If only Pasolini and Bonfanti had stayed with the initial presentation of the events about the tragic terrorist attack at a bank on December 1969 where several people were
killed or inured, and a handful of suspects were detained, with worker/anarchist activist Giuseppe Pinelli dying while on interrogation. Authorities claimed he jumped from a window,
but a witness says he say that man being pushed. As presented by the plot written on the page, the documentary feels very intriguing and curious for audiences to see a tragic Italian
event. However, the film spends only 10 or 15 minutes with this, without giving a proper conclusion as to what happened to the people questioning Pinelli. The majority of the film
take an unexpected and almost random turn in following workers going on strike against their bosses and complaining about their wages.
However, a consideration must be made and it somewhat affected this very review as I was writing. The version I watched ran for 43 minutes which I later find out was edited
down from the one hour movie as originally released in 1972 - therefore this edited 1995 version doesn't make much sense while dealing about the bank bombing. But if someone tells me
that it doesn't make much of a difference and that the documentary focus is really on the workers struggle than I'm okay with it. And it's not like I'm saying it's a bad movie, far
from that - it's just strange that it's main theme isn't presented with full effect neither it's returned/addressed at the conclusion. We just follow the youth movement of workers
going from strike to strike challenging the carabinieri, and what relates to the initial story is the fact they're anarchist activists like Pinelli, but he's the one who suffered on the
hands of police and we don't know exactly how he got associated with the criminal attack except for the fact he was the leader of an anarchist group - a witness who drove the real terrorist
to the bank describes the actual individual, who never got caught (at the time, in 2001 arrests of culprits were made and Pinelli's name was cleared). And we wonder: was it worth it such attack on the institutions that hold power and innocent lives were lost for a cause that never had a chance of winning against the bosses and
the reigning capitalism? I fail to see a success in terror, in this particular case.
Well, it gets a mild thumbs from me, it's always interesting to see Italy of the 1960's and their cultural/social/political movements and the turmoil of generation fighting fascism or
communism, and the constant struggle of classes that left people clashing in the streets over and over. Hope one day to see the full version of the movie, but what gets easily available everywhere is the
short edited version released in 1995. Usually, when it comes to film it's the other way around: the longer version is released later on as in director's cut while the original is shorter. A sad exception to the rule. 6/10.
