Martin Scorsese credits this film as being one of his many inspirational sources for the look and style of his Taxi Driver (1976).
About 12 minutes into the film a voiceover says "But our sons and our son's sons will live in a free land and will lift their gaze to the heavens and smile at the future." The next scene shows a cartoon drawn by Salvatore Giuliano. The cartoon depicts a man cutting a chain that connects Sicily with Italy, and another man pulling Sicily towards the United States. The voiceover and the cartoon express Salvatore Giuliano's belief that Sicily should be independent of Italy. He wanted it to become the 49th state in the US.
Mario Puzo, author of Godfather, wrote "The Sicilian" inspired with the life of Salvatore Giuliano, which has been made into a film of the same name.
One of the ten movies that was on Martin Scorsese's Sight and Sound 2012 Poll..
This film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #228.