Salvatore Giuliano

Plot synopsis:
The body of Salvatore Giuliano is found in a courtyard in Castelvetrano on July 5, 1950. Various figures are in the courtyard as the head doctor shouts out his examination of the body. The carabinieri and press arrive.The action flashes back to 1945, as exposition explains the existence of a Sicilian Separatist movement that gained strength around the time the allies handed Italy back in Feb, 1944. They were known as the "EVIS" (The Sicilian Army of Independence). They enlisted anyone to terrorize their enemies, bandits, mafiosi, and Salvatore Giuliano - who treated the Italian police and carabinieri as occupiers. They also fought leftists, communists, etc., who were making inroads with the people. The action continues as the EVIS leadership seeks out Salvatore in one of his hiding places. Another name used for him is Turridu which was what he was known as to distinguish him from his father. They want to offer him the rank of colonel and the battle flag of EVIS. In addition, once independence is attained, his name will be cleared. He killed a carabiniere and went into the mountains when he was 21. Don Pietro di Borgetto tells the EVIS representatives that Turiddu (Giuliano) is expecting them. He gives an impassioned speech about Sicilian separatism with beautiful pans of a Sicilian landscape at twilight. A sequence shows how lithe and adept Giuliano's men are in town, sneaking about. At night, the police come out of a building in town and are shot down. Giuliano's men surround an isolated post and open fire on it. The men inside come out with their hands raised. We see Giulinano just at the edge of the frame for the first time. He is wearing a white shirt. Four policemen drive along the road and are fired upon. The jeep crashes. The survivors shoot back at their attackers.Action resumes in present day - The casket actually contains Salvatore - we are in the present day. A glib army officer gives an account of Giuliano's death, and the press is not placated.Flashback. Giuliano and his men were protected by their positions in the mountains. On the other side of Sicily, the eastern side, the separatists were easily defeated in 1946, although the head of Montelepre is still in charge. Giuliano's men see the arrival of military policemen in the town. They are there to find Giuliano. The townspeople go inside their homes and close their shutters. The carabiniere major goes to see the town's mayor. Two policemen begin patrolling the streets in broad daylight when they are shot down by automatic weapons fire, guerrilla warfare style. One of the policemen eventually dies. A curfew is declared. The soldiers are stunned by this early loss. The drummer goes through the streets announcing the curfew. The communication between the villagers and the bandits works with whistles and closing of shutters etc.,The next morning, we get our first shot of Gaspare Pisciotta, Salvatore's right-hand man in black with Salvatore in white on the top of the hill. Pisciotta is the "Judas" of the story, but that has not developed yet. The military police start marching up into the mountains, but are not good with the terrain, despite most of them probably being WWII vets. Giuliano's men open fire on them. The military guys soon retreat. They fire some artillery shells at the outlaws, but they just scurry into the hills.The town crier announces that the people have one hour to get their water and shop for food. Mostly women come out, but some older men too. Soon they are fired upon and they have to scatter - by whom I'm not sure.In May 1946, Sicily was granted its independence, although the independence isn't as great as one might assume. To this day they are an "autonomous region" with probably less freedom from Italy than a state in the United States has. It was really done to vent off the anger. The bandits are now in respectable clothes, who go to see a mysterious lawyer. They have a letter of introduction to him from another mysterious character, a prince. They believe that all of their crimes should be pardonable as political crimes, a strategy that will be in use at the upcoming trial. The lawyer says that Giuliano is still staying in the mountains. He says the separatists were never going to keep their promises to Giuliano. The lawyer says Giuliano was an idiot to believe them in the first place. Giuliano will be an outlaw in the streets until the police catch him.The outlaws are now in the business of kidnapping shopkeepers and merchants at the behest of the mafia. They kidnap a man. After the dissolution of EVIS some of the money would go to Giuliano, but quite a bit of the money went to the Mafia for "protection".The police continue with their random searches of people. They stop townspeople from taking water and food stuffs up to the mountains to the outlaws by confiscating the goods. They want to starve him out. He was being supplied by the desire for Sicilian independence, and now that that's gone, the police see him as a common criminal. The whistling signal in heard and relayed down to Montelepre. They are signalling the arrival of the troops. A man awakens Donna Maria, Giuliano's mother. She awakens her son. He gets up quickly and goes outside. He escapes with Pisciotta into the hills and they see the trucks rolling in. A little later soldiers go into the house. They also start rounding up a lot of the men in the town. Many of the women cry to see their men taken away. They want to staunch the flow of supplies to the town, and therefore Giuliano.The police gather the men in the piazza. They call out the names of quite a few of the townsmen. These people are going to Palermo. One of the men asks: "Marshal, how long will we have to pay for the sin of being born in Montelepre?" The other townsmen shout their approval of this observation.A woman runs down the streets of the town shouting "murderers!'" The police are informed that the women are rebelling and they take two squadrons to block of the main street going into the town square.Back forward in time The mother of Salvatore Giuliano moans over the loss of her son. The photographers take photos of her. The mother is allowed to see the body of her son. She cries over the body.Flashback 1947. In the first election for an autonomous Sicilian government, the People's party is victorious, espousing agrarian reform and the occupation of feudal land.Giuliano recruits a goat farmer. And, finally, he sends the shepherd out to fight alongside the others. The men learn that on May the first, May Day, tomorrow, they are going to Portella della Ginestra to shoot communists. Actually, to this day, it is unknown who ordered the massacre.The communists are having a big parade and a speech. All of a sudden gun fire breaks out coming from the mountains. The people start running for their lives. People are killed, including women and children. This incident sent a chilling message that no one was beyond the reach, even politically, of Salvatore.The shepherd is interrogated at police headquarters and issues firm denials that he knows anything, or anybody.Back to the present - after death. July,1950, Salvatore Giuliano's tombstone. His mother is paying respects at the tombstone. Police are seen going to Pisciotti's family home in the center of Montelepre.Flashback 1949 Pisciotti's mother is trying to protect him. The police search the house.Back to the presentThere is a trial held for those accused of killing communists at Portella della Ginestra. A large number of accused outlaws appear in court behind bars. The shepard testifies he knows nothing, and knows nobody. The next witness says that the police beat the confession out of him.The judge says it all started going bad on June 13, 1950 with the arrival of Giuliano's memoir in court in which he claimed that all the picciotti were innocent and their statements made under duress.With other outlaw witnesses, the judge asks them directly who fired the shots at Porto della Ginestra. One of the men says that when the time is right, he will talk. Later in the court case, this same man stands up and says he can name some names. In front of the judge he says he knows the names of three men. He is in violation of the code of omertà, or silence from the authorities. He was in an earlier scene performing a kidnapping. He heard the names from Terranova, who heard it from Giuliano. Terranova is called to the stand. When the cooperating witness gets back to the docket with the other defendants, they suddenly attack him. Meanwhile, Terranova throws himself on the floor and acts like he has gone absolutely bonkers. After considerable struggling, the court is finally brought back to order.Gaspare Pisciotta now decides to talk. He says the Giulilano memoir that the judge has is completely false. Giuliano was forced by the police to write it. He says in the false version of the memoirs, Giuliano omitted the names of the men behind the massacre at Portella della Ginestra, thereby destroying his comrades' lives. He says that's why he killed Giuliano. The real memoir, he claims, has the names of the influential politicians behind the decision to attack the communists.(Gaspare) Pisciotta also says that since 1947 he was a collaborator with the carabiniere. The police gave him a free pass to come and go as he pleased. He claims that all the defendants were loyal servants of the separatists and monarchists. And now the big politicians are all in Rome, while the little guys are all here. He says an unholy trinity was formed between the outlaws, the police and the Mafia. To prove it he asks the judge to subpoena Gen. Luca. On December 23, 1949, General Luca met with Giuliano. The carabiniere also contacted the Mafia and the two sides made an agreement to cooperate with each other. And now it's difficult, if not impossible, to determine what the Mafia was responsible for and what the carabiniere were responsible for.A man testifies that a high ranking police force officer (member of the commendatore) apparently offered to get Giuliano and Pisciotta out of the country. The fact that the memorandum was destroyed hints at a major conspiracy.Flashback. - A quick scene back in Sicily shows that the authorities had to cooperate with the mafia, working through an intermediary.We meet "Nunzio Mirafiori" in the screenplay, but probably a representation of Giuliano's treasurer, Benedetto Minasola, a mafioso. He talks with the marshal. He says Giuliano is becoming a problem for him and he will he provide the carabiniere with one of the four men around Giuliano, Franco Mannino. The four need to be gotten rid of before they can get Giuliano. Nunzio says that the carabiniere have to catch Giuliano.Mannino emerges from the mountains and is heading to down to meet some "friends" as he was told by the mafioso. The carabiniere officer is seen in the background as if from behind bars. He is grabbed by the outlaws and held. He spits in the face of the retreating Don Nunzio.Nunzio tells the marshal that now they need the other three and Giuliano. The marshal says he just may let Mannino go.Two of the men are lured into a way of hiding by the marshal to lure Giuliano out. They are suspicious, but really have no choice. The police marshal has to lock up the truck with the bandits away in the truck. Now he emerges from his house at night, where Giuliano is now dressed in dark clothing at the left of the frame. Nunzio knows that Giuliano dare not kill him because he is still behest to the mafia.Now a cut to Nunzio, demoralized and isolated in rock quarry, with Pisciotta cocking his rifle and laughing. But the don (Nuzio), turns him around with his eloquence. He convinces Pisciatta that Giuliano basically has his back to the wall, and the carabinieri are stronger than the police - his days are numbered, and he should betray Giuliano.A setup has been arranged so that Pisciatta can see the cabiniere arriving to capture Giuliano. At this point, he has decided to double-cross his leader.Guilano is visiting his attorney, De Maria, in Castelvetrano. He is portrayed as an owlish, intellectual type. He has provided cover for both of them. Pisciatta has decided to kill Giuliano. The carabiniere actually want him alive so they can immobilize him and get to the bottom of who was behind the massacre. Pisciatta calls out for Turiddu - (Giuliano's other name). Giuliano says he's not coming and gives Gaspare a note from an informer. The note says that Gaspare has made a deal with the carabiniere. Gaspare laughs and asks: "And you believe it?" - a very nervous and unconvincing laugh. Supposedly, in real life, Giuliano accepted this explanation and fell asleep.Outside the carabiniere have a diversion where they have to tell a man who has come out into the street to fan himself to go back into the house. He lights a cigarette, and three shots go off. The carabiniere rush over to the building. Gaspare comes out and says that Giulilano is up there wounded. De Maria is cowering at the top of the stairs. The carabiniere go in but find that Giuliano is actually dead. Now they wonder what are they going to do. They tell the landlord to get them Giuliano's clothes. They get the clothes and they dress Guliano in them. A military policeman drives Gaspare back, but Gaspare takes control and kicks the policeman out the the car. He proceeds on alone.The military police bring the body to the spot where it will eventually be found. They stage the scene carefully. Then one of the carabiniere fires off an automatic weapon toward the body. This provides an explanation for the opening scene of the movie, where the doctor is announcing the details of the body affirmatively.Present day At the court they ask the landlord of Giuliano if he knows where Giuliano's memoirs are to be found. The landlord says he knows nothing about the whereabouts the memoir. The judge wonders if Gaspare took the memoir from Giuliano.Gaspare speaks up and says that as of July 1950 Giuliano no longer had the memoir. It had been given to the man they called "the little lawyer". He also says he introduced the carabiniere to the little lawyer. There are references to "the little lawyer" that, to this day, are not explained. The carabiniere have the document now. Gaspare says he can't give the judge the name of the man.The court reaches it's decision on May 3rd, 1952, almost two years after the murder of Giuliano. A number of the defendants such as Gaspare, Terranova (Pisciotta's closest colleague), Mannino, Francesco Pisciotta, Cucinella and several more have been found guilty of the May 1, 1947 massacre and are sentenced to life in prison. Pisciatta gives an explosive speech where he yells about the injustice given to him because he saved the life of the carabiniere colonel.In prison Gaspare is poisoned to death, probably for collaborating with the police. One of the outlaws shouts out the news for everyone to hear that Gaspare is dead and the inmates make a lot of banging sounds to announce their approval.In 1960 Coda - Nunzio (in real life, probably Benedetto Minasola) is murdered at a horse market. A message that treachery will always be punished.

Tags: murder, flashback

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