The Wide Blue Road

The Wide Blue Road
A poster with the film's English title: The Wide Blue Road
Directed by	Gillo Pontecorvo
Written by	Ennio De Concini Gillo Pontecorvo Maleno Malenotti
Story by	Franco Solinas
Produced by	Maleno Malenotti
Starring	Yves Montand Alida Valli
Cinematography	Mario Montuori
Edited by	Eraldo Da Roma
Music by	Carlo Franci
Distributed by	G.E.S.I. Cinematografica
Release date	22 November 1957 (1957-11-22)
Running time	103 minutes
Countries	France Italy West Germany Yugoslavia
Language	Italian

The Wide Blue Road (Italian : La grande strada azzurra) is a 1957 Italian romance drama film directed by Gillo Pontecorvo.

Plot

The story follows the harsh rugged life of a poor fisherman on La Maddalena. In a desperate effort to improve the lives of his family he begins to fish illegally using bombs instead of relying on nets. However this method invokes the hatred of the other fishermen.

Cast

• Alida Valli – Rosetta
• Yves Montand – Squarciò
• Francisco Rabal – Salvatore
• Umberto Spadaro – Marshal
• Peter Carsten – Rivo
• Federica Ranchi – Diana
• Terence Hill – Renato

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 92% of 13 critics' reviews are positive. ^[1] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". ^[2]

References

1. "The Wide Blue Road | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
2. "La grande strada azzurra Reviews". www.metacritic.com. Retrieved 16 December 2025.

External links

• The Wide Blue Road at IMDb