Reviews (4)

Tense & very convincing
The story centers around a number of very different men (and their families)...they all have one thing in common - their job. The job is to protect a new judge who is intent on clamping down on the mafia - in Sicily...not quite a regular 9 to 5 job and one which gives plenty of room to bring you to the edge of your seat. The score is excellent and adds wonderfully to the tension which just seems to build and build in a delightfully non-Hollywood fashion that doesn't enable you to predict what is going to happen or when.

A great movie which is well worth reading the subtitles for if you don't speak Italian...too bad its not on DVD yet - a VHS copy will surely get worn out as even knowing the story does not remove the impact that this movie has so there is a good chance you will watch it often.

Don't miss this film
This is a film that Hollywood will probably remake and butcher a la La Femme Nikita. Great, great drama. See the real thing. Ricky Tognazzi is a serious talent. See it.

La Scorta: An Un-Hollywood Thriller
Because Ricky Tognazzi didn't have a Hollywood budget to make this true-crime story work, he relied on the basics: fast action, interesting characters, and genuine tension. Based on the true story of a government prosecutor who stood up to the Mafia in Sicily, "La Scorta" is a good buddy movie and great action movie rolled into one. With little special effects at his disposal, Tognazzi creates tension the old fashioned way: skill. He makes even the most simple moments seem dangerous, as they must have seemed for the real-life escorts whose job it was to protect the prosecutor from assasination. "La Scorta" is vivid proof of great action movies outside of Hollywood.

A Tense, Human Story of Honor and Courage
An engrossing film about a team of Carabinieri (Italian National Police) assigned to bodyguard a crusading magistrate in a Mafia-corrupted city in Sicily. Facing endemic corruption and escalating threats of retribution for their Magistrate's anti-corruption efforts, the "escort" team draws together, determined to protect him in his effort to break the Mafia grip on the city of Trapani. The film effectively portrays the insidiousness of corruption, as tainted politicians and even fellow justice officials seek to obstruct the Magistrate's efforts. Tognazzi creates increasing tension and a sense of foreboding as it becomes clear that the Magistrate and his escort have been targeted for elimination by organized criminal gangs. The film presents an interesting study in group dynamics as the escort team's diverse characters overcome their own bickering, apathy, and (ultimately) fear to protect their charge. The film is strnegthened by engaging performances from its ensemble cast. Tense, thrilling, and inspiring, "La Scorta" is not to be missed. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Gripping recreation of facts
Because "Excellent Cadavers" - or, as it's titled in Europe and Australia, "Falcone" - is a film based on facts, you begin to watch it knowing perfectly well just what is going to happen and what the ending will be. Nevertheless, it manages to be gripping and deeply involving. The story of judge Falcone and his self-sacrificial fight against the seemingly omnipotent mafia is faithully recreated (though perhaps a little too shortened for my liking) - if marginally fictionalized - and treated with respect it deserves. The script certainly does Falcone justice, as does Chazz Palminteri's portrayal of the relentless lawman. F. Murray Abraham delivers as well, and even though he obviously does not look anything like the real Tommasso Buscetta, he convincingly portrays an old-fashioned "man of honor", a relic of the mob era when the term had an actual meaning. Victor Cavallo as Salvatore Riina, shown here as a secondary character, is worth mentioning too - Cavallo, though his role has little screen time and is in fact reduced almost to a few dialogueless cameos, manages to create a memorable, truly frightening and malevolent screen personality, perfectly recreating the nature of the real "Toto". Though this is "only" a TV production, it can certainly stand tall and proud next to any cinematic giants of the mob film genre. Highly recommended.

Must see for every mafia movie lover
For those that want something different from all those Sinatra loving american-born mafioso this is a must. The movie based on a true story and describes the life of Judge Falcone, a man dedicated in fighting the mafia in its nest, Sicily. I gave it 3stars as i find quite short and end very suddenly.

War against the Mafia: Raw and Brutal
This is a powerful film. The fact that it has only 1 "name" star( F.Murray Abraham,as Don/Godfather Tommaasso Buscetta) and uses multi-over-voice news casts, and actual newspaper clip/photo montages conveys an aura of documentary realism not often seen except perhaps in war films. EXCELLENT CADAVERS is a war film. It has been noted the film makes no effort at "Godfather glamorizing" of Dons and wise-guys of The Mafia. Nor does it opt for a meretricious cool that allows "The Good Fellows" to be thugs but tough-guy anti-heroes at the same time. The Sicilian mobsters are portrayed as demonic monsters; their "soldiers" as conscienceless killers. Chazz Palminteri is excellent as soft-spoken, courageous Judge Giovanni Falcone. He takes-on the thankless, almost suicidal mission of ferreting-out the 5th estate/Racketeer dominated infrastructure of his government and nation amidst an unbelievable reign of terror by Cosa Nostra. With assassinations of public officials and police occurring daily, the breaking of Omerta...the blood code of silence...by Don Tommasso Buscetta (in vengeance for mob killings of his family members by other Dons) "opens the ball" to mass indictments, arrests and convictions of literally hundreds of Mafia leaders and their tainted government cohorts. But the victory is not without terrible, final cost. This film is unfliching in its depiction of what a war against the Mafia is. Some would observe that the film "lacks" depth. However, how much of a hearing do terrorists merit? The Sicilian Mafia...also called The Octopus because its tentacles extend to virtually every major criminal enterprise on earth...is the government of Crime. In lands blessed by God, it will remain The Black Hand that curses men. Perhaps it can never be defeated. But EXCELLENT CADAVERS is an excellent film, raw and brutal, that demonstrates there are still heroic men and women willing to risk themselves to fight the Mafia...wherever it strikes... in unending War of attrition.

Gripping recreation of facts
Because it's based on facts, you begin to watch this movie knowing perfectly well what's going to happen and what the ending will be - nevertheless, it's gripping and deeply involving. The story of judge Falcone is faithully recreated - though too shortened for my liking - and does him justice. Chazz Palminteri plays Falcone much better than I expected, and while F. Murray Abraham does not look like the real Tommasso Buscetta, he does a fair portrayal of a "man of honour". The role and part of Toto Riina, while secondary, is worth mentioning too - it's truly frightening!

An excellent movie about real heros
While the American media was having a field day with publicity about "Teflon Don" John Gotti and the Gambino crime family, across the Atlantic, in the land where the Mafia began, a group of true patriotic heros were literally putting their lives on the line, trying to rid their country of Mafia stranglehold. By viewing this movie, we come in rather at the end of that battle, which is a pity, but understandable given the time restraints of a film.

By the time we are introduced to Giovanni Falcone (Chazz Palminteri) and Paolo Barsellino (Andy Lutto), they have lost fellow judges and magistrates to mob hits. When Falcone's investigation begins to turn up the heat under a few Sicilian Mafia kingpins, the very government office where he is employed confiscates the files containing his research--ironically claiming that they are needed for the investigation in the the most recent Mafia assassination of his fellow judge and friend.

The tentacles of the Mafia have reached into every stratum of Sicilian society by the time this movie begins. The mob controls literally everything. As the character Tommasso Buscetta (F. Murray Abraham) explains to Falcone when they meet, that's why Sicily had highways that went nowhere, dams without water, seaports without ships. If ever the taxpayers were being robbed to support organized crime, the people of Italy and Sicily were at this time and had been for much longer.

Opposing the Mafia in Sicily in the 1980's meant either political death from corrupt politicos or physical death from the mob, which makes it all the more amazing that so many brave men were willing to try their best and give their lives for their countrymen. It is abundantly clear in the movie that the people of Sicily were literally crying out to be saved from the mob, but were all too aware of the indifference, corruption and fear in high places that made that salvation all but impossible.

Giovanni Falcone entered the fight in what were to be the last seven years of his life. Palminteri plays this hero-next-door beautifully, showing his faults and fears as well as his incredible strength of character. The romance between Falcone and his soon-to-be wife Francesca (Anna Galiena) is beautifully portrayed with warmth and wit. As the two of them (she is a Sicilian magistrate) take on the mob, even as they take their vows, they do so as two mature, realistic adults who know all too well that their lives may be over soon. They learn to live and love surrounded by bodyguards even though they know, as Falcone tells Buscetta, "One should bring children into the world, not orphans."

At long last, Falcone gets to fulfill his dream, along with this friend Paolo Barsellimo (Andy Lutto) of completing his investigation into Mafia activity in Sicily, which ultimately leads to the indictment and conviction of more than 300 crime bosses and flunkies. Then we see the frustration build as yet another corrupt judge begins to set the covicts free from their life sentences on the slightest of technicalities. Finally, just as it appears that the government has captured and will prosecute "Toto" Reina, the mightiest of the mob bosses in Palermo, Francesca and Giovanni are assassinated themselves. Months later, Barsellino joins the group of martyrs to the cause of eliminating the Mafia. But by that time, all the people of Sicily were united in their demands that the government get serious about ending the Mafia domination of their country.

This movie will end for all times the idea that "the mob" is a glamourous, exciting entity. It leaves one asking, "Just what's so good about a goodfella?"

The scenery and settings in the movie deserve star billing themselves. We see Siciliy as a modern, beautiful city with a rich past--a place where most people genuinely want nothing to do with Cosa Nostra and have no respect whatsoever for those who do.

I would have liked to see more background on the history of the mob in Sicily and Italy, as well as a bit more on Falcone's own background. However, it is understandable that the addition of this material would have taken away from the story being told by "Excellent Cadavers." So I have ordered Alexander Stille's book from Amazon to satisfy my curiosity in that regard.

Altogether this is a very beautiful and satisfying film that proves that, after all, heroism is not a thing of the past. ... Read more