lasttimeisaw Pasoloni's fourth feature, an all-encompassing allegory about our society, is told in the form of a road movie about a pair of father and son, played by Totò and a young Ninetto Davoli, rambling in the outskirt of Rome (aimlessly at first, later, it will turn out that they are on the way to collect a debt).The opening sequence itself is an out-of-the-blue gambit, the movie's credits are not only shown, but also literally belted out by Domenico Modugno in his cheery tune along with Morricone's allegro theme music, are we going to watch a quintessential Totò's commedia dell'arte?Yes, and the picture also proves much more than that, Totò, although visibly ailing (he was almost completely blind at that time and would pass away one year later at the age of 69), perks up in a semblance of Charlie Chaplin in his suit-and-tie and an umbrella in his grasp, while Ninetto, improvises his comical naivety, together they form an odd duo contrasted and complemented each other with worldliness and guilelessness, command and obedience, incessantly, shimmering with amicable personae and gentle slapstick.After rubbernecking a dead body being taken out of a house, the pair meets a talking crow, surrealism has never been so whimsically grafted upon the neo-realist soil. The crow is a self- claimed Marxist, recounts a story of two Franciscan friars (also played by Totò and Davoli) in the 13th Century, who are adjured by St. Francis to preach Gospel to the hawks and the sparrows, an endeavour has taken them months and months, and two very varying approaches, one through voice, another through movement, that is the genius in Pasolini's conviction, different species, different tactics, old ways might not always work, ultimately and most sagaciously, love cannot alter the inherent qualities of each species, predators will remain being predators, so are preys, these roles are destined by nature, don't underestimate or over-estimate the power of religion.Back to the present, the trio experiences several episodes of mundane circulations, obscenity and misunderstanding foster belligerence, people are constantly adjusting their roles between a creditor and a debtor, poverty, being a Good Samaritan and beholding the birth of a new life, then to manifestation of his own political slant, the news footage of Palmiro Togliatii's funeral in 1964, whose was the prominent leader of the Italian Communist Party, has usurped the picture for several minutes, a very personal imprint which also revives the collective memory.Finally, a chance meeting with a young prostitute Luna (Benussi) leads the movie back to a flippant mood, and the ruination of the leftist crow, not just being too garrulous, also, it has to take the risk at its own peril, being a symbol of a passé ideal, communism is something nipped just out of the bud in Italy.A simple-in-structure, but immense-in-ideology prose, THE HAWKS AND THE SPARROWS are more accessible than Pasolini's other works, and also proffers to a nostalgic eye, a close observation of a legendary comedian's consuming caper in his twilight year, and Ennio Morricone's score has reached a new landmark in its audial vitality and emotional punch.

johnstonjames hilarious. an operatic voice screams out the names of the production crew during the opening titles. this sets the mood for a riotous comedy satire about little crows that walk with you and speak idealism, St. Francis of Assisi, and moody over sexed clowns.and this is probably one of Pasolini's milder films. at least it wasn't 'Salo'. i have a lot of respect for 'Salo' technically, especially since i saw the beautiful Criterion Collection restoration. but i find Sade really hard to take and 'Salo' can be so disgusting it just makes the whole Sade thing worse. aside from a little sexual suggestion, 'Hawks and the Sparrows' is almost a family film. almost. i don't think any Pasolini film is for children or families.this is also one of the more humorous and sweetly oddball of all the Paolini films i've seen. aside from the cruelty dealt the little crow at the end, most of the situations are played for sentiment and humor.i didn't think the little crow deserved his fate at the end. even if he was being tiresome and boring. but i've seen cuter crows. the crow here was kinda scruffy. the street i live on is pretty much "crowhaven farm". i mean the crows literally flock here in large groups and i try to feed them because they're really cute and can hop around in the most adorable way. so if you want to see really cute crows i suggest you try my street.

MisterWhiplash How I love a film that taps into the absurd while staying true to the symbolism, and in the process mocking it and then creating symbolism again. It's a very tricky thing- Bunuel was one of the masters at it- and Pier Paolo Pasolini, in one of his rare outright comedies, does just that. The Hawks and the Sparrows is simple enough to explain, in its central conceit: an older man (Toto) and a younger man (Ninetto) are walking along on some not-totally-clear journey (Toto might have some debts to fix or something, and he has apparently eighteen children), and they meet a talking crow, who talks and talks a lot. Then they get into some strange happenings, all comical. But it's the kind of comedy then that Pasolini uses like some deranged poetic waxing on about silent comedy and theories on God and faith and love and politics and, uh, stomach cramps I guess. It's completely off the wall, at times like a roadrunner cartoon (or, for that matter, the best Buster Keaton), and it's told with a dedication to the comic situation. It's masterful.At times it doesn't seem that way though. It could, in less concerted hands, be more scatter-shot, with some scenes working better than others, and with the one sure bet being the crow (voiced by a great Francesco Leonetti). But from the start, Paoslini is completely confident with the material, from the opening titles that are sung (heh), with the throw-away scene with the kids dancing at the restaurant (with an amazing Ennio Morricone rock song that pops in and out of the film), to the sudden inter-titles ala Monty Python ("the crow is a "left-wing intellectual"), and then onward with the little stories within the framework of the 'road movie'. The biggest chunk Pasolini shows us is the story of two monks- also played by Toto and Davoli- who are instructed by their head monk to talk to the hawks and sparrows and teach them about God. And they do, in bird speak (which is also subtitled in case it's needed), and then go through an allegorical tale of the ins and outs of faith.It takes some wicked subversion to make these scenes work, but they work hilariously, to the point where I laughed almost every minute of the sequence (as well as with other ones, the exception being the archival clips late in the film of the protest marches). Pasolini once said he was "as unbeliever who has a nostalgia for belief", imbues the story of the monks with a sense of charm to it- you like Toto and Davoli in the parts, not even so much that they're good in the roles, which they are very much so, but because there's some bedrock that the satire can spring from so easily. He, via the exceptional Tonino Delli Colli, films the Hawks and the Sparrows as strong in sumptuous black and white as any of his other early-mid 60s films. But there's a lot more going on within the comedy; it's like he skims a line that he could make it as, like with some of his other work (unfortunately ala Teorema) pretentious and annoyingly trite in its intellectual points. But as he goes to lengths to put a spin on it, it turns into pitch-black comedy, revealing him as an even deeper artist because of it.Take the birth scene, where the weird theater-type troupe who drive around in a car have to pause in their play on "How the Romans Ruined the Earth", and it suddenly becomes a sly farce unto itself. Something that should be sacred is given the air of playfulness, as though everyone is told "yes, it's alright to be in on the joke", where Toto covers Ninetto's eyes, other actors in the group pray, and then walla, there's a baby, clean as day. Morricone's score, I might add, brings a lot to this air of fun and playfulness, even when (and rightfully so) it goes to the more typical strings and orchestral sounds than the rockabilly, which sounds more like unused bits from Pulp Fiction. And finally, there's the crow itself, which unto itself- had Pasolini not made it mockable- would be funny anyway, as it's a frigging talking crow who for some reason follows the men anywhere they go. It's already allegorical of a sort of guide or voice of reason on their journey, which is fine. But including the ending especially, Pasolini allows for the joke to flip over itself.With the Hawks and the Sparrows, we get the absurd and the surreal, placed wonderfully in social constructs, and it reveals a filmmaker who can, unlike but like his controversial reputation presents, open up a whole other perspective with a strange twist that mixes classic Italian film style and scathing subject matter. A+

Claudio Carvalho Innocenti Totò (Totò) and his son Innocenti Ninetto (Ninetto Davoli) are drifting in a road in Italy, when they meet a Marxist speaking crow. The trio travels together in a long journey, but when hunger increases, the crow is simply eaten by the drifters."Uccellacci e Uccellini" is an original and critical surrealistic fable about the fate of the leftist ideology in the view of Pasolini. Although dated, the lead story is good, using the successful style of road-movie of the 50's explored by other Italian directors, like Fellini or Rossellini; but like a machine gun, Pasolini shots everywhere making the plot diffused, confused and sometimes boring. Totò has good performance, but Ninetto Davoli in his debut is very silly, with a forced smile on his face. The DVD released in Brazil by the minor Brazilian distributor Mediagroup is surprisingly good, presenting restored image and having lots of extras inclusive a documentary of 28 minutes running time about Pier Paolo Pasolini. There is a mistake in the Audio Menu: the 5.1 option shows indeed the movie with comments in Italian. But this minor mistake does not diminish the value of the Brazilian DVD. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Gaviões e Passarinhos" ("Hawks and Sparrows")