Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

christopher-underwood Made in between, Lucky Luciano and the much acclaimed Christ Stopped at Eboli, this is a fabulous, very impressive tale of the power of corruption and paranoia. The wonderful Lino Ventura is spot on as the laconic detective investigating, first the assassination of judges and then to what lies behind. Not everyone is so keen, of course, and as the plot thickens we begin to join up the dots that represent, the church, the judiciary, the mafia and the government. Maybe its all the fault of the hippies and students or maybe the corrupted officials will inadvertently fan that flame. Measured, beautifully photographed and never too explicit, we journey with mr Ventura and just hope he is on the right track. Fantastic opening with long corridor and religious artefacts and mummies that wouldn't look amiss in a Luis Bunuel film leading us to the first brutal killing. Surely a candidate for best film opening ever.

anagram14 The good news first: Cadaveri eccellenti is now out on DVD. Which is how we came to see it again last night. - Second, my own two cents since I've just read the negative comments on the discussion boards, where people are actually wondering if this is the worst movie ever. No way! OK, my own approach to it was an uphill journey. First saw it ages ago because Tre fratelli and Cristo si è fermato a Eboli had impressed me. This one is quite different, and I didn't get a thing. Years later, I stumbled over the story it's based on: "The Context. A parody" by Leonardo Sciascia. Even readers only passingly familiar with Sciascia will realize that the baddies are never caught in his books, reflecting the realities of his native Sicily. Of all the books of his I've read, this one was the toughest, because evil is omnipresent and not identified with individuals. A parody perhaps, but a bitter one, and one he took a long time to finish because writing it distressed him. Rosi read it on a long journey and it hit him like lightning. Like Sciascia, he was interested in the ways power corrupts people. So that's what we have here: a relentless gallery of corrupt officials in every walk of life. Not only in the Mafia but also in the realms of politics, justice, the military and religion. Max von Sydow's character is as repellent as anything I've ever seen. The whole caboodle is not meant to be fully understood, and that's where a large part of that all-pervading sense of menace comes from. The locations are gorgeous - wish I knew where that bus stop was where Rogas watches the procession of high-and-mighties drive by. And those catacombs! Someone here said the location wasn't clearly identified, but given that both Sciascia and Rosi were Italian, and that the film features a map of Sicily rather prominently in one shot, I beg to differ. IMHO this is indeed Sicily. And bella Italia. Berlusconi may look more benign than certain of his predecessors but... oh, all right, all right, this ain't the Speaker's Corner. The rest is silence.

Enoch Sneed I managed to see this at a film society showing about 25 (oh, help!) years ago. I have never forgotten the air of menace and foreboding it generates as Lino Ventura (a great performance) doggedly pursues his case among the great and the good. An air of strangeness, too, such as the strange rumbling noises Ventura hears when he moves to his anonymous new apartment complex.This is a film I would dearly love to see again but for the last quarter of a century (makes a girl think) nothing, nada, zip! I doubt whether the current controller of the Italian media will be interested in releasing a film about political conspiracy for public consumption but I wish someone would. This is a film which deserves to be seen and to be appreciated much more widely.

bradchisholm@go.com Just a couple of additional points - The first assassination victim is Charles Vanel (Tre Fratelli) but also from Wages of Fear (with Montand) as a far younger man.The opening sequence as he emerges from the tombs to the killing in a garden is arguably one of the strongest openings to a film ever. Rosi (an AD to Visconti) is known for this, check out his opening sequence to his "Carmen" (Placido Domingo).On a political note, being a leftist/communist in Italy in the 60s/70s was more accurately being an anti-fascist. Many of the rich claimed to be communists. Lina Wertmuller built a career making fun of this social and political confusion.Wish Illustrious Corpses were available here on DVD!!!