MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. Courageous attempt to clarify one of the most obscure financial and political scandal of the eighties in Italy. Around the Banco Ambrosiano CEO Mr. Roberto Calvi rotate (and according to present evidences had rotated) a massive and incredible crowd of politicians, businessmen, secret agents and mafiosi. Calvi is deeply involved in financing different plans under indication of CIA and a Italian Masonic lodge called P2 (Propaganda due) through offshore ghost companies held by the IOR (Vatican's state bank). This could be fantasy but it isn't. It is hard to believe that Bishop Marcinkus, Pope Johannes Paul II were linked in some way to Mr. Gelli (P2's master), Mr. Pazienza, Argentina's generals and involved also in mafia's money laundering plans. 'En passant' we can see also the other famous rough banker Mr. Sindona, the camorra pressing to save a political man kidnapped by red terrorists, the killing attempted to the Pope, the Malvines/Falckland war and the polish Solidarnosc birthÂ… There are enough subjects, stories and interest for at least four films, and considering that to date the story isn't still fully known this movie made a good job in resuming all the intrigues without making a muddle. The movie succeeded also to avoid to be a strong political documentary i.e. Fahrenheit 9/11, in fact the events are presented just from an historical point of view. I honestly suggest to watch this movie for ones interested on Italian recent history, 'I banchieri di Dio' is a good first step to investigate the obscure years between the seventies and the eighties in Italy. My vote is 7 (out of 10) for being such a courageous and illuminating movie.
Add a Review
-
1felco2 November 2005
-
Hey_Sweden20 July 2018"The Bankers of God: The Calvi Affair" is a straightforward, very dialogue-heavy but fairly interesting attempt by co-screenwriter and director Giuseppe Ferrara to recreate the events of 1982 in Italy, when a very prominent banker, Roberto Calvi, got mixed up with elements as diverse as the Italian Secret Service, the mafia, and even the Vatican. A debt of over a billion dollars to the Banco Ambrosiano is discovered, and it serves as the catalyst to various high-stakes maneuvering by Calvi and others to solve their problems.
Even if you're like this viewer, and some of the details and story threads may fly over your head, Ferrara and company do a capable job of storytelling in this long but very well acted crime drama. It seems unthinkable that all of these separate entities could have been connected in some way to the goings-on. The film also uses political backdrops such as the attempted assassination of The Pope, and the Falklands War, as it all figures into this twisty plot.
All of it does have the potential to confuse the viewer, but the actors are all compelling to watch. Omero Antonutti is excellent as Calvi, a sympathetic man who is made to sweat bullets at times. Pamela Villoresi is impassioned as his worried wife. The big names in the cast are Giancarlo Giannini as the colourful Flavio Carboni and Rutger Hauer (it does take some getting used to, hearing him dubbed into Italian) as a sly Cardinal.
Wonderfully scored by Pino Donaggio, this does go on for quite a bit, clocking in at two hours and eight minutes, but with the knowledge that the whole story is shrouded in some mystery, some definite weight is added to the saga.
Seven out of 10.