Lucky Luciano

A sort of biography of Lucky Luciano the Italian mobster who was deported to Italy by USA's government after years in the jail, directed by the fine Francesco Rosi, the movie starts in this point when Lucky Luciano (Gian Maria Volonté) has been headed toward to Sicily at Italy by boat, mixed with few flashbacks concerning his violence background, he established at Sicily his homeland and Naples, where he manages all drug smuggling targeted to Europe and America, at its time post war the whole Italy was occupied by USA's Army and all major positions were chosen by American authorities, suggesting some agreement with local corrupts practices, upon this establishment the smooth Luciano feels free to work hidden over the shadows and becoming untouchable, however the unrelenting traffic ongoing peeves the American justice, sending to Italy an inspector to catch Lucky Luciano, the casting is the highlight of the slow paced picture, Gian Maria Volonté simply is great as Lucky, the almost unknowable Edmund O'Brien as Commissioner Anslinger also Rod Steiger as akind cheap mobster and Vincent Gardenia as the corrupt Colonel Charles Poletti, but don't expect too much, has many striking flaws strangely allowed by Rosi as portraits a modern New York as if it was on 1946, I'm trying wondering how it should happened over so magnificent director!!!

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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

This biography of notorious American racketeer Charles "Lucky" Luciano would have probably worked better if they had made it into a TV mini-series which traced his entire life from his poverty-stricken childhood in Sicily to his rise to power in New York's gangster underworld to his extradition to Italy in 1946 and, finally, his death from a heart attack in 1962. As a 2-hour movie covering the events of his life in Italy after his extradition, it just doesn't work. There's not enough action (eg. shootouts and fistfights) to make it worth watching. Plus, it moves slowly and it's very talky. The English dubbing of the French and Italian actors is great, but not enough to sustain your interest.

Rent "The Godfather" movies instead.

Rating: *1/2

If you look at the history of Italian mobster Lucky Luciano, you'll find that most of the interesting stuff that happened in his life was when he was young. Forming a street gang as a kid, being arrested numerous times, surviving being stabbed and beaten over and over again. Working for the old school, 'Moustache Pete'-type mafioso, Luciano sought to get rid of the old guard and get rid of the 'boss of all bosses' title that encouraged rivalry and instead put in place a commision of mob families that could be mediated and would avoid gang wars. It's a bit of mystery why this film starts at this point, skips his trial for pandering in the US, and goes almost straight away to his deportation to Italy.

We do get a bit about Luciano's involvement in the preparations of the invasion of Sicily and the immediate events following this (the mob basically controlling the black market while pretending they are doing the opposite, and also assisting the US army in sending intelligence back from Sicily), but a lot of this doesn't acutally involved Luciano at all! This, plus a sub plot involving Rod Steiger as a treacherous drug smuggler, mean that for about three quarters of the film, actor Gian Marie Volonte doesn't have much to do with the Luciano character.

The film jumps between various events which also fractures the narrative a bit more, but the film isn't a disaster, just a bit unengaging. Volonte, when he does have something to play about with, conveys Luciano as a charismatic, confident man, presenting himself as a charmer to the various journalists who follow him about and as an innocent deportee to the police who are trying to hang a drug smuggling charge on him.

Violence and action wise there's not much going for it, save for the murder of the old mafiosi at the start of the film. If you've read any history on Luciano, you'll know what happened to him in the end. It's interesting, but not the best way to end of film!

Francesco Rosi's film is a very fine and unglamorous treatment of the most famous mafioso of the 20th Century. Filmed in a quasi-documentary style, with un-enhanced sound recorded directly in real-life settings, we constantly have the feeling that we are watching real characters and not actors, even if one of the greats, Gian Maria Volontè, plays Luciano. And apparently many of the cast are indeed non-actors, and a few are even playing themselves. The movie is genuinely refreshing in that it does not romanticize or glorify or gloss over Luciano or the gangster's life. Early on it shows extremely violent scenes that condense a tremendous amount of background story into just what we need to know about Luciano's rise to preeminence in the underworld. And it's a great hook to start the film when the gangster's famous American life is ending. It's definitely a film for thoughtful adults, no cartoonish tidbits that would appeal to adolescents.

If you want to watch Gian Maria, the greatest actor of all time, at his best, watch him in "Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion", "Le Cercle Rouge", "For a Few Dollars More" or "I Am Afraid", he worked much much better with Petri, Melville, Leone and Damiani. This one is very boring and Volontè doesn't appear much. And when he appears, he has the same face that does not say too much. This role did not quite fit him. Rosi's films, most of them, are a special genre, very close to the documentary, very hard to follow, you got to have a patience of steel...