On the other hand...
31 March 2001
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.
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