Salvatore Giuliano

Francesco Rosi is considered by many to be the greatest political filmmaker to emerge in the second half of the 20th century, and Salvatore Giuliano is arguably his masterpiece. Certainly the most structurally innovative film of Rosi's early career, the film serves up a mosaic of chronological flashbacks to investigate headline-making events leading to the mysterious death of the title character, a Sicilian bandit whose bullet-riddled corpse was found facedown in a courtyard in the Sicilian town of Castelvetrano on July 5, 1950. Using a stark, documentary style, Rosi probes the mystery of Giuliano's murder but refuses to spice it up with speculative drama; his film is a compendium of known facts, accumulating and interconnecting with each successive flashback, asking many questions without providing answers. Giuliano was Italy's most wanted criminal and its most celebrated hero, fighting to unite disenfranchised Sicilians in a bid for independence from corrupt politicians and oppressive exploitation, but Salvatore Giuliano is anything but a conventional film biography: it's an exposé in the form of a puzzle, weaving complex relationships between Sicilian citizens, the Mafia, and political officials. It's also a technically beautiful film, owing a stylistic debt to the Italian neorealists with whom Rosi served his apprenticeship. A typically handsome Criterion release, this double-disc set offers some choice bonus features, including commentary by noted film historian Peter Cowie, a new documentary about the film featuring Rosi and film critic Tullio Kezich, and a 55-minute retrospective on Rosi's career. Recommended. (J. Shannon)