SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
mraculeated
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
christopher-underwood
Not uninteresting but rather confusing and strangely uninvolving tale of the Barbagis bandits of Sardinia. Apparently turning from stealing sheep to kidnap and blackmail these anti heroes live an uncompromising life within their own strict code. Based on the true story of Graziano Mesina, played by Ternece Hill there is much violence, betrayal and revenge played out in the stark and bleak landscape of Barbara. Almost from the very start this seems to signal it is going nowhere and the insertion of stock footage and voice-over do not help the mood. Most sequences are well shot but the whole is not well put together and this disjointed and brutal movie becomes to feel stretched out. Even the final kidnap and subsequent denouement cannot raise this above the very average.
vernetto
two things I really enjoyed in this movie: one is the acting of Terence Hill, very energetic and dramatic. The other is the effort to give a historical and political background to the story of the "bandit" Graziano Mesina. The introdution to the movie says ""The Barbagia is the innermost area of Sardinia ... it's a corner of Europe but does not belong to Europe. Here the European culture has not penetrated. From the 4th century BC Sardinia has undergone many dominations. But the rulers, the oppressors, they were never able to conquer the Barbagia. In the rest of Sardinia the populations were affected by the costumes of the rulers, are the Sardi collaborators, before Africanized, Semiticized, Romanized, then later Spanish-ized, piedmont-ized, and now Americanized. The Barbagia instead is the land of the resistance. The Barbagia shepherds might perhaps be at the year zero of technology civilization, but sure they are the year 3000 of their civilization, and that a civilization with barbaric aspects.".The movie explains also how these "bandits" were in reality maneuvered by much more sophisticated criminals, who finally dropped their help to a uncontrollable Graziano.
John Seal
Set during the early to mid 1960s, Barbagia (named after a region of the island of Sardinia and released to the American market as The Tough and the Mighty) appears to be an above average drama burdened by terrible editing designed to improve its prospects on the drive-in circuit. Terence Hill stars as Graziano, one of three brothers involved in a Sardinian blood feud. After being imprisoned for murdering the man who killed his brother, Graziano breaks out of jail and joins forces with crooked lawyer Spina (Frank Wolff). The two then proceed to from a gang that terrorizes the island via a series of kidnappings, until the abduction of popular Nino Benedetto (Ezio Sancroti) unites the locals with the police, leading to a bloody finale. The film seems to have been heavily edited in its current format, and there is voice-over narration throughout the first reel to fill in the gaps. It's still pretty confusing, but the story is an interesting one and the lousy Greek videotape apparently conceals a pretty good film from talented director Carlo Lizzani (The Last Days of Mussolini).
