Somebody say that it is a classical italian movie about Mafia, but I'm sure that `I cento passi'is something more. It talks about the real story of Peppino Impastato. Peppinpo was a boy who lived in a small village in Sicily in the 70's. After his grandfather's murder he knew a printer who was communist and becoming communist and through he tried to fight the Mafia and the boss in particular, because he was the mandant of grandfather's murder. `I cento passi' means ` 100 steps' which was the distance between his home and the boss' house. He was killed by dynamite the same day of Moro's murder (a famous italian politician) but the police said that it was an accident. It is a real story and it make you thing how the pawer is dangerous but also how is important the bravery.
Plot summary
"I cento passi" (one hundred steps) was the distance between the Impastatos' house and the house of Tano Badalamenti, an important Mafia boss, in the small Sicilian town of Cinisi. The movie is the story of Peppino Impastato, a young left-wing activist who in the late seventies (when almost nobody dared to speak about the Mafia, and several politicians maintained that the Mafia did not even exist) repeatedly denounced Badalamenti's criminal activities and the whole Mafia system, by using a small local radio station to broadcast his political pronouncements in the form of ironic humour. In 1978 Peppino (30 years old) was killed by an explosion. The police archived the case as an accident or a suicide, but his friends never accepted this conclusion. Note: This is a true story. More than twenty years after Peppino's death, the case has been re-opened. Tano Badalamenti, meanwhile, has been convicted in the USA for drug trafficking.
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Nice italian movie
A good film blighted by bad subtitles
The acting and imagery are strong and striking bringing to life the story of a young man who protests against and speaks out against the Mafia. The beauty of the landscape and the faded charm of the town's architecture are contrasted with the brutality of organised crime and the way in which it can fracture families.
I watched this on Amazon Prime and the English subtitles were poor, often in broken and unnatural English and I am certain they did little justice to the original Italian which is a shame. Even names were translated incorrectly. At the end of the film the subtitles said that Gaetano Impastato was committed for trial when the Italian text above correctly stated it was Gaetano Badalamenti.
I lack the ability to learn Italian and so I hope to see the film again one day with a better translation.
The hundred steps
A Sicilian country wedding is the setting of story as it begins. Peppino Impastato, a young boy comes to the celebration with his parents and younger brother. At the banquet that follows one can see an assortment of characters that will be pivotal to the story later on. Being Sicily one can dismiss the idea that organized crime hoods are at the bridal table and somehow Peppino's own father knows much more than he owns up to, in this tale about the of an awakening. The viewer never suspects the change from the bucolic setting of the early scenes to the reality of how the mafia works in that part of Italy.
Something changes Peppino's perception of life when he goes to visit a local artist that has holds high communist ideals as a priority. Peppino fights with his father and abandons the family home. His life changes completely until he finds his own voice when he and his friends start a local radio in Cinisi, a small town in the island. Little prepares us for the way Peppino's voice will do to the mafia bigwigs that have a tight control on everything in Cinisi.
Marco Tullio Giordana, the director of "La meglio giuventu", his epic masterpiece about Italian life seen through different generations, conceived and co-wrote this film about a passionate youth that dedicates his life to fight the organized crime in his home town. Supposedly, it is based on a real person, but not being a hundred percent certain, we have to go on the assumption that it reflects what really happened in that small town years ago.
The only reason for watching this Italian film is Luigi Lo Cascio's take on Peppino. As he proved later with his participation in the director's next movie, this young actor shows he is one of the best of his generation and has a great future in the Italian cinema. Also in the cast, Luigi Maria Burruano, who makes a good job as Peppino's father.
Although the theme is about Peppino's turn into leftist politics in his own land, the film is enjoyable because it is never in one's face. Mr. Giordana makes the viewer get his own conclusion by stating the facts as he saw them.