Trailer
Plot summary
Totò and his son Ninetto wander the neighborhoods and countryside of Rome, and along the way they see a body being carried from a house after a murder. A crow that talks falls in with them, offering its left-wing commentary on the people they pass. The crow then recounts the story of Fra Ciccillo and Fra Ninetto, two Franciscan friars whom St. Francis orders to bring the Gospel to the hawks, which stand for the powerful, and to the sparrows, which stand for the weak. Preaching to the birds does not go easily, and the friars' first attempts come to nothing.
Cast
- Umberto Bevilacquaas Incensurato
- Renato Capognaas Scoundrels Leader
- Alfredo Leggias Mascalzone
- Flaminia Sicilianoas Scoundrel
- Lena Lin Solaroas Urganda
- Giovanni Taralloas Starving Peasant
- Vittorio Vittorias Ciro Lococo
- Nello Appodiaas Party Guest (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Hawks and Sparrows (1966)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Hawks and the Sparrows was the last film to star the Italian comic actor Totò; he died of a heart attack in 1967.
- Scenes in The Hawks and the Sparrows had to be reshot again and again because the crow kept trying to claw at Totò's eyes; the crew solved it by keeping the crow's cage behind the camera so the bird chased after it.
- In 2008 the film was placed on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's list of 100 Italian films to be saved, works deemed to have changed the country's collective memory between 1942 and 1978.
- Pasolini cast the comedian Totò as the protagonist because he felt his style captured both extravagance and humanity, and he mixed non-professional actors from the streets with Italian cinematic icons such as Totò.
- Carlo Croccolo, who had worked on the dubbing of many of Totò's other films, offered to dub him for Pasolini, but Pasolini refused.
- Totò was accustomed to choosing his own jokes and ad-libbing his lines, but on this film he had to learn to respect Pasolini's script and direction.
