Flight of the Innocent (1993)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

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

Although from a cinematography the production is good, the story and the actors are in doubt. First the story: it is about a kid from a crime family in the deep south that escapes from a deeply agrarian society to the heavily services-oriented north. Well, sorry to tell you, but the deep south as it is mythologized in the Godfather movies, doesn't exist anymore. Everybody has a cellphone now, nobody wants to be a Sheppard anymore, everybody wants to have an office job. The story is highly simplistic and idiomatic, kind of a cute story of a sweet looking kid with bad guys around him. Then the actors: the parents of the kidnapped child are "acting" the part that it is so obvious. When they see the child's school backpack, the knee to it, pick it up, and embrace it. So obvious, that it is classic "B" movie, and so predictable, more for a melodrama aired in soap-opera afternoons. Even how the director directed the shots has some unnatural feel: when the kid emerges from the crypt in the cemetery, he is made to turn his head slightly and then express surprise to discover there is a vehicle. It is as if the kid didn't have peripheral vision. Such scene direction by putting emphasis on frontal screen scape is typical of television direction of simple and uncomplicated easy-to-do productions. To have it here just shows how simplistic that was. But it was the only time it happened, otherwise, the other scenes are more dynamic

Corsa means race. And this is one of epic dimensions. It is interesting to point out that Carlo Carlei, the director, was in his first effort at the time.As a director myself, I find some of the many runs of Vito a bit over the top. But, at the same time, I must admit that the scarcity of dialogue and the stupor in Vito's attitude is alluring and simply unnerving.This is a film that uses in a very effective way the dramatic and cinematic expression of Panavision. This format is completely accepted as the de facto standard for any major release. But the complexities of using this format in a story that will be told through the eyes of a child is not easy.The superb landscapes and contrasts that make this film as visually stunning and as dark as it is is not a small achievement for a first film. Actually, it's quite unbelievable this is a first directorial job.The natural settings and lighting give, to some scenes, a beautiful psychological break within all the violence and desperation the main character experiences.But, above all, this film is effective. It takes the audience completely off-balance and never lets it go. It's gripping. Even with some really redundant scenes and not so believable twists. But we have to remember that for some dramatic purposes, these twists are a valid resource.Music becomes almost a character in a very unobtrusive form, and I like the sparse passages of really weird and doom-reminding sounds.The language is beautiful, even when the boy and his family speak with a very tight lilt -true to their land. I only object to the incredibly bad voice-over of the only french actor, it's a voice that is as unconvincing as if the man was talking with Hugh Grant's voice.Even when all the slo-mo scenes are masterfully planned and shot, the violence is overwhelming. I wouldn't be that explicit, but -then again, this leads the audience to the unexpected with such a speed that it is pretty justified.All in all, La Corsa... is a riveting film. Manuel Colao's performance and beauty are all the more enticing within such a dark subject matter.

Honestly is one of my all time 10 best italian movies ever. I cant understand how a director like Carlo Carlei it`s not working in Hollywood after this one, like G.Tornattore o R.Bennigni this movie is a great movie and also very original, touching and well shooted. E X C E L E N T italian movie E X E L E N T Carlei "avanti caro"

Jtur has a fair point, you could add that the picture never shows how young Vito obtains the address of his goal---but this is a parable, not a New Realism movie with peasants employed as actors. The most striking feature of this highly cinematic picture is that for the whole 101 minutes it has little dialogue. You could write the lines on a couple of pages. It cuts to the chase in the first 30 seconds, and never stops. At the climactic moment, when the young hero bursts into speech for the first time, putting his own life on the line and thereby redeeming his whole murdered criminal family, it has marvellous dramatic, emotional and philosophical impact, nobly underlined by the literary epitaph. Somehow, I can't see the Disney organisation taking on a big issue and dramatically working out its theme in this way. Flight of the Innocent is so well structured. Every 10 minutes, there is a plot point, and it certainly has no "sagging centre"---an exceptional achievement in any picture. The boy just runs and runs and runs, until he is in the arms of---well, don't let's spoil the story, because this is a passionate statement about a genuine horror of southern Italian life, and well worth seeing.