The Professor

Il Camorrista (1986)
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Actors: Ben Gazzara, Laura del Sol, Leo Gullotta
Runtime: 164 min

Outstanding movie about the Mafia in southern Italy at the end of the 1970s. In the beginning of the movie, the authors say they hope that viewers will strengthen their belief in the necessity of the state and laws as the only true protector of civil life. However, watching the movie raises the thought that differences between illegal Mafia and legal authorities are not so great. The Mafia does not question the government, but rather competes with it, trying to imitate certain features of the government such as collecting taxes, providing safety and regulating business. The government relies heavily on the ruling ideology and consent, but is more than willing to resort to violence when threatened, and in the southern Italy government has often used the Mafia to do their dirty work, especially against labor unions, and other attempts to organize the working class.

The Camorra, a criminal organization/secret society founded in Campania in the 17th century, has developed into independent clans who cooperated or were feuding with each other. During the 1970s, Raffaele Cutolo, a charismatic crime boss in the Neapolitan region, formed a new criminal organization modeled on the traditional Camorra from the 19th century, and soon came into conflict with the existing camorrist groups. The New Organized Camorra (Nuova Camorra Organizzata) recruited its members in prisons and among unemployed youth, was very aggressive and had a strong hierarchical structure, with ideological stronghold in the code of silence, local patriotism, remarkable mutual solidarity, Catholicism and political conservatism. This film is about the rise and fall of the reformed Camorra, which spread rapidly due to its structure and ruthlessness but ultimately failed due to a lack of understanding of the broader political picture, very bad political assessments, unfounded megalomania and general loss of contact with reality. Based on actual events.

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