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Less than a decade since The Bicycle Thief, writer/director Gillo Pontecorvo debuts along much the same lines as Vittorio De Sirca's landmark film with The Wide Blue Road (La Grande strada azzurra). Both films depict characters struggling mightily against the economic and political system blocking the path to their dreams. No longer compelled to adopt the practical low budget film techniques of post-war Italian neorealists, Pontecorvo shoots his political melodrama off the Dalmatian coast of Italy and Yugoslavia in color with professional actors, most notably Yves Montand (most well known to American audiences in Z) as protagonist Squarci.
After the opening credits with a lone seagull, symbolizing the individualistic Squarci, his opening voiceover sets up the situation:
This is the best season for fish. In September the fish leave the depths and run close to the shore where the water is still warm and the seaweed is tender and sweet. These are my islands. I know them well ... every reef, every cove... every inch of the ocean bottom. Only one man in the village knows how to fish like me Salvatore! We grew up together, then he went on fishing with nets. Not me!
Fishing with nets dooms the local fishermen to a life of poverty. Forced to accept the low market price of their only contact with the mainland, the fishermen can barely put enough food on the table to feed their families. Salvatore (Francisco Rabal) pins his hopes on working within the system and organizing the fisherman to form a Co-op and buy a refrigerator, but Squarci is far too independent to accept such socialistic ideas. He prefers to travel his own route of negotiating deals with exploitive wholesaler Natale and dynamite fishing, a proven (but illegal) method of obtaining large catches and making Squarci enough money that he can afford to buy a radio for home entertainment. Dynamite fishing is dangerous for two reasons, however. Not only can an accident cost limb or life, but the Coast Guard can arrest offenders and slap them into prison—not a major concern while Squarci's childhood friend Gaspare (Umberto Spadaro) is the officer in charge. His boat is too slow to catch him in the act and can never prove he's fishing illegally.
The small fishing village is reminiscent of Steinbeck's Cannery Row, where all the inhabitants work together to form a symbiotic community—Gaspare keeps a bumbling low key order while Squarci— relatively thrives by fishing the depths away from the islands to avoid interfering with the legal net fishermen and negotiating a higher price with the greedy Natale, who also forms a necessary link in the chain as the supplier to the Italian mainland. As expected, this natural order will become upset during the course of the film.
The strength of Pontecorvo's film doesn't lie in the complexities of its simple narrative, or in its blatant political message—Montand carries the film squarely on his strong shoulders, taking his character even beyond the well-written part. He portrays both a "man's man" and loving husband and father—a complex fisherman that loves his craft, yet has dreams for his family. Deep rooted in Italian traditions concerning courtship and marriage, he still understands his sixteen-year-old daughter's mood swings and feelings of love for her suitors. He may not be able to talk with her directly, but his eyes and body language demonstrate understanding, and she responds to his cues.
The same goes for his two young sons. Through his tutelage they learn how to fish with dynamite, yet it's evident that Squarci also teaches the same independence that makes his character so strong. His older thirteen-year-old son Tonino (Giancarlo Soblone) loves his father, yet prefers to fish legally with a net and believes his father should have joined Salvatore's efforts to form the Co-op. Tonino also takes the initiative and serves as a proper family chaperone when his sister wants to attend a village dance against their father's wishes, yet he is fiercely loyal—ready to fight any boy that calls his father names. During the more intense outdoor scenes (much superior to the interior family scenes), a real bonding seems to have taken place between the two boys and Montand—the concern and tears come across as heartfelt and not like actors simply hitting their marks.
Due to its non-release in the U.S. The Wide Blue Road is not well known, but it now has a chance to rise above obscurity with Milestone Film's acquisition, restoration, and re-release on DVD. Credit director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) for taking notice during "The Films of Gillo Pontecorvo" series at the Lincoln Center in 1999. So taken was Demme by the film's humanity and beauty, that he relentlessly sought a distributor to bring the long overlooked work to a wider audience. Sometimes arthouse films take bizarre and circuitous routes before finding an audience, but in the end we all win when worthy films finally land in the right hands. The Socialist message hammered into the narrative and the symbolic seagulls at the end (contrasting with the solitary opening bird) likely prevented this film from screening in the U.S. during the Cold War years, but no one can deny Yves Montand's powerful acting performance and Pontecorvo's well conceived character study. Anyone who loves De Sirca's works will find this film a fascinating comparative study.
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