Excellent Cadavers

A rash of assassinations of prominent government officials occurred in Sicily in the late 1970s and early 1980s--including the president of Sicily--by the Cosa Nostra, better known as the Mafia. The Mafia had a name for these highly placed victims: cadaveri eccellenti, or excellent cadavers. Judge Giovanni Falcone (Chazz Palminteri), a Sicilian native investigating some routine bankruptcy cases, ended up on an obsessive crusade to bring down these killers, who had been getting away with murder for so long. The HBO docudrama Excellent Cadavers dramatizes Falcone's heroic efforts as he met with ferocious resistance from every quarter, even the Ministry of Justice. An essential witness came to Falcone's aid: Tommasso Buscetta (F. Murray Abraham), a former mob kingpin whose sons had been murdered by the Mafia. A special courthouse was built to hold the thousand lawyers and witnesses in the ensuing trial, with 30 steel cages for the 400 accused Cosa Nostra members. The script and direction of this movie lacks focus and originality at times, and Palminteri, Abraham, and the other fine cast members are not always used to best advantage, but the facts of this true story are so gripping in and of themselves that the film is worth the watch. --Laura Mirsky ...

Besoin d'en savoir plus sur ce produit ?