscape of rural Sicily, explains much about the life that produced this illustrious corpse. Rosi's elliptical style here is not concerned with the truth of historical events, but with the act of seeking the truth, which is crucial and unending.
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Script: Francesco Rosi, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Enzo Provenzale, Franco Solinas.
Phot.: Gianni Di Venanzo.
Ed.: Mario Serandrei.
Mus.: Piero Piccioni.
Cast: Pietro Cammarata, Frank Wolff, Salvo Randone, Federico Zardi, Giuseppe Teti, Cosimo Torino, Giuseppe Calandra, Pietro Franzone, Giovanni Gallina, Vincenzo Norvese, Sennuccio Benelli.
Prod.: Franco Cristaldi, Luonello Santi, Lux Film / Galatea Film / Vides.
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