Tag: films

@cudvac and I share appreciation for this film, a reconstruction of the actual trial and execution of two Italian anarchists in Boston in 1927. They were officially found innocent and rehabilitated 50 years after their execution. The film is occasionally preachy, but even the preachy scenes are done beautifully. Sacco (played by Riccardo Cucciolla) has the best line of the film: in the last letter he writes to his son, he says to him: “When you play, don’t keep the joy of your games to yourself – share it.”

Warm thanks to Cudvac for helping me rediscover this film, and for posting this scene.

cudvac:

I truely, deeply, do not know why I made this

Maybe because “Sacco and Vanzetti” is an excellent film. It is not a Western – it is an account of the trial and execution of two Italian migrant workers in Massachusetts. They were convicted of armed robbery and murder, but the subtext is that they were also uppity migrants, militant anarchists and trade unionists. Their trial mobilised progressive activists and intellectuals all over the world. They were executed on 23 August 1927.

Fifty years later, on 23 August 1977, they were officially declared innocent.

I recommend the film in the strongest possible terms. Riccardo Cucciolla and Gian Maria Volonte’ are incredibly good. If you like Joan Baez, she sang “The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti”, for which she wrote the lyrics and Morricone the music.