User reviews

Forget all the movie you have seen since now about mafia. Forget good people to one side and bad people to the other, forget blood and gunshots. This is the real story of a boy from Sicily who's family is actually very well connected with Mafia, so to fight Mafia he has to fight against people he loves, and make them take the same risks he takes in this fight. It is also a good portrait about Sicily's way of life and youth rebellion of seventies. I'm sorry for those have to see it in a different language from italian (I should say sicilian) because original dialogs worth it. A word about scriptwriters, Monica Zapelli and Claudio Fava. Their good job comes from their knowledge about Mafia, and their courage actually fighting it.

Somebody say that it is a classical italian movie about Mafia, but I'm sure that `I cento passi'is something more. It talks about the real story of Peppino Impastato. Peppinpo was a boy who lived in a small village in Sicily in the 70's. After his grandfather's murder he knew a printer who was communist and becoming communist and through he tried to fight the Mafia and the boss in particular, because he was the mandant of grandfather's murder. `I cento passi' means ` 100 steps' which was the distance between his home and the boss' house. He was killed by dynamite the same day of Moro's murder (a famous italian politician) but the police said that it was an accident. It is a real story and it make you thing how the pawer is dangerous but also how is important the bravery.

The Hundred Steps is a GREAT movie, not to be missed by anybody who has grown up swallowing the godfather saccharine. Yes, the Sopranos might be entertaining, but this is real. It does not take more than an ounce of violence to create an incredible dramatic tension. The never changing Sicilian Landscape, the stone faced mafiosi and the fear that you breathe during all the movie make this much more than the unfortunate story of a one-man rebellion.

I saw this movie just recently and loved it. I was sort of forced into watching it (I as trying to get my friend to bring out "Alien" instead, but that didn't work), and I found it an amazing experience. The performances are sizzling, especially from the title role of Peppino played by Luigi Lo Cascio. For a mafia film I found there to be an incredibly low amount of violence. If only it hadn't been forgotten, because it is a truly underrated gem. No Godfather, or even Pulp Fiction, but still a heart-warming and powerful film.

Unmissable.

7/10

A very careful reconstruction of a real episode developing in Sicily from the '50s to the '70s. The film has the pace and the political idealism of "Z" by Costa Gavras. Americans might be interested to see the Mafia depicted in its Italian home-base, and relations between the (poorer, but more "original") Sicilian Mafiosi and their American counterparts / relations. This is a film on the protesting youth of the '70s, as well, with a lot of music like in the THE BIG CHILL. In Italy the film has been much discussed for its Mafia theme, but underneath there is a lot of family psychology.

I was well surprised to see how with intelligence a film with a plot which could be easily mixed up to the typical "mafia's films serie" has been excellently directed and extremely well acted.

Normally I do not make any type of comparison to the "golden years" (sixties-seventies) of the Italian cinema but for me is a must today to say that this film and the director: Giordana does not have anything to envy to Francesco Rosi and his films. The actor Luigi Lo Cascio is just excellent well deep involved in his character.

Do not miss the film it worths even in DVD or VHS.

Rating: 7/10

I stumbled across this movie tonight and am so glad I did. I had never heard of it, or of this story. Was refreshing to not see the glorified 'mafia' we see in films. Well cast and well written. And will always remember this film when I hear the song 'A whiter shade of pale'. A side note, I noticed during one scene they were watching a film and I had to pause. It was the film 'Hands over the city', which I had just watched the night before on the Criterion channel. In these times it was a well timed movie for me. Not many people are ready to stand up for their beliefs, and be the one who speaks up.

This movie is how mafia stories should be: real and not romanticized around the mafia concept.

The all story is accurately narrated thanks to the mother of Peppino Impastato.

Watching it will not only be entertainment, but the spectator will learn about real lives stories and discover how much disgusting mafia is.

I was so shocked to learn that when Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were assassinated in Sicily in Spring/Summer 1992, that the people of Sicilia were standing up and protested to the organized crime. Yes, I do remember. I read a Book called " The Excellent Cadavers" by Alexander Stille, when he talks about the bloody ordeal of Ani-mafia judges who were murdered by Toto Riina during the 70's and 80's. This man Peppino Impastato took it upon himself and spoke out against this terrorist society in the 1970's. But in the end, with that task he was murdered. This was a good film and I enjoyed as much. Great performances. I CENTO PASSI is a film that really hit me because of my appreciation of the culture and the language of the Island of Sicily. This is a film that captures a man who sacrificed his life for a just cause to a bunch of murderous cowards.

Rating: 7.6

"I cento passi" is a great novel (based on the real life of Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato), it tells the story of a brave man who believed in honesty and was killed by mafia. What about today? Something has changed, something remains the same. With movie like "I cento passi" everyone now can think and understand more about those days.

One of the best example of a person Who fight Mafia.

This has quite a poignant underlying message of complicity and compliance as it tells the true story of firebrand young man Peppino Impastato (Luigi Lo Cascio). He lives on a mafia-dominated Sicily in a family led by his acquiescing father Luigi (Luigi Maria Burruano). It's not that his dad is cowardly, far from it, but he has a wife (Lucia Sardo) and another son, Giovanni (Paolo Briguglia), so is constantly conscious that any resistance to the established order could prove perilous. Peppino has all the vigour and irresponsibility of his age and together with some friends sets up a local radio station that mixes a contemporary mix of classic rock music with some fairly direct rantings about the local "don" - comparing him to legendary Sioux chief Sitting Bull holding court over a tribe full of drug users and sleazy hookers. This isn't a gun-toting organisation. It doesn't need to be. It gets it's way by a combination of carrot and stick approaches. If the population co-operate then life can be good, but if they stray from the arbitrary control of "Tano" (Tony Sperandeo) then they might find themselves starring in their own personal version of a Buster Keaton film. Cascio is on strong form here offering us quite a compelling presentation of a young man who genuinely believed that his on-air protestations could elicit change for good and when his family warn him of the risks - to them and to him - that just seems to galvanise him. The conclusion is history; a sad and depressing history that rather well illustrated the extent of the collusion that existed between the authorities and the "authorities" and the disposability of an inconvenient life. Briguglia also contributes well as does Sardo as his strong-willed but increasingly wary mother whilst the writing offers us a lively bedrock for characters that mingled passion with prescience in an entertaining and engaging fashion. The production looks good and it's well worth a watch.