Guiliano and his bold cousin Aspanu Pisciotta (a very young but brilliant John Turturro) start off stealing grain for their starving village of Montelepre, but as Guiliano cheats death and gains notoriety, he becomes more bold, breaking powerful political prisoners out of jail to recruit them to his team and brazenly robbing the local gentry of their jewels at their luncheons. Guiliano wants to see Sicily out from under Italy's rule and to see the peasants obtain the unused land that is laying wasted by the wealthy, but the town is run by a corrupt mayor who is under the thumb (and paid protection) of Don Masino Croce (Joss Ackland), as is most of the town. The only man willing to speak out for the people is Silvio Ferra (Stanko Molnar), brother of the lovely Giovanna Ferra (Guilia Boschi), Guiliano's girlfriend.
Although he tries for many years to get Guiliano to come work for him, Don Masino is unsuccessful, but is still very fond of the brave young man and often arranges for his protection, acting as a silent benefactor, even though Guiliano is unaware. Family friend Hector Adonis (Richard Bauer) often pleads Guiliano's case to Don Masino, who continues to watch over Guiliano through various spies, even as the young man grows more prideful and becomes more troublesome to Don Masino. When a peaceful political protest goes horribly awry and innocent people are killed, the villages turn their backs on Guiliano and he finds himself and his new wife, Giovanna, in grave danger. He knows that he must continue to work for justice for Sicily, even if it costs him his life.
The Sicilian: Director's Cut is a very dramatic film, which is to be expected given the source material, director, writer, and time period in which it was made. This isn't a film for everyone, but fans of Puzo and Cimino will probably enjoy it. You've got drama, romance, politics and over-the-top mafia styled violence. The acting is good, although personally, I have a hard time taking Christopher Lambert seriously when he throws one of those intense stares at the camera. Terence Stamp is striking as Prince Borsa and John Turturro simply steals every single scene he's in.
Apparently, this film has been tough to get a hold of on home video formats and this Director's Cut shows the full film, whereas the released version had some pivotal scenes removed. At any rate, it's a very long film at almost 2.5 hours and there are no special features, which seems sad, since this film had a lot of controversy and chaos surrounding its creation and release. If you've been waiting for The Sicilian: Director's Cut to release on Blu-ray, you've finally got your chance to own it. For the rest of us, it's just another older film that has been cleaned up and released on Blu-ray.
