I Guappi (1974)
Directed by Pasquale Squitieri

Film Review

The worldwide success of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972) led not only to a revival of the American gangster film, it also brought fresh blood to the Italian crime-thriller or poliziotteschi, the genre that supplanted the spaghetti western in popularity in the early 1970s.  I Guappi (a.k.a. Blood Brothers) shows the influence of The Godfather more clearly than perhaps any other Italian film of this period, a lavish period piece packed with impressive action scenes and with a score that is more than slightly reminiscent of Nino Rota's famous love theme from Coppola's film.  The film was directed, with considerable flair and a mania for gritty realism, by Pasquale Squitieri, an accomplished genre director who gravitated to more serious films dealing with social and political issues in the 1980s.

The quirkiest feature of I Guappi is that it combines the production values of an extravagant period film with a distinctly modern style of filmmaking, approximating to cinéma vérité in a few places.  Action scenes are given greater impact and immediacy because the camera is moved right in and seems to get caught up in the frenzy of activity.  Several shots are over-exposed, with a full sun behind the characters in the foreground, creating an almost dreamlike bleaching effect.  Such inspired touches bring an added realism and poetry to the film, helping to make I Guappi one of the classiest of Italian gangster films.

The performances are also of an impeccably high standard, with Franco Nero and Fabio Testi the perfect casting choice for the two ill-matched blood brothers of the film's anglicised title.  In contrast to the sensitivity and humanity of Nero's portrayal, Testi's Don Gaetano is seemingly a man without a soul, coldly dispassionate as he goes about his business as a Mafia foot soldier.  The only person who can be said to be Gaetano's equal is his fiery mistress, Lucia Esposito, magnificently portrayed by Claudia Cardinale at her most formidable (she would become Squitieri's life partner after this film).  French actor Raymond Pellegrin (best known for providing the voice of arch-criminal Fantômas in a series of French films in the 1960s) crops up as a supremely nasty law enforcer, whilst the Neapolitan beauty Lina Polito brings a touch of glamour and tenderness to the proceedings.

Feeding off the popularity of the Godfather films, I Guappi proved to be a massive commercial success and brought a welcome boost to Pasquale Squitieri's career after the demise of the spaghetti western.  Squitieri would go on to make several important films after this - Atto di dolore (1990), Russicum - I giorni del diavolo (1988), Claretta (1984) - but few of these later triumphs is as involving and stylish as this, a fiercely feisty gangster film that deserves to be far more widely appreciated than it currently is.

Film Synopsis

In 1891, Nicola Bellizzi arrives in Naples with ambitions of becoming a lawyer but his plans change when his path crosses that of the feared racketeer Don Gaetano Frungillo.  After a public brawl, the two men become the closest of friends and Don Gaetano adopts Nicola as his lieutenant, inducting him into a local branch of the Mafia, the Camorra.  Meanwhile, Nicola continues with his law studies, hoping that one day he can put his criminal past behind him.  When Don Gaetano is thrown in jail by a vindictive police chief, Aiossa, the newly qualified Nicola defends him in court.  By exposing Aiossa's previous criminal exploits, Nicola manages to get his friend acquitted.  After Nicola comes to the aid of a man sentenced to death by the Camorra, Don Gaetano is commanded by his superiors to execute his friend...