If you want to know what it means to be Italian, watch this movie. LOL. (*The Godfather*? Fuggedaboutit . . . bunch o' bums . . .) The big thing the other reviewers are missing (I guess they are not Italian) is how this captures so beautifully the spirit of the Italian heart and soul. For one thing, Italians have a great sense of humor. And they have their values system straight. They know what is important and what is expendable, and all that is on display under the direction of no less a director than Stanley Kramer, one of the great auteurs of Hollywood history. It kind of amazes me that this was originally written by a guy named "Crichton" (who knows - maybe his mother was Italian) because the feel of it is so right. That is really the great strength of this film -- the nicely nuanced portrayal of the Italian peasant ethos in all its glory. This makes for a rich (as well as generally very funny) emotional experience that far outweighs any simple recitation facts the way that poor, pathetic northern European stock from their cold, frozen climes bereft of garlic, oregano, and olive oil too frequently perceive life (and frankly, I think this dichotomy is pointedly visible in some of the other reviews).
If you want to know the plot, read the other reviews. There is no point in repeating it again here. It's not the plot that drives this but the embellishments which clothe its bare framework. It took the masterfully rich arrangements of Robert Russel Bennett to bring Richard Rogers's simple piano melodies for the score of *Victory At Sea* to life and what you see here is a masterpiece of cinematic orchestration. You get that not only in the performances of Anthony Quinn (who was actually Mexican, by the way, even if my father, God rest his soul, was always was sure he just HAD to be Italian) in all his subtlety and only appropriately over-the-top moments and Hardy Kruger in his own similarly nuanced scenes, but throughout, right down to the vast cast of local country people extras who give a texture to this, along with its location, that lets you know what you are seeing is always essentially real. You get it in the various little incidents and accidents that real life is actually made of, which don't necessarily make a coherent narrative, but which if done right, if seen through the right lens, can make a greatly entertaining story.
Thus I had to give this TEN-star rating. Mere technical considerations aside, I have yet to see the movie that develops these themes like this one does.
If you want to know the plot, read the other reviews. There is no point in repeating it again here. It's not the plot that drives this but the embellishments which clothe its bare framework. It took the masterfully rich arrangements of Robert Russel Bennett to bring Richard Rogers's simple piano melodies for the score of *Victory At Sea* to life and what you see here is a masterpiece of cinematic orchestration. You get that not only in the performances of Anthony Quinn (who was actually Mexican, by the way, even if my father, God rest his soul, was always was sure he just HAD to be Italian) in all his subtlety and only appropriately over-the-top moments and Hardy Kruger in his own similarly nuanced scenes, but throughout, right down to the vast cast of local country people extras who give a texture to this, along with its location, that lets you know what you are seeing is always essentially real. You get it in the various little incidents and accidents that real life is actually made of, which don't necessarily make a coherent narrative, but which if done right, if seen through the right lens, can make a greatly entertaining story.
Thus I had to give this TEN-star rating. Mere technical considerations aside, I have yet to see the movie that develops these themes like this one does.