The Iron Prefect
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Synopsis
Based on the true story of the Iron Prefect, Cesare Mori, who was sent to Sicily for an Eliot Ness-in-The Untouchables style clean up of the mafia. Mori approaches organised crime on the island with uncompromising force even in the face of mass murders designed to scare him off. Pasquale Squitieri (The Climber) directs this stunning period piece which won the David di Donatello award for best film and features spaghetti western icon Giuliano Gemma brilliantly playing against type as the titular hero, winning him an award for his performance at the prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Alongside Gemma are the cream of international film from the period with co-stars Claudia Cardinale (The Day of the Owl) and Francisco Rabal (Sorcerer), the key surveyor of Italy’s civic cinema screenwriter Ugo Pirro (The Working Class Goes to Heaven) and legendary composer Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in America).
Picture 8/10
The Iron Prefect—director Pasquale Squitieri’s depiction of Cesare Mori’s 1925 efforts to remove the mafia from Sicily—receives a limited edition Blu-ray from Radiance and is presented on a dual-layer disc in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The 1080p/24hz high-definition presentation is sourced from a new 2K restoration from the original camera negative.
I expected this to look good, but the results still exceeded my expectations by a reasonable amount. The opening and closing credits look a bit dupey, which isn’t surprising, but once the film gets past the opening sections, the presentation seems near-pristine. The restoration work has been extensive, cleaning up just about all damage outside of a few minor marks and a more significant stain on the edge of the frame about a third in. The colors lean warm but don’t come off too yellow, with whites still looking white and the sky often showing a wonderful blue hue. The encode also handles the grain structure incredibly well, helping the image retain a lovely film texture. This then leads to extremely sharp details and natural-looking textures.
Contrast and range also are rather impressive. There are several smokey interior shots, some with limited light sources, and the gradation from light to dark is smoothly rendered. Blacks also look inky much of the time, without eating up details in the shadows. In all, the presentation looks excellent.
(I did do QC work on this release, focusing on technical aspects.)
The Iron Prefect - Screen Captures
Audio 6/10
Radiance includes Italian and English monaural soundtracks, both presented in DTS-HD MA. Both are dubs, neither synching perfectly, but the Italian one probably comes closest. The English one features a moderately wider range but can also come off a bit harsher in the process. The Italian one sounds cleaner but has been filtered a bit. Neither shows heavy damage, and both sound clear. That all said, it will ultimately come down to personal preference.
Extras 7/10
Radiance first includes an archival featurette from 2009 presenting interviews with director Pasquale Squitieri and actor Giuliano Gemma, both filmed separately. Despite being a generally static “talking heads” type of deal, this piece ends up being an engaging discussion around the film’s production, which Squitieri fell into after a failed attempt to adapt the book First Blood (yes, that very same First Blood you’re probably thinking of). The Iron Prefect was a bigger film than the filmmaker’s previous one, calling for lots of extras, location shooting, and all of that, and he had hoped to get a big star, as long as it was anyone other than Giuliano Gemma. Amusingly, after Burt Lancaster’s involvement fell through due to health issues, that’s who got the starring role in the end. There are several amusing and surprising stories here, Squitieri even sharing when the film was screened at the White House by President Jimmy Carter and how he suspects that the film was never entered for Oscar consideration because Claudia Cardinale’s (the co-star of the film) ex was the one that picked the movie for consideration. Gemma pops in every so often to talk about his role and his experience, but Squitieri has the wheel for most of the feature’s 35 minutes.
Squitieri biographer Domenico Monetti then pops up for a new 40-minute interview about the film and its director, going over the production and even addressing possible untruths the filmmaker has said about it, including how Gemma was ultimately cast (Monetti thinks Gemma’s Western background, good looks, and “wide-toothed smile” were probably what had turned the director off of him initially). From there, he then looks at how the film compares to his other works through its structure and politics. This leads to a discussion about other Italian mafia films (Damiano Damiani’s films coming up) and how he sees Squitieri’s influence in film and television today. Admittedly the discussion can be a bit dry, but it still offers a provides introduction to the director, with whom I’m admittedly unfamiliar.
Alex Cox then pops up for 11 minutes to offer an appreciation for the film’s star, Giuliano Gemma, with, I’m sure, the same dog we saw as a puppy in his 2017 interview found on Criterion’s recent Blu-ray for Walker. Similar to what he did for Gian Maria Volonté on Radiance’s edition of The Working Class Goes to Heaven, he talks a little about Gemma’s background (including how he obtained the scar) and his casting in The Iron Prefect. He laments a little on how Gemma never found stardom in the West but points out he did become popular in other markets, including Japan. (Cox also confirms a suspicion I had around the film’s protagonist, Cesare Mori, and his commitment to fascism, which the film plays down.) Another nicely assembled appreciation by the director.
The disc then closes with the film’s original trailer.
A video piece specifically about Mori—the real-life Prefect portrayed in the film—would have been a great inclusion, though there’s sadly no such thing here. The limited-edition booklet fills this gap, though, first through Guido Bansaver’s essay, where he covers Mori’s background and likens his depiction in the film to that of a Western sheriff. But more impressive is a reprint of a 1926 Guardian article covering Mori’s efforts in Sicily, even briefly recounting the “standoff” at the hill town of Gangi, depicted in the film.
Not packed, but the disc still features a good set of materials, the booklet being a solid addition on its own.
Closing
A nicely assembled edition from Radiance featuring a sharp-looking new presentation.
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