This film is set in the rural southern province of Calabria during the 1940s, like the novel of Giuseppe Berto on which it was based. It is about a man who is unjustly accused of murder and flees to the countryside to become a bandit and an agrarian revolutionary. There are several choral-style scenes in which peasants occupy farmlands and they bear a resemblance to what Bertolucci would do in his epic "Novecento" or "1900." It is also about the boy who idolizes the brigand and becomes a man in the process. A powerful tale of insanity and violence, "Il brigante" is one of Renato Castellani's finest works. Adelmo Di Fraia is the brigand; Francesco Seminario his young admirer. The movie won the International Critics' Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1961. Nino Rota's haunting musical score bears some resemblance to the one he did for "The Godfather" eleven years later and is widely known among soundtrack recording fans.
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