Product Description: In the Sicilian town of Trapani the Mafia owns just about everyone except for four loyal bodyguards who are assigned to protect a newly-appointed honest judge marked for death. Based on a true story.System Requirements:Running Time 95 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR UPC: 827058109291 Manufacturer No: BU1092
You won't even mind the captions - this is a good film! Despite the fact that I knew none of the actors and don't speak Italian, this was a very credible film (and why shouldn't it be - it was a true story). The characters were well formed and very well played and the story was compelling. I think not having "big stars" in this production made it better, as equal attention could be payed to all. This is a film well worth seeing and I will probably watch it many times again.
Special favors between businessmen and certain elected politicians LA SCORTA, a movie released in 1993, played by Italian actors, is very much a European movie, that rolls all into one many aspects of a small, ephemeral microcosm, surrounding an investigation into corruption and awarding of contracts based on special favors between businessmen and certain elected politicians, with the judiciary and law enforcement caught in the crossfire.
It's not an action movie, considering that many personal, human sides of the officers are demonstrated, such as moments with family, kids, birthdays, festivities, etc.
It's not a humorous movie, either, considering the serious topic it covers, deadly serious even, such as shown by an explosive planted in a car, or 2 motocycle men doubling as executioners, the death of powerful politicians, etc.
What this movie does, is portray the enormous frustration, confusion, and struggle that occurs when there are millions of people, and large numbers of special interests, powerful people of all walks of life, each pulling in every direction, such that nobody is completely satisfied at any time, in terms of meeting their own objectives. This is a lesson learned early on by many, obviously, in life, and it has a lot to do with the paradox of each person wishing to walk along the righteous path, do the right thing, yet having to blend in, and go along with what everyone else is doing in society, and expects, so everyone can "get along." Call it the need to look the other way, sometimes, because otherwise, perhaps society would be unworkable. Each is an individual. Each has his or her own goals. Each goes about reaching them in different ways.
Each has to win, in some way or another, maybe partially only, for the totality of the system to work.
At the end, the special prosecutor is fired, because he's inflexible in his rigid interpretation of the elimination of corruption, alienating everyone around him. And society can deal with the presence of corruption, but can't deal with someone whose mind is set on one thing, and nothing else.
A forgotten classic well worth remembering La Scorta is one of the best Italian films of the 90s, although that hasn't stopped it from disappearing from circulation for years until Blue Underground's DVD release. Unlike the Eurotrash which is that label's main stock-in-trade, this is a powerful and sober crime drama (rather than an out-and-out thriller) about the small group of bodyguards protecting a judge investigating mafia and government corruption in Sicily. It's certainly not a glamorous portrait: terminally underfunded, they only have two bullet-proof vests between them, and instead of armoured cars they get clapped-out unmarked vehicles the police can't even afford to keep the tanks full. There's not much in the way of action, but there's plenty of suspense over what MIGHT happen. Every abandoned car by the roadside could be a bomb, a stuck gate could be a prime opportunity for an assassin, so that when the expected does finally happen (and to the most obvious candidate in the most obvious fashion) it doesn't feel quite like such a cliche, more inevitability. The film does a good job of humanising its protagonists en route. While they all have the usual stereotyped dead meat trappings - families, girlfriends, pregnant wives - they spend much of the first half jockeying for position, making mistakes and inadvertently betraying their charge. Ricky Tognazzi directs with energy and imagination that belies the film's low budget and is well served by his ensemble cast.
Sadly, the DVD transfer, while acceptable, is not great, although the extras are good.
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