The Sicilian (film)

Last updated
The Sicilian
Thesiciliandvd.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Michael Cimino
Screenplay by Steve Shagan
Gore Vidal (uncredited)
Michael Cimino (uncredited)
Based on The Sicilian
by Mario Puzo
Produced byJoann Carelli
Michael Cimino
Bruce McNall
Starring
Cinematography Alex Thomson
Edited by Françoise Bonnot
Music by David Mansfield
Production
company
Distributed by 20th Century Fox (United States)
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (International) [1]
Release date
  • October 23, 1987 (1987-10-23)
Running time
115 minutes
146 minutes (Director's cut)
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
Italian
Budget$16.5 million [a 1]
Box office$5.4 million [2]

The Sicilian is a 1987 epic historical crime film directed by Michael Cimino. The film was adapted by Steve Shagan, and later rewritten by Cimino and Gore Vidal from Mario Puzo's 1984 novel of the same name. Christopher Lambert stars as Salvatore Giuliano, the infamous bandit who tried to liberate early 1950s Sicily from Italian rule. The film also stars Terence Stamp, Joss Ackland, John Turturro and Barbara Sukowa.

Contents

Plot

Salvatore Giuliano, an infamous bandit, together with his ragtag band of guerrillas, attempted to liberate early 1950s Sicily from Italian rule and make it an American state. Giuliano robs from the rich landowners to give to the peasants, who in turn hail him as their savior. As his popularity grows, so does his ego, and he eventually thinks he is above the power of his backer, Mafia Don Masino Croce. Don Croce, in turn, sets out to kill the upstart by convincing his cousin and closest adviser Gaspare "Aspanu" Pisciotta to assassinate him.

Cast

Production

Development

Due to the huge success of The Godfather , Mario Puzo was given $1 million for the film rights to his novel The Sicilian . [3] David Begelman, head of Gladden Entertainment at the time, hired Michael Cimino to direct. [3] When producer Bruce McNall met with Cimino at a dinner in Los Angeles, he complained loudly about the script and Begelman's interference with casting. [4] Cimino wanted Daniel Day-Lewis to play Giuliano after seeing him in The Bounty , [5] but eventually settled on Christopher Lambert instead, after he was told by the producers that Day-Lewis wasn't well known enough in the film industry for a lead role. Cimino would later express his regret over the casting of Lambert: "He did everything he could; he cried, got hurt, but he couldn't do it." [6] Begelman was concerned about a French actor starring in a film about an Italian hero in an English-speaking film, but decided to give Cimino what he wanted with regards to the script and casting to move forward. [4] [7]

Following two unsatisfactory meetings with Steve Shagan about his script, Cimino heavily rewrote it, enlisting the help and collaboration of novelist Gore Vidal in the process. [8] Vidal said that Cimino came to his house in Italy in March 1986 with a script that he had personally written. [9] "I didn't recognize much of what was on the screen," Shagan later said. [8] Ironically, it was Vidal who ended up filing suit against both Shagan and the Writers Guild of America to receive screenplay credit. "I was defrauded of my work," he told the Los Angeles Times . [10] [8] Vidal eventually won the suit against WGA. [11] In the DVD commentary of Year of the Dragon , Cimino said he learned a lot from working with Vidal. [12]

Shooting

The film was shot on location in Sicily in the spring and summer of 1986. [3] In late April 1986, Begelman and McNall discovered that the film was over budget and behind schedule. The problems involved mostly hang-ups with personnel and equipment— nothing on the scale of Cimino's Heaven's Gate . One exception was some low-level Mafia men who controlled certain locations and union workers. Cimino suggested that Begelman and McNall meet with the Mafia men to overcome the impasse. Upon meeting them in a restaurant off the main piazza, the producers discovered that the Mafia men wanted to appear in the film. "Once we all understood," wrote McNall, "the fix was easy. There were plenty of little roles for walk-ons and extras. And if a real role didn't exist, we could pretend to involve some of the guys and throw them a day's pay." Once the problem was solved, Cimino had access to the countryside and the local labor pool. [7]

In order to prepare them for their roles, Christopher Lambert recalled that prior to filming, Cimino had him and John Turturro spend an entire two and a half months riding on horseback in Sicily. [13] Lambert spoke of his relationship with Cimino in 2015:

"Cimino was probably the greatest of his generation, including [Francis] Coppola and [Martin] Scorsese, but he was too smart. He had too much talent. He is an architect, a painter, a writer and a director. On set, he was better than everyone else, in every way. So he wanted to oversee everything. And that is impossible. You have to know how to delegate. He didn't know. This resulted in acute paranoia, in mind-blowing methods of manipulation. One day, just before a very difficult scene, he said to me: 'I had the producers on the phone, I'm fired tomorrow.' I still don't know if it was a manifestation of his paranoia, or a way of throwing me off balance. Because the next day, he was there." [13]

Post-production

After location work was finished, Cimino took the footage straight to his editing room to begin cutting. Cimino did not report any of his progress on the editing as the months passed until he delivered a 150-minute cut of the film and declared that he was done. Under his contract with the producers, Cimino had the right to final cut as long as the film was under 120 minutes long. Cimino insisted that no more cuts could be made and pressed Begelman and McNall to present the current version to 20th Century Fox, the film's domestic distributor. Before viewing the film, the Fox executives said to the producers that the film was so long that it limited the number of showings a theater could present each day. It had to be trimmed or Fox would not release it. [14]

When Begelman and McNall relayed Fox's ruling to Cimino, he exploded. "I've been cutting for six months. There's nothing more to take out!" he shouted. The producers responded that there had to be a way to tell the story in 120 minutes. Cimino answered, "Fine! You want it shorter, you got it." A few days later, Cimino delivered a new version of the film in which all of the action scenes were cut out. "In the script a big wedding scene in the mountains is followed by an attack on the wedding party." wrote McNall. "In what we saw the wedding was followed by a scene at a hospital, where all the people in nice clothes were being treated for their wounds. He just cut out the battle." Begelman did not wait until the film ended to get on the phone and immediately called Cimino. Cimino said that his contract allowed him final cut in a 120-minute film and what he gave them qualified. [14]

Lawsuit

As a result of the impasse with Cimino, the producers went to arbitration. "Every day that passed without the film being complete cost us and our partners—Fox and Dino De Laurentiis—money." wrote McNall. "The judge in the arbitration acknowledged that problem and gave us a speedy hearing." Bert Fields represented the producers. Cimino's lawyers used a precedent established by Fields in an earlier case: Fields aided Warren Beatty's win in a dispute over final cut with the producers of the movie Reds , a finding that stated a contract granting a director final cut was absolutely binding. The producers challenged the claim that Cimino's 120-minute version of the film was a legitimate piece of work. "It was an act of bad faith," argued McNall, "no matter what the contract said." [15]

Dino De Laurentiis was called in to testify as an expert witness. De Laurentiis had overseen Cimino's Year of the Dragon , set the precedent for giving Cimino final cut in the contract for that film and even gave Cimino a positive recommendation to Begelman for The Sicilian. [15] However, when De Laurentiis took the stand:

"Final cut? I no give-a him final cut," he declared.

"But we've seen the contract," said Fields.

"Have you seen the side letter?" asked De Laurentiis. [15]

A subsequently unearthed side letter stated that notwithstanding the contract, Cimino did not have the right to final cut on Year of the Dragon. Fields argued that by withholding the side letter, Cimino defrauded the producers. The judge agreed. Begelman personally trimmed the film to 115 minutes. [15]

Release

Fox released The Sicilian on October 23, 1987, in 370 theaters. The film opened at #7 on the box office charts, grossing $1,720,351 and averaging $4,649 per theater. The film's domestic box office gross eventually totaled $5,406,879. [2] According to McNall, the losses on The Sicilian were offset by the profits from Gladden's other 1987 release Mannequin , [16] which unlike The Sicilian, became a box office hit.

Reception

Critical reaction to the film was fairly negative. Many critics panned the film's incoherent narrative, muddy visual style, and the casting of Lambert in the lead as Giuliano. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave The Sicilian "two thumbs down". Ebert complained about the cinematography: "The film alternates between scenes that are backlit where you can't see the faces and other scenes that were so murky that you couldn't see who was talking." Siskel attacked the film's star, "Let me just go after Christopher Lambert... because here is the center of the film. This would be as if the Al Pacino character in The Godfather were played by a member of the walking dead." [17] In his Chicago Sun-Times review, Ebert claimed The Sicilian continues director Michael Cimino's "record of making an incomprehensible mess out of every other film he directs", contrasting the "power and efficiency" of The Deer Hunter and The Year of the Dragon with the "half-visible meditations on backlighting" of Heaven's Gate and The Sicilian. [18]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times said, "Cimino's fondness for amber lighting and great, sweeping camera movements are evident from time to time, but the film is mostly a garbled synopsis of the Puzo novel." [19] Variety added "Cimino seems to be aiming for an operatic telling of the short career of the violent 20th-century folk hero [based on Mario Puzo's novel], but falls into an uncomfortable middle ground between European artfulness and stock Hollywood conventions." [20] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post felt it was "unambiguously atrocious, but in that very special, howlingly grandiose manner that only a filmmaker with visions of epic greatness working on a large scale with a multinational cast can achieve." [21] Leonard Maltin rated the film a "BOMB", calling it a "militantly lugubrious bio of Salvatore Giuliano". [22]

Producer McNall was personally disappointed by the film. "Given that The Sicilian was a descendant of Puzo's The Godfather," wrote McNall, "I had expected something with the same beauty, drama, and emotion. Cimino had shown with The Deer Hunter that he was capable of making such a movie. But he had failed." McNall even quoted Ebert's review in his appraisal of The Sicilian, "Ebert criticized the cast, the cinematography, the script, even the sound quality. He was right about all of it." [16]

In his analysis of The Sicilian, Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote:

"Cimino doesn't stint on the Western analogies, with horses and mountains and conflicts over land rights, and his image repertory is as vital and energetic as ever, but it's hard not to see a crisis of cinematic faith, a sense of narrowing possibilities, afflicting the film. The pageantry of a Communist march with red flags in the wilderness, the ancient clutter of a nobleman's study, the haunting mystery of streetlights through a car's rear window all ring with Cimino's enthusiastic inspiration, but the movie seems like a substitute for the director's visions at his most uninhibited. It plays mostly like a feature-length analogy, a sort of intellectual behind-the-scenes laboratory for another vast American movie that he couldn't have made at the time." [23]

Rotten Tomatoes gives The Sicilian a 10% "Rotten" rating, based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. [24]

Alternative versions

A 146-minute director's cut was released theatrically in France and is available on VHS, [25] DVD [26] and Blu-Ray in the United States, [27] and in Europe as a region 2 DVD. [28] This version received mixed reviews when it initially opened in Paris. Maltin gave the director's cut of The Sicilian two stars out of four, writing that the film "seems shorter, thanks to more coherency and Sukowa's strengthened role. Neither version, though, can overcome two chief liabilities: Cimino's missing sense of humor and Lambert's laughably stone-faced performance." [22] Film critic F.X. Feeney (a close friend of Cimino's) lauded this version of the film, and in an article of L.A. Weekly , he compared and contrasted the two particular versions. He mentioned that Fox's cut removed "three major sequences, four major scenes, and about 100 lines of dialogue," stated that Lambert's performance was botched by the studio's tinkering, and that Sukowa's voice was dubbed by another actress in said version. Feeney went on to call The Sicilian "a masterpiece" and "a work of genius," and declared it as the best film of 1987. [29] [30]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Godfather</i> (novel) 1969 novel by Mario Puzo

The Godfather is a crime novel by American author Mario Puzo. Originally published on 10 March 1969 by G. P. Putnam's Sons, the novel details the story of a fictional Mafia family in New York City and Long Island, headed by Vito Corleone, the Godfather. The novel covers the years 1945 to 1955 and includes the back story of Vito Corleone from early childhood to adulthood.

<i>The Deer Hunter</i> 1978 film directed by Michael Cimino

The Deer Hunter is a 1978 American epic war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives are upended after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage, with John Cazale, Meryl Streep and George Dzundza in supporting roles. The story takes place in Clairton, Pennsylvania, a working-class town on the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, and in Vietnam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mario Puzo</span> American author, screenwriter, and journalist (1920–1999)

Mario Francis Puzo was an American author and screenwriter. He wrote crime novels about the Italian-American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia, most notably The Godfather (1969), which he later co-adapted into a film trilogy directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the first film in 1972 and for Part II in 1974. Puzo also wrote the original screenplay for the 1978 Superman film and its 1980 sequel. His final novel, The Family, was released posthumously in 2001.

<i>Heavens Gate</i> (film) 1980 American Western film by Michael Cimino

Heaven's Gate is a 1980 American epic Western film written and directed by Michael Cimino, starring Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges, and Joseph Cotten, and loosely based on the Johnson County War. It revolves around a dispute between land barons and European immigrants in Wyoming in the 1890s.

<i>The Godfather Part III</i> 1990 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

The Godfather Part III is a 1990 American epic crime film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from the screenplay co-written with Mario Puzo. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy García, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, Bridget Fonda, George Hamilton, and Sofia Coppola. It is the third and final installment in The Godfather trilogy. A sequel to The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), it concludes the fictional story of Michael Corleone, the patriarch of the Corleone family who attempts to legitimize his criminal empire. The film also includes fictionalized accounts of two real-life events: the 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981–1982, both linked to Michael Corleone's business affairs.

Salvatore Giuliano was an Italian bandit, who rose to prominence in the disorder that followed the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. In September of that year, Giuliano became an outlaw after shooting and killing a police officer who tried to arrest him for black market food smuggling, at a time when 70 percent of Sicily's food supply was provided by the black market. He maintained a band of subordinates for most of his career. He was a flamboyant, high-profile criminal, attacking the police at least as often as they sought him. In addition, he was a local power-broker in Sicilian politics between 1945 and 1948, including his role as a nominal colonel for the Movement for the Independence of Sicily. He and his band were held legally responsible for the Portella della Ginestra massacre, though there is some doubt about their role in the numerous deaths which occurred.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Cimino</span> American film director (1939–2016)

Michael Antonio Cimino was an American film director, screenwriter, producer and author. Notorious for his obsessive attention to detail and determination for perfection, Cimino achieved widespread fame with The Deer Hunter (1978), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Corleone</span> Fictional character from The Godfather

Michael Corleone is a fictional character and the protagonist of Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather. In the three Godfather films, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Michael was portrayed by Al Pacino, for which he was twice-nominated for Academy Awards. Michael is the youngest son of Vito Corleone, a Sicilian immigrant who builds a Mafia empire. Upon his father's death, Michael succeeds him as the don of the Corleone crime family.

<i>Conan the Destroyer</i> 1984 film by Richard Fleischer

Conan the Destroyer is a 1984 American epic sword and sorcery film directed by Richard Fleischer from a screenplay by Stanley Mann and a story by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway. Based on the character Conan the Barbarian created by Robert E. Howard, it is the sequel to Conan the Barbarian (1982). The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako reprising their roles as Conan and Akiro, the Wizard of the Mounds, respectively. The cast also includes Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter, and Olivia d'Abo.

<i>Year of the Dragon</i> (film) 1985 film by Michael Cimino

Year of the Dragon is a 1985 American neo-noir crime thriller film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino, and starring Mickey Rourke, John Lone, and Ariane Koizumi. The film follows a tough New York City police captain (Rourke) battling a ruthless Chinese-American Triad boss (Lone). The screenplay, written by Cimino and Oliver Stone, is based on a 1981 novel of the same title by Robert Daley.

David Begelman was an American film producer, film executive and talent agent who was involved in a studio embezzlement scandal in the 1970s.

<i>Rampage</i> (1987 film) 1987 film by William Friedkin

Rampage is a 1987 American crime drama film written, produced and directed by William Friedkin. The film stars Michael Biehn, Alex McArthur, and Nicholas Campbell. Friedkin wrote the script based on the novel of the same name by William P. Wood, which was inspired by the life of Richard Chase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Clemenza</span> Fictional character from The Godfather series

Peter Clemenza is a fictional character who first appeared in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather. He is played by Academy Award-nominee Richard Castellano in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 film adaptation of the novel, and by Bruno Kirby in The Godfather Part II (1974).

<i>The Sicilian</i> 1984 novel by Mario Puzo

The Sicilian is a novel by American author Mario Puzo. Published in 1984 by Random House Publishing Group (ISBN 0-671-43564-7), it is based on the life of Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano. It is set in the same universe as Puzo's most famous work, The Godfather (1969), and contains characters from The Godfather. It is regarded as The Godfather's literary sequel and is the second book in The Godfather novel series. It was adapted into a film in 1987, though all Godfather references were removed for copyright reasons in the film adaptation.

<i>Salvatore Giuliano</i> (film) 1962 Italian film

Salvatore Giuliano is a 1962 Italian drama film directed by Francesco Rosi. Using techniques of the documentary film, it recounts the criminal career of famous Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano between 1943 and 1950, his death. In 2008, the film was included in the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaspare Pisciotta</span>

Gaspare Pisciotta was a companion of the Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano, and considered to be the co-leader of his outlaw band. He is also the Judas in Giuliano's legend as he betrayed Giuliano and killed him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portella della Ginestra massacre</span> 1947 mass killing by Sicilian separatists in Piana degli Albanesi, Sicily, Italy

The Portella della Ginestra massacre refers to the killing of 11 people and 27 wounded during May Day celebrations in Sicily on 1 May 1947, in the municipality of Piana degli Albanesi. Those held responsible were the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano and his gang, although their motives and intentions are still a matter of controversy.

Stephen H. Shagan was an American novelist, screenwriter, and television and film producer.

<i>Salvatore Giuliano</i> (opera) Opera by Lorenzo Ferrero

Salvatore Giuliano is an opera in one act by Lorenzo Ferrero to an Italian-language libretto by Giuseppe Di Leva, which was conceived to be performed in tandem with Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. The work was commissioned by the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and premiered there on 25 January 1986.

The Godfather book series is a series of crime novels about Italian-American Mafia families, most notably the fictional Corleone family, led by Don Vito Corleone and later his son Michael Corleone. The first novel, The Godfather, written by Mario Puzo, was released in 1969. It was adapted into a series of three feature films, which became one of the most acclaimed franchises in film history.

References

Annotations

  1. ↑ Estimate based on: "Total American gross at the box office was $5.5 million, about a third of our production costs." (3 x 5.5 = 16.5). McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 115.

Notes

  1. ↑ "The Sicilian (1987)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  2. 1 2 The Sicilian. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
  3. 1 2 3 McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 103
  4. 1 2 McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 104
  5. ↑ ""The Sicilian", 1987, por F.x. Feeney". YouTube . March 8, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
  6. ↑ Maraval, Vincent (April 22, 2014). "MICHAEL CIMINO, chapeau bas". Sofilm (in French). Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  7. 1 2 McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 105
  8. 1 2 3 Broeske, Pat H. (October 7, 1990). "Look Who's Back With a New Movie: 'The Deer Hunter' made Michael Cimino a winner, but his next film was the legendary failure 'Heaven's Gate.' With 'Desperate Hours,' the stakes have never been higher". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  9. ↑ Mathews, Jack (November 12, 1987). "The Real Body Count of Michael Cimino's 'Sicilian' : Director's Version Opens in Paris to Mixed Reviews; Cut Print Sinking at U.S. Box Office". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  10. ↑ Mann, Roderick (February 14, 1987). "Vidal Sues to Get Credit on 'Sicilian'". Los Angeles Times . pp. 1, 10.
  11. ↑ "L.A. Ruling Favors Vidal in WGA/'Sicilian' Suit". Variety . No. 329. November 11, 1987. p. 6.
  12. ↑ Feature-length commentary on Year of the Dragon by director Michael Cimino. Located on the Region 1 DVD.
  13. 1 2 Marchisio, Benoit (October 9, 2015). "Christophe LAMBERT : " Sur Vercingétorix, ça dérapait pas, c'était Holiday on ice "". Sofilm (in French).
  14. 1 2 McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 113
  15. 1 2 3 4 McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 114
  16. 1 2 McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 115
  17. ↑ Roger Ebert & Gene Siskel (hosts) (October 23, 1987). Siskel & Ebert At The Movies: The Sicilian. Chicago, IL: Buena Vista Television . Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  18. ↑ Ebert, Roger (October 23, 1987). "The Sicilian". Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved 2010-09-08.
  19. ↑ Canby, Vincent (October 23, 1987). "Movie Review - The Sicilian (1987)". The New York Times . Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  20. ↑ "The Sicilian". Variety . 1986-12-31. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  21. ↑ Hinson, Hal (October 24, 1987). "'The Sicilian' (R)". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2010-09-08.
  22. 1 2 Maltin, Leonard (August 2008). Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide. New York, NY: Penguin Group. p.  1246. ISBN   978-0-452-28978-9.
  23. ↑ Brody, Richard (July 12, 2016). "Postscript: Michael Cimino, 1939–2016". The New Yorker . Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  24. ↑ The Sicilian. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
  25. ↑ The Sicilian VHS. ASIN   6301007891.
  26. ↑ The Sicilian DVD. ASIN   B00005QAP2.
  27. ↑ "The Sicilian (Director's Cut) | Shout! Factory". www.shoutfactory.com. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  28. ↑ "The Sicilian Region 2 DVD". Amazon. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  29. ↑ MATHEWS, JACK (1987-11-12). "The Real Body Count of Michael Cimino's 'Sicilian' : Director's Version Opens in Paris to Mixed Reviews; Cut Print Sinking at U.S. Box Office". Los Angeles Times. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved 2017-06-23.
  30. ↑ McGilligan, Pat; Rowl, Mark; McGilligan, Pat; Rowl, Mark (1988-01-17). "THE FILMS OF '87 A CRITICAL REPLAY". The Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2017-06-23.

Bibliography

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.