ShelbyTMItchell This case still affects not just in the so-called Roaring Twenties but also of today and of our future. As we see that Nicola Sacco and Bartholomeo Vanzetti, two Italian born men and devout anarchists were executed due to their anarchists beliefs.Murder was gruesome in Brantree, MA but it was their beliefs and the Red Scare that really not just divided a nation but divided a whole entire world.Case that still haunts us in the twenties, haunts us today and for the future. As the tag line says "If it happened once, it could happen again!" The late, great Riccardo Cucciolla and late great, Gian Marie Volente in the respected Sacco and Vanzetti roles. Were made as scapegoats as they could not get a fair trial as the criminal justice system also looked at them being Italians, which were in the minority at the time.Sacco was the quiet family man shoemaker and Vanzetti was more of the spokesman, fish peddler of the two and more of the talker. And maybe would had been a college professor if he had a college degree had it probably not been for his beliefs or being Italian. That they are portrayed to be. As the case also takes a toll on their families along the way.Cyri Cusack as a bullying prosecutor steals the movie. As he wants to just get them to the electric chair asap it seems over their beliefs. Despite the worldwide protests over them, Cusack's character finally gets his wish.A case that should be studied all over the world!

JasparLamarCrabb Extremely well acted but terribly put together film of one of America's most shameful injustices. Gian Maria Volonté and Riccardo Cucciolla portray the doomed anarchists in director Giuliano Montaldo's production. It suffers from what appears to be a serious lack of location work (it rarely even appears that events are taking place in the US) and Montaldo's direction is surprisingly lifeless. There's no feeling of what the country was going through during the politically turbulent 1920s, when anarchists, communists and other radicals were being deported en masse. The film relies on courtroom proceedings that are confusing rather than enlightening. Volonté and Cucciolla, as well as Cyril Cusack as a wily DA are excellent as are Milo O'Shea and William Prince as the Sacco & Vanzetti's first and second lawyers. Ennio Morricone's score is terrific, marred at times by poorly placed folk songs by Joan Baez.

tuco73 Only recently I was able to see again this movie. I remember seeing it a long time ago, I must have been 16 yrs old, and I was struck by it. After so long, now I'm thirty, the effect on me is still the same.This movie is absolutely marvelous, both for construction, acting and story: it recalls the true story of 2 Italian anarchists (Sacco and Vanzetti) sentenced to death by the court in the USA in the thirties because accused to have murdered someone during a robbery. At the time the story had great impact in the people all over the world, because the evidence of their innocence was total, and in many countries there were demonstrations against such terrible injustice. Now it is only another (admitted) mistake by the US justice system... so sad nothing changed ever since... Great was also the soundtrack by Italian maestro Ennio Morricone, sung by Joan Beaz and Georges Moustaki. I doubt this movie passes in the US TV schedules (especially with nowadays local admin.), so, if you want to see a really good movie, rent it out!

Dave Godin It is perhaps not without significance that Guiliano Montaldo worked as Assistant Director on Gillo Pontecorvo's brilliant KAPO, since there is a tangible link in terms of attitude, emotional power and political commitment between this film and Pontecorvo's other outstanding films. Great films are, very often, a means of conveying ideas, and, as Pudovkin once said, film is the greatest teacher because it reaches us both through the head and the emotions. Maybe this is why politically correct authoritarians are always chiding us `not to be sentimental' since emotions are something these control freaks can't orchestrate!Whatever one's views about the political sympathies of Sacco and Vanzetti, this film shows that they were victims of the hysterical climate of the times and place in which they found themselves, and their plight is represented with great humanism, empathy and power, helped in no small measure by the superb musical score of Ennio Morricone, which must rank as one of his very best. Montaldo's whole technique is thoroughly cinematic, and the acting and all technical credits are faultless.One somewhat disturbing aspect of this film however, was when I saw it in the USA, Sacco in his final speech from the dock declared, `We stand here because we are anarchists', (it struck at the time because I never thought I'd live to see the day that such a piece of dialogue would be delivered in a film distributed by MGM!), but, in its only screening in the UK on BBC television, this line was changed to `We stand here because we are radicals'. Hmmm! Not quite the same thing. On two other occasions I have noticed `creative subtitling' on French speaking movies, so maybe we should start a campaign for accurate and faithful subtitles!A brilliant film, in my all-time top 100, so when is anyone going to issue it on video?