La piovra

This was the apex of La Piovra, an Italian miniseries that is unsurpassed. In its own way it is the Godfather in an operatic way. Its villains are over the top (Remo Girone has a great performance going overborad but within limits) as the heroes and heroines are above reproach (great performances also by Michele Placido and the judge). Even the beautiful pawn acted by Simona Cavallari is well done.Its ending is real, if a bad omen to the Piovras that followed ,that went into a sea of mediocrity. I learned Italian especially to understand this miniseries. It is a great pity that it is not on the net. If you like mystery and police stories this is for you. I have never seen a miniseries as good.

La Piovra, or SPRUT in Russian, the version that I saw as a boy in early nineties is nothing short of a masterpiece. American audiences are all over the Sopranos, a good series in its own right, but that is because they did not experience La Piovra.

The story of the series at first follows Commissar Cattani and his relentless fight against the Italian mafia and the corrupt bureaucracy. Every episode is full of smart dialogs, rich characters, suspenseful plot,and action. The newer episodes follow the work of a new commissar (I don't want to give away why this happens, watch it and you will see), who just like his predecessor selflessly fights the mob.

The series is mostly shot in Italy and later on in Czech Republic I believe, so scenery does change.

Fortunately for me the local Los Angeles Armenian mom and pop video stores carry the Russian language VHS tapes of the complete series as it was shown in the early nineties, all I need now is a summer holiday to re watch the whole series, it is absolutely worth it.

10 hours seems to be a long run but after 5 minutes you immideately get sucked into a story about justice,loyalty,blackmail,romance,betrayel and murder it's fast moving all the way. Everything is just excellent from production values to the music and most important the great acting especially from Michele Placido as Cattani Patricia Millardet as Judge conti, Simona cavalari as esther but the finest of all is Remo Girone as Tano Carridi his performance is absolutely over the top the character Tano is one of the most fascinating evil persons i have ever seen

a little bit about the story cattini has arrested a man who has killed the owner of a casino but the suspect refuus to speak to the police during the investigation he get's help from a female Judge sivia conti meanwhile the maffia has given Tano the manager of a great bank a whole lot of money to invest for them together with a corrupt senator and and an allknowing man called Espinosa he is going to make big plans and everybody who's crossing there way get's doomed or death

you don't have to see the first 3 part the understand the movie and even if you know how it's gonna end it's still worth another view!

In this Piovra movie Davide Licata is shot down by a mafia killer he survives and after months of recovering he comes in contact with the anti mafia group Nucleo, Davide decides to work for them. his first mission; to find Tano carridi the master brain of the mafia wherever he is and bringing him to them. They want tano as Bait for the New Godfather but Tano isn't exactly what he used to be.

This one has a whole other concept than the other Piovra movies, its concentrating more on the Mafia KGB connection than the Politic intrigues we also getting to see a whole other Tano than we know, the relation with his sister Maria is one important parts of the story. unlike the other parts there is not really much violence, there is more threat than shooting. The Acting is Very Good again we get a wide variation of characters who aren't just good and bad but are just a human as you and me, Camera work Music it's al just fine the only thing weak here is the final which is a little bit to long, but like the rest of the series it's Great entertainment

I consider "La Piovra" as a movie (despite of being it TV-series) equal to such masterpieces as "Godfather" by Copolla or "Once Upon A Time in America" by Leone. It seems that only italians may create really impressive and realistic movies about mafia. There must be something in the blood ;-)

If you are looking for the intelligent script, impressive pace and atmosphere, real characters from the blood and flesh, perfect acting - you will like "La Piovra". There is not much action but there is a lot of life. And death.