(Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina)
Directed by Marco Bellocchio
96 minutes
In Italian with English subtitles

Back in the 1960s and 70s there was a huge international counterculture widespread throughout the so-called Western world. Although it is still celebrated today as an era of freedom and social rights, what isn't discussed much is how it was destroyed. This movie goes back to Italy in the early 1970s and focuses on one of the instruments used to undermine these uprisings—the mainstream media.

This flick stars the kingpin of socially-engaged Italian cinema of the 1970s—Gian Maria Volonté—and he gives a hell of a performance here. The story is set in Milan in 1972, and right from the start it rips open with wild documentary footage of battles in the streets, as demonstrators and police clash. As the narrative kicks in, the killing of a  professor's daughter hits the headlines, adding even more fuel to the fire of social unrest. I won't go more into the story, so it can unfold for itself, but at one point the tensions in the city are so ramped up, it feels like Milan is on the verge of exploding. More importantly, this flick isn't just a murder mystery, it is also a fierce critique of the mainstream media and shows how it can use any crisis to its advantage—to manipulate public opinion and push an agenda.

The story is fantastic, depicted with an intelligence, nuance and precision that is rare in cinema, especially these days. Ironically, this movie was originally going to be a spaghetti Western, but after a few days of shooting everything fell apart, the director was fired and the project collapsed. So a new director was brought in (Marco Bellocchio) to finish it, and he turned the tables. Bellocchio immediately threw away the old script, updated it to the 1970s, and made an all-out attack against political and corporate power. The results are explosive.

This is another Italian gem from fifty years ago that is criminally forgotten today.... so let's dig this fierce treasure up again, and see what we can learn from it.