The Sicilian is a 1987 epic historical crime film directed by Michael Cimino. It was adapted by Steve Shagan from Mario Puzo's 1984 novel of the same name, and later rewritten by Cimino and Gore Vidal, who deviated heavily from it. Resultantly, the film bears little to no resemblance to its source material. Christopher Lambert stars as Salvatore Giuliano, the infamous bandit who tried to liberate early 1950s Sicily from Italian rule and make it an American state.
In the film, Giuliano robs from the rich landowners to give to the peasants, who in turn hail him as their savior. As his popularity grows, so does his ego, and he eventually thinks he is above the power of his backer, Sicilian Mafia boss, Don Masino. The film also stars Terence Stamp, Joss Ackland, John Turturro and Barbara Sukowa.
Plot After the killing of Salvatore Giuliano, his godfather Professor Hector Adonis mourns his death—passing streets adorned with memorials and images of Giuliano—while on his way to visit Giuliano's cousin and closest advisor, Gaspare "Aspanu" Pisciotta, who is being held in a prison cell.
Three years earlier, Pisciotta assists Giuliano in an attempt to smuggle stolen grain to feed starving peasants in Montelepre. They are stopped by the Carabinieri, and in the ensuing gunfight Giuliano is severely wounded but kills a police sergeant; they are forced to hide in the mountains. Newly awakened after the near-death experience, Giuliano declares that he is "not leaving... yet" and becomes an outlaw. Though urged by Adonis to surrender, Giuliano is filled with romantic notions of liberating Sicily from Italian authority by helping the peasants buy food and reclaim uncultivated land owed to them, embracing this as his purpose.
Joined by Pisciotta, Giuliano frees prisoners from local police barracks—forming a ragtag band of guerillas which include a young boy. He promises them equal shares of their spoils in exchange for loyalty. Their first major success, an army train robbery, makes Giuliano famous, and he gains popular support by redistributing wealth to the poor.
Unbeknownst to Giuliano, Mafia boss Don Masino Croce secretly supports him, viewing him as a surrogate son. Croce, aligned with the Interior Minister of Italy, Franco Trezza, hopes to use Giuliano to influence an upcoming election against socialist candidate Silvio Ferra, the brother of Giuliano's lover Giovanna. As Giuliano's notoriety grows, he ruthlessly eliminates informants—attaching the warning to their bodies: "So die all who betray Giuliano."
Giuliano raids a noble gathering hosted by Camilla, an aristocrat from Hartford, Connecticut who is living as an expatriate in Sicily. Despite their class difference, she becomes enamored with Giuliano and seduces him; letting him have her emerald ring, which he never removes. The encounter inspires Giuliano to make Sicily become America's 49th state, and he asks her to send word to President Harry S. Truman proposing annexation.
Risking capture, Giuliano descends from the mountains to publicly propose to Giovanna in Palermo. He later kidnaps Prince Borsa—a wealthy Sicilian nobleman who is withholding acres of land legally owed to the peasants—for ransom, further escalating tensions with both the Mafia and the state.
Croce finally meets Giuliano and offers him a deal on Trezza's behalf: help secure the election victory for the Christian Democrats in exchange for a pardon. Though suspicious, Giuliano agrees to aid the campaign through intimidation and propaganda after Pisciotta confirms the arrangement through contacts in Palermo.
After Giuliano marries Giovanna, a socialist march led by her and Silvio is attacked by Giuliano's men. Though Giuliano had ordered only warning shots, the gunfire turns into a massacre, killing Silvio and many civilians, tarnishing Giuliano's image. He learns that one of his lieutenants acted on Croce's orders to ensure bloodshed and executes him. Realizing he has been manipulated and betrayed, Giuliano demands his promised reward—land for the Sicilian peasants—and resorts to desperate measures, including abducting a cardinal, but fails to force reform.
As military forces close in, Giuliano prepares to flee Sicily. He sends Giovanna—now bearing his child—ahead to America, promising to follow. Before escaping, he attempts to assassinate Croce but his gun malfunctions. Pisciotta ultimately betrays Giuliano to Croce, who offers leniency in exchange for killing Giuliano and instructs him to surrender afterward with the promise of a short prison sentence.
Giuliano bids goodbye to his protégé who tells him he will continue to fight for Giuliano's cause. Assuring that he would never really go away, he finally takes off the emerald ring and puts it on the boy's finger. On a sailboat, Pisciotta draws a gun on Giuliano, who calmly accepts his fate. After Pisciotta hesitates, Giuliano demands that he obey him, and Pisciotta resentfully shoots him.
In the aftermath, Adonis carries out one final deed to those "who betray Giuliano" by poisoning Pisciotta in his cell. Adonis and Croce—the two men who unknowingly led Giuliano to his demise—converse at his funeral. Croce asks Adonis what comes next, to which he replies that there is nothing; Giuliano was unique, a man who created himself, and with his death Sicily will revert to its old ways.
Cast
Production Development
Due to the huge success of The Godfather, Mario Puzo was given $1 million for the film rights to his novel The Sicilian.McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 103 David Begelman, head of Gladden Entertainment at the time, hired Michael Cimino to direct. The original novel features Michael Corleone as a character but contractually he was not allowed to appear in the film of The Sicilian. Cimino's fee was a reported $2.5 million of the $8.5 million budget.
When producer Bruce McNall met with Cimino at a dinner in Los Angeles, he complained loudly about the script and Begelman's interference with casting.McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 104 Cimino wanted Daniel Day-Lewis to play Salvatore Giuliano after seeing him in The Bounty, but eventually settled on Christopher Lambert instead, after he was told by the producers that Day-Lewis was not well known enough in the film industry for a lead role. Cimino would later express his regret over the casting of Lambert: "He did everything he could; he cried, got hurt, but he couldn't do it." Begelman was concerned about a French actor starring in a film about an Italian hero in an English-speaking film, but decided to give Cimino what he wanted with regards to the script and casting to move forward.McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 105
Following two unsatisfactory meetings with Steve Shagan about his script, Cimino heavily rewrote it, enlisting the help and collaboration of novelist Gore Vidal in the process. Shagan later said Cimino "chose not to make the movie I wrote. The guy had his own ideas."
Vidal said that Cimino came to his house in Italy in March 1986 with a script that he had personally written. "I didn't recognize much of what was on the screen," Shagan later said. Ironically, it was Vidal who ended up filing suit against both Shagan and the Writers Guild of America to receive screenplay credit. "I was defrauded of my work," he told the Los Angeles Times. Vidal eventually won the suit against WGA. In the DVD commentary of Year of the Dragon, Cimino said he learned a lot from working with Vidal.Feature-length commentary on Year of the Dragon by director Michael Cimino. Located on the Region 1 DVD.
Shooting The film was shot on location in Sicily in the spring and summer of 1986. In late April 1986, Begelman and McNall discovered that the film was over budget and behind schedule. The problems involved mostly hang-ups with personnel and equipmentnothing on the scale of Cimino's Heaven's Gate. One exception was some low-level Mafia men who controlled certain locations and union workers. Cimino suggested that Begelman and McNall meet with the Mafia men to overcome the impasse. Upon meeting them in a restaurant off the main piazza, the producers discovered that the Mafia men wanted to appear in the film. "Once we all understood," wrote McNall, "the fix was easy. There were plenty of little roles for walk-ons and extras. And if a real role didn't exist, we could pretend to involve some of the guys and throw them a day's pay." Once the problem was solved, Cimino had access to the countryside and the local labor pool.
In order to prepare them for their roles, Christopher Lambert recalled that prior to filming, Cimino had him and John Turturro spend an entire two and a half months riding on horseback in Sicily. Lambert spoke of his relationship with Cimino in 2015:
"Cimino was probably the greatest of his generation, including [Francis Ford] Coppola and [Martin] Scorsese, but he was too smart. He had too much talent. He is an architect, a painter, a writer and a director. On set, he was better than everyone else, in every way. So he wanted to oversee everything. And that is impossible. You have to know how to delegate. He didn't know. This resulted in acute paranoia, in mind-blowing methods of manipulation. One day, just before a very difficult scene, he said to me: 'I had the producers on the phone, I'm fired tomorrow.' I still don't know if it was a manifestation of his paranoia, or a way of throwing me off balance. Because the next day, he was there." Filming finished only "moderately more" than its original budget. "This wasn't a runaway production" said one source at the time.
Post-production After location work was finished, Cimino took the footage straight to his editing room to begin cutting. Cimino did not report any of his progress on the editing. In May 1987, after six-months of editing, Cimino had a 143-minute version that he was very happy with. However, he had final cut only up to 120 minutes. He knew there would be problems if he showed Begelman only the long version, so he asked his editor, Lizi Gelber, to prepare a short one as well. He told her to simply cut out all the action sequences — which were spectacular and showed where the money had gone — and string together all the remaining dialogue sequences so the movie would be 120 minutes of talk. A lavish wedding scene that was supposed to be interrupted by a violent attack cut directly to a hospital, where guests were being treated for injuries suffered at an attack that had not occurred on-screen. Begelman was reportedly outraged by the quality of the 120-minute cut: he considered it to be a "bad joke." The problem was that the final-cut provision in a director's contract is inalienable — the producer has no legal right to change what is delivered.McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 113 Cimino was essentially saying: accept the longer cut or you have to release the short version.
However, what Cimino did count on was Begelman not only knew how to play just as dirty, but even dirtier — the executive producer set aside their contract with Cimino when he went behind his back and asked another filmmaker (and friend) if he would assist with re-cutting the picture (down to the requisite 120 minutes total running time).
Lawsuit