Steineded How sad is this?

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Jackson Booth-Millard This Italian film was featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so naturally, without knowing the story, plot or really any other details, apart from the near three hour length, I was going to watch it regardless, from director Luchino Visconti (Ossessione, Senso, Death in Venice). Basically the film is seeing into the lives of a rural Italian family, the Parondi family, led by matriarch Rosaria Parondi (Katina Paxinou), who are heading north to Milan, and we see the individual five stories weaved together as each family member struggle to adapt to life in the large city. The family include Vincenzo (Spiros Focás), Simone (Renato Salvatori), Rocco (L'Eclisse's Alain Delon), Ciro (Max Cartier) and Luca (Rocco Vidolazzi), and one by one we see their stories unfold as they have problems, but they each manage to find something to do. We see prostitute Nadia (BAFTA nominated Annie Girardot) having both Simone and Rocco pursuing and desiring her, the pivotal moment sees her raped by Simone with Rocco watching, he starts military service, and he gives her up in order to somehow keep the family whole. There are a few bad things going on, but essentially building Italian neorealism the film does not end with a substantial resolution, much more with doom and gloom hanging over the family, with a family feud and a murder. Also starring Roger Hanin as Morini, Paolo Stoppa as Cerri, Suzy Delair as Luisa and Claudia Cardinale as Ginetta. I will admit that I found it hard to concentrate on most of the stuff going on because of having to read the subtitles and knowing that the film was pretty long, but it was a good soap-like melodrama, filmed with good black and white photography to create the feel of the grim urban environment, but for the hard hitting material it is worth it, an interesting enough drama. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film from any Source. Worth watching!

A. Meyer Unlike others, including Roger Ebert, I see "Rocco and His Brothers" as a devastating condemnation of traditional Italian peasant family values. In the U.S. only slavery compares to what the old peasant classes of Europe experienced --legally free but entrenched in centuries of oppression, rural poverty and ignorance. In Italy, the film tells us, these conditions gave rise to the kind of loyalty that values family ties above everything, including the law, moral principles, even individual human life.These are the "family values" that when extended to the neighborhood produce the mafia (then at its apex in 1960). And when extended nationally produce Fascism. Individuals in Rocco's family are enslaved and held down by these values. The film isn't about good and bad people, or about idyllic countryside versus evil city. Ciro, the everyman hero of the story, albeit a small role, reflects at the end that Rocco will not survive in the country either. The film is a reflection on tragedy awaiting both good and bad who cling to old, destructive values. If you're by nature not so good, these values will make you worse. If you're a good person, they'll lead you to destroy yourself and others.When the family first moves to Milan, two passsers-by comment on them: "old country." Viewers at the time most likely understood old and new as pre- and post WWII. From the beginning the film sets up a dichotomy between old and new: Rocco's family's values amid the unending new construction projects in the film.Look at Mama, bless her heart, that unsentimental image of what poverty and ignorance hath wrought. She brings her five sons to Milano –why? As she says, so they can get rich, and she can walk down a big city street hearing herself called "Signora." She doesn't care how they get rich --killed or maimed in the boxing ring (Simone may have been brain damaged there –- Mama still wants him to go back and wants Rocco to box also), theft, whatever. Then there's her rejection of Vincenzo, the eldest, ostensibly because of his accidental baby, but actually because he's now got a wife and baby to support instead of her, so obsessed is she with financial security (which self-centeredness she justifies as "keeping the family together"). No one gets a life of his own in Mama's view. She won't even go to the christening of her first grandchild, of whom she's jealous. Rocco's in the army. Does Mama care about his life there? Her letter asks for more money, although he's living on a practically non existent stipend. Children exist for the support and care of their parents, or they don't exist at all.Simone and Rocco, yin and yang in this destructive universe, are photographed together in close physical contact more often than not: Simone, self centered emblem of old machismo, and Rocco, sacrificing himself and others in the name of family, in his mental and spiritual superiority more destructive than Simone. They're two sides of the same coin, like all opposites. (A wonderful symbol of Marx's dialectic). It's "Rocco and His Brothers" because Rocco is the guiding light leading his brothers down the wrong path for the right reasons. Ciro, rejecting these old values, striving to better himself, and Luca, too young to be completely imbued with them, are the positive lights to a possibly better future.

Atreyu_II As a growing fan of foreign cinema, I wanted to see this one too, even though its long runtime of nearly 3 hours caused me to hesitate a bit. But the urge to see it was stronger than the hesitation.The two best things about this movie were cinematography (showing us good old Italy, how it was more than half-century ago) and acting.This is a strange film. It tells the tale of a big rural family from Italy and their adaptation to city life; it has boxing scenes (not properly something I wished to see); it has the story of a prostitute with whom the brothers Rocco and Simone share a passion; there are certain scenes of brutal violence (physical aggression, rape and even a cold-blooded homicide).In my opinion, this film doesn't have that much to justify such a long runtime. Its plot could be told in nearly half of that time. It's slow and overlong. I don't mind about the slow pace, I can handle that. But this one is so long that even if it moved at a faster pace, I don't think that would make much difference.Concerning the cast, Alain Delon is great as Rocco. Same about Renato Salvatori as Simone, Annie Girardot as Nadia (the prostitute), Katina Paxinou as Rosaria, Spiros Focás as Vincenzo, Max Cartier as Ciro and Rocco Vidolazzi as Luca.

Chris Jones I had never seen any movies by Italian director Luchino Visconti and boy... was I disappointed. Beyond some nice black and white photography and adequate camera work, I didn't see much else that even remotely justifies all the fuss. I hear Visconti was a great theatre director, but directing movies is a different matter. I had to check the IMDb.com site to verify the date this movie was made. Such overacting on the part of practically all the cast made me think of silent movies that were shot back in the twenties when the actors had to compensate for the absence of sound. I watched this movie with my wife and after two rather depressing hours we both broke into a fit of giggles, when right near the end, 'la mamma' opens her apartment's door and there is this close-up on Simone's face. I'm OK with stereotypes, but laying it on this thick is just ridiculous. I find it hard to believe anyone would come up with a film like this in... 1960, the same year Michelangelo Antonioni was filming l'Avventura -- not to mention all the dazzling inventions of the French Nouvelle Vague. The only thing that I truly enjoyed about 'Rocco' was Annie Girardot's performance. I had seen her in a couple of mediocre commercial French movies such as 'Elle fume pas..' and I felt she was a natural, one of these rare actors that command respect the minute they appear, but I certainly never imagined that given the chance, she could have been one of the greatest celluloid tragedians of all times. You may think that I am a little harsh with my four stars out of a possible ten, but if not for Annie Girardot's performance, I would have gone much lower.