BLOOD TIES (IL CUGINO AMERICANO)

Italy, 125 minutes (miniseries, 240 minutes), Colour.
Brad Davis, Tony Lo Bianco, Vincent Spano, Delia Boccardo, Michael V. Gazzo, Maria Conchita Alonso, Riki Tognazzi.
Directed by Giacomo Battiati.

Blood Ties is an American Italian co-production, especially with Italian television, RAI. With settings in New York and Sicily, the film is another look at the Mafia and its code. (The film is well edited, being pruned from a miniseries.)

Brad Davis is earnest as the young American whose father is held in order to force him to carry out an assassination of his cousin, a judge (Tony Lo Bianco), in Sicily. Needless to say, there are complications - with victory going to those on the side of justice and right. Vincent Spano also stars as a young Sicilian, with an American background, wanting to be a Mafia chief, but full of cocaine and ambition. Nothing particularly new, but quite well done of its kind.

1. Mafia stories on the screen, the long tradition, the aftermath of the Godfather? The portrayal of the Mafia in the U.S., in Sicily?

2. Italian American co-production, the miniseries and the movie edited from this? How effectively? Italian and American locations? The cast? Action and stunt work? The musical score?

3. The title, Mafia codes, family relationships? The bonds between father and son? Within the blood family? Within the Mafia family? Blood ties being used for blackmail?

4. The Sicilian background, audience familiarity with the Mafia families, their violence and codes? Vengeance and assassinations? The role of justice? Judges and their attempts to bring the Mafia to trial? The opening, the chase, the car explosion, the death of the child, the judge escaping attack?

5. In the U.S. Joe, the Sicilian background, his success in the U.S., his pride in his son? The Mafia contacts, taking him, his visiting his son, the son being forced to do the assassination for his father's life? Joe in captivity, the attitude of his captors? The phone calls and the torture? His belief in his son? The escape, his killing himself?

6. Julian, American, the family background, his love for his father, his studies in Korea? The capturing of his father? Going to Sicily, the young mafia chief and the plane trip? The proposal? The pressure of Julian? The gun, the instructions, his being watched? The visit with his cousin, liking him, the pregnant wife, the lawyer? The gun, his plan, talking to the Judge, giving him the gun? Concocting the plan of the kidnap, keeping the Mafia puzzled? On the boat, hiding the judge? The young Mafioso and his believing Julian? The double cross? The capture of the judge's assistants and their torture, the information, the trap? Julian escaping, the help of Duisa (and his romantic attachment to her)? The news of his father's death? The confrontation, the judge helping to shoot the young Mafioso? The reconciliation? Justice and right?

7. The judge, honourable, his pregnant wife and her fears for his life, attacking him for his pride? The confrontation with Julian, the gun, the plan, its execution? The breaking of the plan, the judge captured, interrogated? Rescued? The wife and the inter cutting of her collapse, the birth of the child?

8. The young Mafioso, the American background, cocaine and his dependence on drugs? His swagger and belief in himself? Pressure on Julian? Believing Julian's plan? His tense relationship with his brother, clashes, Don Vincenzo, his relationship with Caterina? The drug taking? The assassination attempt, his vengeance and Caterina killing her father and husband? Overreaching himself, the torture of the judge's assistants, interrogating the judge, his being killed? Don Vincenzo, the power, his son-in-law, the daughter and her betrayal, the drugs? The plan and the assassination attempt? Their being poisoned?

9. The ugly picture of the Mafia, a law unto themselves, wealth, power, violence? Codes? The optimism of this film in the confrontation of the Mafia, their own disintegration, justice prevailing.