Why this dusty old Italian movie still kicks butt

You should definitely watch this if you have any patience for old black-and-white movies that do not feel like boring museum pieces. It is absolutely great for history nerds who want to feel the dust of 19th-century Sicily, but anyone looking for a clean, easy-to-follow Hollywood plot will probably get bored and turn it off after twenty minutes. 🎬

The movie is basically one long, sweaty trek across the country.

We follow this Sicilian peasant guy who is trying to get to Garibaldi's headquarters in the north to save his town. Along the way, he just meets *so many* different people and it gets pretty overwhelming.

The noisy train ride and other messy moments

Some of the people he meets are rich, some are super poor, and they all have very loud, angry opinions about Italy. It feels less like a grand historical epic and more like a bunch of arguments in dusty rooms.

There is this one scene on a train that is just incredible. The camera just sits there while all these different passengers bicker about politics and class.

You can almost smell the cheap tobacco and wet wool in that carriage. It is easily the best part of the whole thing.

It reminds me a bit of how they handled the historical tension in Fra Piazza del Popolo, though this one feels much more raw and less theatrical.

The main guy isn't some super-soldier. He looks tired, his clothes are filthy, and he mostly looks confused by the big northern cities. I really love that about him.

It makes the whole "unification" thing feel like it was made by real, messy people instead of perfect marble statues.

A few things that did not work

Sometimes the audio gets really muddy, especially during the outdoor scenes where the wind just takes over the microphone. Also, there is some really weird cuts where characters just teleport to new locations.

And the ending battle is... well, it is chaotic. People just kind of run into smoke and scream a lot.

It doesn't have that neat, choreographed feel of modern war films. Some guy in the background of the battlefield scene just trips over a rock and it made me laugh, though I don't think he was supposed to.

• The incredibly noisy train ride where everyone argues.
• The main guy's giant, confused eyes.
• Some really sketchy editing during the mountain climbs.
• That one extra who definitely didn't know how to hold a rifle.

Still, the film has this weird, heavy energy that sticks with you. If you can handle the old-school subtitles and the occasionally screechey soundtrack, give it a go.