Lucky Luciano

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.