Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

The Sicilian Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 9, 2016

One might assume Michael Cimino might have been at least somewhat chastened by the debacle of Heaven's Gate (at least in its initial release) and his controversial follow up Year of the Dragon, but that evidently would be an incorrect assumption based in a reality other than the often hard (if not impossible) to understand environment of the film industry. According to many published reports, not to mention some well documented lawsuits that ended up accruing, Cimino was not about to be bullied when it came to his next film, The Sicilian. This is a film whose production and post-production processes have become fairly infamous, and the upshot is that many tend to view the film through the prism of the contentious ambience that seemed to surround the project almost from the get go. The Sicilian exists in two different versions, a theatrical cut that was the subject of much conflict (and legal action) back in the day and which opened to blistering reviews and minimal box office, and a longer, more expansive if not necessarily that much better Director’s Cut which purportedly is Cimino’s original vision for the Mario Puzo penned narrative (adapted for film by Steve Shagan and an apparently uncredited Gore Vidal, of all people). What’s kind of interesting about The Sicilian is that there was an actual historical figure named Salvatore Guiliano, portrayed in the film by Christopher Lambert (in a piece of casting which was the cause of much debate both in pre-production as well as afterward). Guiliano was a kind of post-World War II Italian Robin Hood, a modern day bandit who became something of a folk hero but who created consternation for the ruling powers of the day (such as they were in the chaos of the post-war period, an element which actually helped to give rise to Guiliano’s popularity). That would seem to provide more than enough raw content for a compelling film, but The Sicilian is a bumpy ride through Italian “history” at best.

A shrine seen under the opening credits would seem to give up the ghost (so to speak) of the ultimate trajectory of the story before it even gets started, but the film’s narrative is done no favors in any case by an often choppy editing style that attempts to get a lot of strands on the veritable table as quickly as possible, without providing any context. Giuliano and his acolyte Aspanu (John Turturro) are first seen transporting a casket through a gorgeous Italian countryside. When they’re stopped by policemen, it turns out the casket is stuffed not with a corpse, but with grain which the duo has stolen and which they are attempting to get to the hungry peasants. A shootout occurs during which Guiliano is severely wounded and one of the policemen is killed. During the ensuing chase, the two end up at an imposing fortress of sorts, which turns out to be the home of Camilla (Barbara Sukowa), a local Duchess. Cimino has already seen fit to offer the haughty duchess in her birthday suit (from both front and rear), a situation that is almost comical when she “meets cute” with one breast bared as she stares at Guiliano and Aspanu stealing two horses from her courtyard.

It turns out this part of Sicily is securely under the thumbs of several parties, including the church, the state, but perhaps most importantly the local Mafioso chief, Don Masino Croce (Joss Ackland). Croce’s sway on the community is amply documented in an early scene when he attempts to get his apparently none too bright nephew a medical degree, without the benefit of the kid actually graduating from medical school. While one of the school’s administrators is firmly against it, Guiliano’s uncle Adonis (Richard Bauer) forges a compromise which will make the kid a pharmacist (if you’re not laughing by now, you may be able to make it through The Sicilian with nary a giggle). While that appeases the Don, the administrator is told by another toady attending the meeting that he must immediately leave Sicily since he had the temerity to tell the Don “no”. Later, the Don’s ruthlessness is more than amply demonstrated as a rather large collection of victims piles up.

Property rights and an incipient class struggle inform much of the rest of this sprawling enterprise, and the film actually has some individual scenes which support a lifelike recreation of the haggard existence of the working poor in post-war Italy. But Cimino’s tendency to inject “style” where none is really needed repeatedly gets in the way of him just simply telling the story. There are love affairs, back stabbing, duplicities, and a lot of deaths, but nothing ever really resonates in any meaningful emotional way. Cimino is not helped by a somewhat lumbering performance by Lambert. Lambert’s close knit eyebrows and looming forehead tend to make him look confused almost all of the time, and given the vagaries of a wandering screenplay, one can hardly blame him.

The Sicilian Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Sicilian is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is a rather widely disparate looking transfer, one that varies from very good to pretty shoddy looking, without much logic as to why any given scene looks better than another, other than perhaps the provenance of elements utilized to create this so-called Director's Cut. While a lot of the brightly lit outdoor scenes look relatively nice, with good levels of detail and a healthy and vibrant looking palette, there are a number of issues with compression and (especially) grain resolution that are extremely noticeable (see screenshots 8, 10, and 18 for examples). What's at least a little odd about this is that these anomalies are not entirely dependent on how light or dark a scene is. While the prevalence of these issues are in fact in darker sequences, some of them accrue in brightly lit (even outdoor) scenes as well. When not troubled by these issues, the transfer has a decent overall quality, though there are still issues with flicker and density fluctuation. Everything here is watchable, within certain confines, but there is certainly substantial room for improvement.

The Sicilian Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Though The Sicilian's insert lists only a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, there is also a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track included as well. The 5.1 track significantly opens up David Mansfield's rather lushly romantic score, as well as providing a bit more nuance to some of the outdoor scenes where ambient environmental effects are utilized. Otherwise, both tracks offer good fidelity and reasonable dynamic range. There are occasional sync issues which in some cases seem attributable to less than artful ADR (it looks to my eye that Sukowa, who's German, was almost certainly dubbed, and none too well). Dialogue is presented cleanly, and there are no damage issues to report in this review.

The Sicilian Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is the rare Shout! Factory release without any supplemental material of any kind.

The Sicilian Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I frankly never read The Sicilian, but one of the interesting things I discovered in doing some background research for this review is that evidently a little family named the Corleones are at least a part of Puzo's original version. Evidently copyright issues put the kibosh on their inclusion in the film adaptation, but it's frankly doubtful if even a character as memorable as Michael could have infused this haphazard enterprise with sufficient energy to make it more compelling. There's some lovely scenery here and an actually rather interesting foundational story, but a chaotic screenplay and some lackluster acting by Lambert defeat the film at virtually every turn. Video has some problematic patches but audio is fine for those considering a purchase.