The Sicilian (1987) on Netflix
Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano robs wealthy landowners to feed the poor peasants of Montelepre. His cousin Aspanu Pisciotta joins him, and he wants to free Sicily from Italian rule.
- Netflix1.6/5
- IMDb5.4/105,926 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes10%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the Sicilian town of Montelepre, Salvatore Giuliano and his cousin Aspanu Pisciotta try to smuggle stolen grain to peasants who are going hungry. The Carabinieri stop them, a gunfight follows, and Giuliano, badly wounded, kills a police sergeant and takes to the mountains. His godfather, Professor Hector Adonis, urges him to surrender, but Giuliano stays and becomes an outlaw. He announces that he means to free Sicily from Italian rule, and he wants the peasants to reclaim the uncultivated land owed to them. He breaks prisoners out of the local barracks and gathers a band, promising each man an equal share of the spoils. A train robbery brings him fame among the poor.
Cast
- Richard Baueras Hector Adonis
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Sicilian (1987)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- When low-level Mafia men controlling locations and union workers stalled the shoot, Michael Cimino told producers Bruce McNall and David Begelman to meet them; the men wanted to appear in the film, so the producers gave them walk-ons and extras work, and Cimino got access to the countryside and local labor.
- Michael Cimino wanted Daniel Day-Lewis for Salvatore Giuliano after seeing him in The Bounty, but producers told him Day-Lewis was not well known enough for a lead role, so Christopher Lambert was cast instead; Cimino later said of Lambert, "He did everything he could; he cried, got hurt, but he couldn't do it."
- Cimino, limited to a 120-minute final cut, had editor Lizi Gelber cut out all the action sequences and string together the dialogue so the short version would be 120 minutes of talk; a wedding scene cut straight to a hospital treating guests for injuries from an attack never shown, and David Begelman called the cut a "bad joke."
- A side letter showed that Cimino did not have final cut on Year of the Dragon, so he lost his case. With help from Stanley Donen, David Begelman oversaw the film being cut down to 115 minutes.
- Before filming, Cimino had Christopher Lambert and John Turturro spend two and a half months riding on horseback in Sicily to prepare for their roles.
- Gore Vidal filed suit against Steve Shagan and the Writers Guild of America to get screenplay credit, saying "I was defrauded of my work," and eventually won against the WGA.
- Mario Puzo was paid $1 million for the film rights to his novel The Sicilian because of the huge success of The Godfather, and Michael Corleone, a character in the novel, was contractually barred from appearing in the film.
