In 1950, authorities find partisan Salvatore Giuliano dead at his compound in Castelventrano, Sicily. Giuliano (only seen as a corpse) was a notorious bandit who joined the Sicilian separatist movement after World War II, launching guerrilla attacks on Italian police and carabinieri. After Sicily gains autonomy in 1947, Giuliano continues his activities, culminating in the May Day massacre of Communists at Portella della Ginestra. After Giuliano's death his lieutenant Gaspare Pisciotta (Frank Wolff) threatens to connect Giuliano with local police, Italian officials and organized crime.
Shot on location in Sicily, Salvatore Giuliano is a riveting true-life tale. Encouraged by the Allies during WWII to undermine Fascist control (alongside the Mafia), separatist groups like MIS and EVIS wage low-level insurrection against the Italian government. This coincided with the rise of the Italian Communist Party, whose victory in 1946 elections helped trigger the Portella della Ginestra massacre. The movie suggests Italy's government uses Giuliano to suppress opposition, maintaining "plausible deniability" as they persecute the killers.
Rosi maintains impartial distance better than Gillo Pontecorvo, even with Algiers screenwriter Franco Solinas on board. Michael Cimino's wretched The Sicilian (1987) romanticizes Giuliano as a modern-day Robin Hood. Rosi instead shows him as a violent strongman, kidnapping officials and machine gunning policemen, who's nonetheless worshiped by an illiterate peasantry sick of Italian overlords. Rosi skips some of the case's more bizarre aspects: Giuliano apparently wanted Sicily to join the United States! The question isn't whether Giuliano was guilty but whether he was a pawn for conservative interests.
Salvatore Giuliano directs its anger at the officials who used and discarded Giuliano. As Giuliano's lieutenants are rounded up following his death, the conspiracy quickly unravels. Pisciotta claims he's been in touch with authorities for three years; police convince Pisciotta his boss is plotting against him, precipitating Giuliano's death. Crime bosses offer police Giuliano's lieutenants in exchange for immunity. The omerta code serves both Mafia "honor" and complicit officials well. When all else fails, witnesses are silenced. It's as incisive a cinematic portrait of official perfidy as can be found. Hollywood conspiracy thrillers like JFK are sensationalized nonsense in comparison.
Rosi uses local non-actors in approved neo-realist style. One of only two professionals is Frank Wolff, the American expatriate famous for Spaghetti Westerns like Once Upon a Time in the West and The Great Silence. Wolff gives a riveting turn as a sleazy crook who holds all the cards. The other is Salvo Randone, playing a government prosecutor. The cross section of pompous attorneys, shell-shocked soldiers and angry peasants registers strongly; many of them participated in the events depicted.
Salvatore Giuliano is another excellent '60s Italian film. When it comes to "politically aware" cinema Italy remains at the top of the heap.
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