Quite difficult a movie to rate. So i read the comments before voting. First, I don't agree with many of the comments. I read they define the movie as a mafia one and compare it with others like "The godfather". But this isn't a mafia movie. Mafia is an organization raised in southern Italy with deep historical roots, and therefore it has strict behavior codes and organization. This is a movie about a REAL band - the "banda della Magliana", a group of street-raised rogues with no common moral code that terrified Rome (and the whole Italy) in its already difficult '70. So i think the movie could be better compared with a "Scarface".
THE PROS Excellent acting, even single-void-expression Kim Rossi Stuart surprised me; I have to reconsider him. Excellent character developing: aspiring dictator Libanese, aspiring drug/ sex/business lord Dandi and aspiring normal life boy Freddo are the three "heads" of the band and perfectly represent their not having a unique aim for the band. The "no-way-out" atmosphere of the whole movie: you can perfectly feel that the characters act because they can't do in another way; call it fate, social/educational bounds, political pressure, they can't but do the things (and consequently the mistakes) you expect for them to do. Whatever they try to reach their "happyness" you know they are going to fail in the end.
THE CONS Dialogues: the characters talk with heavy use of dialect of Rome (I suppose this is done for a matter of realism) and with no noise-filtering, so i missed some part of the speeches. Historical background: as i already said this movie is about a band of rogues that acted in the '70s. I think a director is not forced to explore the historical background in its movie, but if so he should avoid historical referrings. This is the major fault of the movie: there are plenty of referrings to the happenings of those years (the bomb-explosion in Bologna train station, the Aldo Moro kidnapping) but there is no feeling with those year's atmosphere. Those were years imbued with fear and uncertainty and there is no trace of this feeling. This lack makes it an incomplete movie, just a "band of rogues" movie, while it could be an excellent portrait of both men and background. What a pity.
All these things, IMHO, make a 8/9 worth movie, get down to a 7 worth movie.
THE PROS Excellent acting, even single-void-expression Kim Rossi Stuart surprised me; I have to reconsider him. Excellent character developing: aspiring dictator Libanese, aspiring drug/ sex/business lord Dandi and aspiring normal life boy Freddo are the three "heads" of the band and perfectly represent their not having a unique aim for the band. The "no-way-out" atmosphere of the whole movie: you can perfectly feel that the characters act because they can't do in another way; call it fate, social/educational bounds, political pressure, they can't but do the things (and consequently the mistakes) you expect for them to do. Whatever they try to reach their "happyness" you know they are going to fail in the end.
THE CONS Dialogues: the characters talk with heavy use of dialect of Rome (I suppose this is done for a matter of realism) and with no noise-filtering, so i missed some part of the speeches. Historical background: as i already said this movie is about a band of rogues that acted in the '70s. I think a director is not forced to explore the historical background in its movie, but if so he should avoid historical referrings. This is the major fault of the movie: there are plenty of referrings to the happenings of those years (the bomb-explosion in Bologna train station, the Aldo Moro kidnapping) but there is no feeling with those year's atmosphere. Those were years imbued with fear and uncertainty and there is no trace of this feeling. This lack makes it an incomplete movie, just a "band of rogues" movie, while it could be an excellent portrait of both men and background. What a pity.
All these things, IMHO, make a 8/9 worth movie, get down to a 7 worth movie.