Sacco e Vanzetti (Sacco and Vanzetti). 1971. Italy/France. Directed by Giuliano Montaldo. Screenplay by Fabrizio Onofri, Montaldo, Ottavio Jemma. With Gian Maria Volonté, Riccardo Cucciolla, Cyril Cusack, Rosanna Fratello, Milo O’Shea. 4K digital restoration by Cinecittà in association with Unidis; courtesy Cinecittà. In Italian; English subtitles. 125 min.
The notorious 1920 trial of Italian immigrant anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, long considered a dark chapter of civil injustice and xenophobia in US history, was ambitiously recounted—and embellished—by Guiliano Montaldo in this Italo-French co-production, not by chance filmed in Ireland with a cast that included Cyril Cusack and Milo O’Shea to draw parallels to The Troubles afflicting that nation. Amplifying this was Ennio Morricone’s rousing score, with Joan Baez contributing the film’s title ballad and her strident song “Here’s to You” (“Here’s to you, Nicola and Bart/Rest forever here in our hearts…”), which very quickly became an anthem for human rights everywhere, only to be repurposed as the theme of a documentary about Germany’s Red Army Faction and the popular video game Metal Gear.