''Sacco & Vanzetti'' (

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

: ''Sacco e Vanzetti'', French: ''Sacco et Vanzetti'') is a 1971 docudrama film written and directed by

Giuliano Montaldo Giuliano Montaldo (born 22 February 1930) is an Italian film director. Biography While he was still a young student, Montaldo was recruited by the director Carlo Lizzani for the role of leading actor in the film ''Achtung! Banditi!'' (1951). ...

, based on the events surrounding the trial and execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two anarchists of

origin, who were sentenced to death for murdering a guard and a paymaster during the April 15, 1920, armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in

Braintree, Massachusetts Braintree (), officially the Town of Braintree, is a municipality in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Although officially known as a towBraintree is a city, with a mayor-council government, mayor-council form of government, and i ...

. The film stars

Gian Maria Volonté Gian Maria Volonté (9 April 1933 – 6 December 1994) was an Italian actor, including roles in four Spaghetti Western films: Ramón Rojo in Sergio Leone's ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964) and El Indio in Leone's '' For a Few Dollars More'' ( ...

as Vanzetti,

Riccardo Cucciolla Riccardo Cucciolla (5 September 1924 – 17 September 1999) was an Italian actor and voice actor. He appeared in 60 films between 1953 and 1999. He won the Best Actor Award at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival for the film '' Sacco & Vanzetti'' ...

as Sacco,

Cyril Cusack Cyril James Cusack (26 November 1910 – 7 October 1993) was an Irish stage and screen actor with a career that spanned more than 70 years. During his lifetime, he was considered one of Ireland’s finest thespians, and was renowned for his int ...

as prosecutor Frederick G. Katzmann,

Geoffrey Keen Geoffrey Keen (21 August 1916 – 3 November 2005) was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many films. He is well known for playing British Defence Minister Sir Frederick Gray in the ''James Bond'' films. Biography Early li ...

as presiding justice

Webster Thayer Webster Thayer (July 7, 1857 – April 18, 1933) was a judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, best known as the trial judge in the Sacco and Vanzetti case. Background Thayer was born in Blackstone, Massachusetts, on July 7, 1857. He att ...

Milo O'Shea Milo Donal O'Shea (2 June 1926 – 2 April 2013) was an Irish people, Irish actor. He was twice nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performances in ''Staircase (play), Staircase'' (1968) and ''Mass Appeal (play), Mass A ...

as defense attorney Fred Moore, with

Rosanna Fratello Rosanna Fratello (born 26 March 1951) is an Italian singer and actress. Biography and career Born in San Severo, Foggia, Fratello emerged as singer in 1969, when she took part at the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Il treno" and obtained h ...

, William Prince, and

Sergio Fantoni Sergio Fantoni (7 August 1930 – 17 April 2020) was an Italian actor, voice actor and director. Biography Fantoni was born in Rome to the actor Cesare Fantoni. He began his career appearing in films, radio dramas, television and theatrical pro ...

. The musical score was composed and conducted by

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classica ...

with the three-part ballad sung by

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

. The film is mainly shot in colour although it both starts and finishes in black and white, and also includes period black and white newsreels. The film was an Italian and French co-production, shot on-location in

Dublin, Ireland Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...

. It was released in separate Italian and English-language versions.

Cast

Music

The film's soundtrack was composed and conducted by

, with song lyrics by the American folk singer

. For the lyrics of "The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti Part 1," Baez made use of

Emma Lazarus Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 – November 19, 1887) was an American author of poetry, prose, and translations, as well as an activist for Jewish and Georgist causes. She is remembered for writing the sonnet "The New Colossus", which was inspired ...

' 1883 sonnet ''

The New Colossus "The New Colossus" is a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus (1849–1887). She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''). In 1903, the poem was cast ...

'', the lines of which appear inscribed on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...

.Watts, Emily Stipes. ''The Poetry of American Women from 1632 to 1945''. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977: 123. The song " Here's to You" is sung at the end of the film. For the lyrics of "Here's to You" Baez made use of a statement attributed to Vanzetti by Philip D. Strong, a reporter for the

North American Newspaper Alliance The North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA) was a large newspaper syndicate that flourished between 1922 and 1980. NANA employed some of the most noted writing talents of its time, including Grantland Rice, Joseph Alsop, Michael Stern, Lothrop S ...

who visited Vanzetti in prison in May 1927, three months before his execution: "Here's to You" is also included in several later films, notably in the 1978 quasi-documentary film ''

Germany in Autumn ''Germany in Autumn'' (german: Deutschland im Herbst) is a 1978 West German anthology film about the period of 1977 known as the German Autumn, which was dominated by incidents of terrorism. The film is composed of contributions from different fi ...

'' where it accompanies footage of the funeral march for

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...

members

Andreas Baader Berndt Andreas Baader (6 May 1943 – 18 October 1977) was one of the first leaders of the West German left-wing militant organization Red Army Faction (RAF), also commonly known as ''the Baader-Meinhof Group''. Life Andreas Baader was born in ...

Gudrun Ensslin Gudrun Ensslin (; 15 August 1940 – 18 October 1977) was a German far-left terrorist and founder of the West German far-left militant group Red Army Faction (, or RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang). After becoming involved with co-fou ...

, and

Jan-Carl Raspe Jan-Carl Raspe (24 July 1944 – 18 October 1977) was a member of the German militant group, the Red Army Faction (RAF). Early life Raspe was born in Seefeld in Tirol (then Germany, now Austria). He was described as gentle but had difficulty co ...

, who had committed suicide in prison. The song became known to a younger

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

-playing generation, due to its appearance in the ''

Metal Gear Solid is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operat ...

'' series (both in '' Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots'' and '' Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes'', where it is featured within the latter game's story). The film soundtrack was released in a downloadable format in 2005 featuring fourteen tracks: # "Speranze di libertà" # "La ballata di Sacco e Vanzetti, Pt. 1" # "Nel carcere" # "La ballata di Sacco e Vanzetti, Pt. 2" # "Sacco e il figlio" # "Speranze di libertà" (#2) # "Nel carcere" (#2) # "La ballata di Sacco e Vanzetti, Pt. 3" # "Libertà nella speranza" # "E dover morire" # "Sacco e il figlio" (#2) # "La sedia elettrica" # "Libertà nella speranza" (#2) # " Here's to You"

Reception

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

described the film as "one of the best" of the year. Ebert drew particular attention to the way that Montaldo handled his courtroom scenes: "A tricky area for any director, but one which the director handles in an interesting and maybe even brand-new way." Ebert wrote, With regard to the historical accuracy of the film, Ebert considered the film to be Despite his friends' criticism that the film was "just another left-wing, European blast at the United States,"

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

, in a review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', praised the film, if for nothing more than calling "to our attention a terrible chapter in American history." Canby, however, dismissed the film as a simplification that Canby also decried the film's soundtrack, which he described as "absolutely dreadful," with Baez's voice "used to certify the movie's noble intentions, but through the cheapest of means."

Awards

In May 1971, ''Sacco & Vanzetti'' was a competition entry at the 24th International Film Festival of Cannes where, for his portrayal of Nicola Sacco,

won the award for Best Actor. Also that year,

was awarded '' Best Young Actress '' by the Association of Italian Film Journalists for her portrayal of Rosa Sacco (the wife of Nicola Sacco). In 1972, Morricone won from the Association of Italian Film Journalists the

Nastro d'Argento The Nastro d'Argento, also known by its translated name Silver Ribbon, is an Italian film award awarded each year since 1946 by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (Italian: ''Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani ...

('' Silver Band '') prize in the division Best Original Score.

References

External links

* *
Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society
* Sacco & Vanzetti, o
iTunes
* Kristian Buchna

Ein Blog zur Geschichte des 19./20. Jahrhunderts im Film, 3 May 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sacco and Vanzetti (1971 film) 1971 films 1971 crime drama films Italian crime drama films 1970s Italian-language films 1970s English-language films English-language Italian films Films about anarchism Courtroom films Films about capital punishment Films about miscarriage of justice Films set in the 1920s Films set in the United States Films directed by Giuliano Montaldo Films scored by Ennio Morricone Films about activists Works about Sacco and Vanzetti 1970s Italian films