Year of the Gun (1991) Reviews

• An interesting and thought provoking thriller

  zeu692000-12-12

  Year of the Gun was a thought provoking film that swept you into a political mind frame. I felt as if i was in Italy in 1978 and being taken on a tour of all of italy's troubles back then. The film is a mix of drama and suspense, it has enough of both to keep you entertained. It is fast paced with a lot of twists and turns and explores many different themes including politics, violence, love, treachery and sex. The only sour note comes from Andrew McCarthy, who doesnt have quite what it takes to be in a film like this. Valeria Golino is ok as McCarthy's italian lover and Sharon Stone, once again delivers a great performance as a photo journalist.

• A Messy Political Thriller

  Theo Robertson2005-04-21

  The Red Brigade ( Brigatte Rosse ) was an Italian left wing terrorist organisation that in the 1970s launched a terrorist campaign to over throw the government of Italy and in its place have proletarian dictatorship that would lead to a classless Utopian society . Like its idealogical counterparts in the German Red Army Faction Brigatte Rosse had a problem mobilising the masses . This was undoubtedly due to the fact that hard left wing intellectualism fails to strike a chord in the human condition . Compare this to nationalist instincts that makes people in Northern Ireland want to join the IRA or the UVF or people living in the Gaza Strip or West Bank who join hard line Islamic terrorist organisations . By one of life's ironies the idea of left wing revolution in a democratic European state fails to appeal to few people except left wing middle class intellectuals hence the masses of Germany and Italy fail to mobilise and the terror caused by the German RAF and Italian BR quickly fizzled out YEAR OF THE GUN starts off by telling the audience that Italy in 1978 was on the brink of revolutian but was it ? True there was shootings and bombings and angry demonstrations against capitalism but as a potential revolution France in 1968 and Northern Ireland in the early 1970s both came closer than Italy in the late 1970s . As the story progresses the audience finds itself becoming more and more clueless to the situation at the time . Why are demonstrators flying red banners fighting with well dressed young men carrying crowbars ? You see the story soon starts ignoring Italian geo-politics and concentrates on the character of David Raybourne an American who has lived in America for several years and is in a loving relationship with an Italian woman . In fact there's so much time taken up with David's relationship you find your self looking at your watch wondering when something is going to happen There's two problems with the story , or rather one problem with the plot and one problem with the story telling . The plot when you stop to examine it becomes faintly ridiculous . David is writing a novel revolving around the Red Brigade and by an unlikely series of events the terrorists jump to the conclusion that he's a spy because the kidnap target in his novel is someone in real life the Red Brigade are planning to kidnap . I guess you're not supposed to think about this too much but aren't political thrillers supposed to be thought provoking ? The story telling itself is very poor because when Italian characters ( Who are almost always Red Brigade members ) get together they start speaking in Italian . Okay this is logical because for some reason in the cinematic world foreign characters suddenly start speaking in English when there's no English speaking characters present . Only problem is there's no subtitles and these frequent Italian speaking scenes mean any non Italian speaker won't have a clue as to what's going on which is a pity because I was wondering why the female terrorist likes to have men watch her when she goes to the toilet ! No I'm not kidding , there's a scene where this happens John Frankenheimer was once a highly regarded director who made THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE , BLACK Sunday and SECONDS and who would later make the highly entertaining RONIN . Unfortunately at this stage of his career he was making rubbish like the ecological horror movie PROPHECY and Marlon Brandos swan song that featured a bunch of genetically engineered mammals having acid house parties and shooting each other ( You know the movie I'm talking about ) and in terms of directing this is no different except perhaps that it resembles a TVM in standards . The sound mix is rather poor too A messy political thriller that won't educate you about 1970s European politics and almost certainly won't thrill you much either

• Suspenseful with a plot that twists like a wild cat.

  jukebox-22000-03-05

  The acting is solid and the film well directed except in one place: The photojournalist survives a hail of machine gun bullets by hiding behind a car while taking picture of a bank robbery. Normally this would be OK, except the parts of the car she is hiding behind are the windows! The story is tight and very believable as it is set to the historical background of the capture and killing of Aldo Moro (Italy). The sequence of events is built on a series of coincidental events that demonstrate how you cannot trust anybody if you really want to keep a secret. The film also proves the saying ` if you play with fire you will get burned'. Filmed on location in Italy, the street scenes and interiors add the authenticity of the film. Secondarily, the film also explores the sexual weapon that women sometime use to achieve their own ends, and the unfaithfulness of men that succumb to it so easily. I gave this a 9.

• an underrated 90' political thriller

  trojans72007-03-29

  this may not be john frankenhiemers best work but is not one to overlook. i feel at the time of its release andrew mccarthy career was already over and although he does a fare job of it he did not help it's release and sharon stone was not yet a house hold name.plus Italian politics of the 70's doesn't really sound that inviting. however this little film is exiting,intriguing and well plotted. you feel for andrews plight and you feel lost in a world you don't really understand just like andrew. weather intentionally or not it works for me i don't it want all laid out. the actions of the red brigade are not answered just like the news we watch every night. john frankenhiemer made the best of a hard subject and the last third of the movie is very tense. with a good twist and a message that has not dated. also the DVD quality is very good but where are the subtitles and how about some extras, the deleted scene is odd to say the least. if your a sharon stone fan its a must one of her better early performances.

• Frankenheimer with Sledgehammer makes Idiot Cartoon

  jayraskin12010-01-01

  John Frankenheimer made two beautiful films in his 40 years as a director, "The Birdman of Alcatraz" and "The Fixer". Both of these were about terrible conditions faced by a man in prison. Both of these films glorify suffering and the individual's ability to adapt and survive. They are both well worth seeing. It was when he stepped out of prison that Frankenheimer had trouble. He was considered an action director, but the action in his films generally matched the average action scenes in a television police show of the period. He also tended to have witless one-dimensional characters, either all good guys or all bad guys. Among his witless and tedious concoctions were "the Manchurian Candidate," (Good Americans against evil Chinese Communists) "French Connection II," (Good Americans against Evil French Drug Dealers) and "Black Sunday" (Good Americans against Evil Palestinian Terrorists). This movie has to be ranked as the worst of all these racist artless, thriller-less Conservative Catholic diatribes. In it, we have a good American against evil Italian Communists - the Red Brigades. Frankenheimer wants us to know that he considers the Red Brigades evil. So he has to make them do something evil or sadistic in just about every single scene. See the Red Brigades attack police at demonstrations. See the Red Brigades attack and burn cars and smash store windows. See the Red Brigades kill innocent bystanders, See the Red Brigades kidnap and kill politicians, See the Red Brigades paint graffiti on walls... According to Wikipedia, in the 70's and 80's, about 75 people died over a ten year period due to the Red Brigades - this total probably includes members themselves who were killed by Italian police. This movie shows the Red Brigades killing about 75 people in one week. None of the serious political issues of the time period are shown. I lost a lot of respect for Andrew McCarthy, Sharon Stone, and Valerie Galina for being in this boring and stupid cartoon. You might enjoy this film if you have been captured by the Red Brigades and they have given you a choice of torture or watching this movie. Well, actually, they would probably would not give you a choice, but would torture you by making you watch this movie. The fiends!