Sacco and Vanzetti (2006)

the audience applauded

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I had only discovered the case a few years. As two Italian anarchists and radicals were really executed for their beliefs rather than the two murders of a payroll master and guard that despite being very brutal.Still the case has been an example and if you can say a role model for other cases like this to come in the present and future. As if both Sacco and Vanzetti did this or not. Or if they were caught in the wrong place and at the wrong time.It shows Sacco as a family man and Vanzetti as a hard working fish peddler. Both were trying to make a living in America. Until they were put into history that they did not ask for.Their case involves workers rights, the rights for immigrants among the topics. As this case should be studied for all history to come!

Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent beyond any doubt, their trials and appeals were shams, and they are rightfully folk heroes to all the oppressed. That is the message of this unbalanced documentary where on person (maybe) thinks they committed the crime for which they died, and then she is apparently ignorant of the facts. In response to the interviewer's question (I paraphrase), do you think they murdered your father, the daughter of one of the victims says (again I paraphrase), well, someone killed him. That's the lone voice for guilt. This despite the fact that many historians and legal scholars think one or both are guilty, and many others have considerable doubt about their complete innocence.If you know a good bit about the case this documentary will make you feel uneasy. The lionization of S&V is over the top. And considering that it is quite likely Sacco was involved, if not Vanzetti, and if not in these crimes in aiding and abetting other violent crimes, the exaltation of the men as heroes is unsettling. Why S&V are such symbols of the miscarriage of justice, given the evidence, I cannot explain. Better to sing songs, write poems, and create art about the thousands of southern black martyrs. But maybe that is why liberal, white Americans (and all of the S&V apologists in this film are white) latch on to S&V. A study of the dichotomy between the outrage (contemporaneous and modern)displayed by liberal whites over S&V and the relative indifference to the numerous lynching cases might be interesting. Not tot say that liberal whites condone lynching, but it is interesting that the S&V case is such a lightning rod for them in contrast. That said, there is no question their trial and appeals were horribly biased and unfair. That is what has always appalled me about the case. This is covered a good bit in the documentary. Rightfully, the commentators hold the judge and jury in disdain. This is well presented. The evidence by which we might independently judge the guilt of S&V, though, is terribly one sided here and highly selective and speculative.

The story of two Italian immigrant radicals who were executed in 1927 offers insights into present-day issues of civil liberties and the rights of immigrants.Oddly, the film is not really about the case, at least not much of the time, like you might expect. They could easily have used the 90 minutes to go through the evidence for and against the accused. Instead, they show the influence the men had on history, art, and one man even shows where one of the men lived. Maybe you should not watch this documentary unless you have already read something of the case and know the background.Howard Zinn shows up here, both as an interview subject and as a professor giving a speech. Zinn is a perfect person to interview, as few other people have championed the underdog quite like he has. (Sadly, he is no longer with us.) He may be a bit too sympathetic with the anarchists, but then again, maybe they were innocent.

Popping this into the DVD player I hoped for a detailed history of the S&V case. Instead it bordered on hagiography with the two defendants just a couple of innocent anarchists caught up in a wave of immigration hatred. And at the end the point is made that such irrational hatred continues to this day because we are indiscriminately rounding up Muslims and shipping them off to Gitmo.I say this as someone whose grandfather was an immigrant from Italy. The movie downplays any evidence against the defendants using the standards of today's justice system. Because the police didn't have DNA evidence, fingerprints, surveillance video or ballistic evidence it is assumed the case was weak.Were Sacco and Vanzetti guilty? I don't know but then I wasn't around at the time. But if you are looking for a balanced account of the case you can save your time and pass this DVD by.