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Rating:
I couldn't exclude a severe headache if I were to take the trouble to answer that perplexing question disguised as a question that quite evidently stands out on the poster. Top left.
It's pointless to recall what happened on the evening of June 27, 1980. Everyone knows it, but no one knows it. Or vice-versa. That's why Marco Risi, in an attempt, in my opinion, quite successful, to provide an answer, a kind of honest and legitimate counter-information, just 11 years later, poses that question which, despite everything, remains unresolved. Even though many of us swear that question mark was seen to stiffen, at attention, only to deflate again for the sole purpose of satisfying Libyans and Americans. But we can't say it openly. How much did the Marshall Plan cost us?
The beautiful work of Dino Risi's more than worthy son, is inspired by the personal experience of journalist Andrea Purgatori, portrayed on film by the much-missed Corso Salani, whimsically named for the occasion. Assisted by the solid Petraglia and Rulli, the film narrates the investigation that over the years has been fueled around the massacre. From that last fading trace on the radar to the question that still weighs on too many minds.
Rocco Ferrante, a crime journalist for Corriere della Sera, receives a call from a friend in the military about a plane that seems to have been "brought down." With a hint of barely concealed ambiguity. From Ciampino, the last signal from the transponder of flight IH870 appears at 18:58Z (Zulu time, which technically indicates two hours ahead of standard time). No answer, the strange call, some mild clue, and the discovery of the tragedy. Rocco goes to Palermo for a reporting assignment and finds himself swept along, with the aid of a family drama, into the heart of the story, which will reveal all too bitter notes. Expert opinions, half-truths, trips abroad, precious or mysterious information, murky attempts at concealment, and fierce cover-ups will dot the story until the memorable final scene in which Rocco chases an Air Force General deeply involved (played by a marvelous Ivo Garrani), fleeing with flashing escort lights under a torrential rain.
And the smile of that now-grown little girl, who remembers the licorice fish received as a gift many years before from that journalist. Who walks away wrapped in the droplets.
Noteworthy, from an emotional standpoint, are at least two scenes. The one that portrays the despair of a victim's relative, where Risi tends, with an effective moving shot, to "gather" as much pain as possible to throw it at the viewer. That big man who spreads his arms, clenching fists and teeth with eyes closed to the sky, only to bury his aching face in hands that, though large, are so incapable of holding back such devastating anguish.
The other is the ruthlessness of a life insurance agent who, with exceedingly irksome cynicism, quantifies the payout for mourning relatives based on a cruel score unknowingly amassed in life by the deceased. A high premium for graduates, the titled, and low for the ignorant or those writing clandestinely for "Lotta continua". Commodifying pain. What a disgrace!
The soundtrack by Francesco De Gregori is effective, weaving beautiful music upon the structure of, still his own, "I muscoli del capitano". And subsequent modifications. Among other actors, the already seasoned Angela Finocchiaro (who perhaps plays Daria Bonfietti), Ivano Marescotti, Sergio Fiorentini, and a sumptuous Antonello Fassari. The character actors are brilliant. Andrea Purgatori appears in a fragment during a court session. The voice of the newspaper director in the intercom is Dino Risi's.
For better insight and substantial correspondences to the film's plot, I recommend the website www.stragi80.it and the book by Luigi di Stefano "Il buco. Scenari di guerra nel cielo di Ustica" published by Vallecchi.
In my opinion, a fundamental work.
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