Director John Frankenheimer was known for conspiracy thrillers such as The Manchurian Candidate or Black Sunday. His films had something to say.
Like Sydney Pollack in the more lavish Havana released in 1990. Frankenheimer mixed romance and politics Casablanca style in Year of the Gun. He too came unstuck.
David Raybourne (Andrew McCarthy) is an American journalist returning to Rome in 1978. Politics in Italy is in a state of chaos and the terrorist group the Red Brigade is causing trouble. Intellectual students are all shouting left wing slogans and demonstrating.
A wealthy student is kidnapped while his lecturer Italo Bianchi (John Pankow) looks on. David wants to rekindle his romance with wealthy Lia (Valeria Golino.) She is Italo's cousin and her ex husband is causing problems.
In the mix is American photojournalist Alison King (Sharon Stone.) She loves danger and finds it. She suspects that David is writing a story about the Red Brigade and he has inside contacts. She wants in on the action.
Only David is writing a book that mixes the backdrop of Italian revolutionary politics including the kidnapping of the Prime Minister.
Now the terrorists are hunting both David and Alison when she becomes indiscrete. The Red Brigade plan to kidnap former Prime Minister Aldo Moro.
The mixing of romance, extreme politics and real life events in clumsy. The romance aspects is overlong and throws the balance of the movie.
Even though Frankenheimer was a veteran of these kind of pictures. He was saddled with a poor script. Lengthy conversations in Italian did not help matters.
Like Sydney Pollack in the more lavish Havana released in 1990. Frankenheimer mixed romance and politics Casablanca style in Year of the Gun. He too came unstuck.
David Raybourne (Andrew McCarthy) is an American journalist returning to Rome in 1978. Politics in Italy is in a state of chaos and the terrorist group the Red Brigade is causing trouble. Intellectual students are all shouting left wing slogans and demonstrating.
A wealthy student is kidnapped while his lecturer Italo Bianchi (John Pankow) looks on. David wants to rekindle his romance with wealthy Lia (Valeria Golino.) She is Italo's cousin and her ex husband is causing problems.
In the mix is American photojournalist Alison King (Sharon Stone.) She loves danger and finds it. She suspects that David is writing a story about the Red Brigade and he has inside contacts. She wants in on the action.
Only David is writing a book that mixes the backdrop of Italian revolutionary politics including the kidnapping of the Prime Minister.
Now the terrorists are hunting both David and Alison when she becomes indiscrete. The Red Brigade plan to kidnap former Prime Minister Aldo Moro.
The mixing of romance, extreme politics and real life events in clumsy. The romance aspects is overlong and throws the balance of the movie.
Even though Frankenheimer was a veteran of these kind of pictures. He was saddled with a poor script. Lengthy conversations in Italian did not help matters.