This movie reminded me of other Tornatore's movies as "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso" and "Malena" because of its setting in Sicily and because of one of the director's landmarks like reminiscing childhood with all its main events and characters. I would say that it's a good movie because it portrays well Sicily, with its breath-taking landscapes and with its characters that properly express the temper of Sicilian people. However, compared to other of his movies, especially the aforementioned "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso", Tornatore doesn't add anything to his picture of Sicilian culture, he rather delivers a lower quality plot compared to other of his movies. Plus, the movie is in some parts boring and too long.

For my considerable sins, I did not even know this film existed, even though Cinema Paridiso is my favourite World cinema film, and in my top five of all time.Catching it late on Film 4, I was especially interested and keen, as Radio Times' David Parkinson awarded a rare five stars and so was expecting a true gem to magically unfold before my receptive and captivated eyes.Firstly, it's no good folk saying not to compare it with Paradiso when so many scenes, specially near the start are of town market squares and night and shots of old films in cinemas with young boys being naughty - but instead of making me feel at home these seemed to me to be more of re-hashing than their obvious desire. Whilst Paradiso had a few main characters that we soon grew to love and cherish, Baaria unfolds so quickly and overwhelmingly, it's like a floodgate and as more than a few other reviewers have noted, makes the narrative difficult to follow.All those Euros thrown at it somehow do not enhance the character or soul of the film, the letterbox widescreen losing connectivity on TV and whilst it was undoubtedly very impressive in the cinema, I feel detached from both it and the characters - indeed, the story as a whole, in fact! So earnest is Tornatorre to make an epic, it remains that - and frankly, a bit of a lame beast, hopping rather clumsily from scene to scene. And, just as soon as someone says something profound, long before the subtitles have sunk in and related to the story as a whole, we are then whisked off to another, often un-associated scene.I'm not the only one to say that it'll take another, if not three views to follow the story, you feel that you should, somehow but whilst one is all too happy to do that when the film deserves such, my initial viewing does not tell me that that to be the case, which is a pity.True, the typically larger than life characters and robust humour is ever present but they do not seem to connect with anything that's memorable and so all this leads to are a lot of linked-up snippets of excitable Sicilian life that do not gel. Maybe the fault lies in the fact that I re-watched the original The Godfather the very day before and am comparing (in pace and character and narrative development, not the story) and frankly, the two are legions apart.So, believe me, I am really rather disappointed with Baaria. I will try again with it and hopefully it will appeal to me more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film for the great performances of the two lead actors (only later did I find out they were debutants) and for how well Tornatore brought us a vivid picture of life in Sicily over a period lasting from the 20s to the 80s. We are reminded of just how strong a grip fascism had over Italy in the early parts of the 20th century, and how the average Italian had little power to offer an alternative. Sicily is depicted as a place of poverty, corruption and confusion. Life is tough and for many it's only their faith or their ideals that keep them going. The star character is a man that does not lie down easily to the fascist influence, challenging the system with little success, taking a few beatings along the way. He marries a local girl that was destined to marry into the rich and fascist way of life, bearing many children and leading as pure a life as possible given the harsh conditions. We come to understand why socialism and communism has a strong following in southern Italy. This is the story of one man's fight to raise a family with dignity, as a political activist hoping to make things better for the common people of his town, requiring heaps of courage given the dangers of speaking out against fascism in those days. Overall the film succeeds although doesn't offer anything I haven't seen before regarding Italian and especially Sicilian life. My vote 8 out of 10

This is Tornatore's biggest effort in trying to produce a great epic movie the way Sergio Leone could have done. But Tornatore's epic is mixed with his own personal memories and feelings rather than being a more detached study and portrait of an age and a specific place, circumstance that has made some people compare this movie with Fellini's Amarcord. Given the generous parallels, I believe this is a really good movie, I enjoyed every frame of it, but the sensation is that it could have been even better! This may be due to the fact he tries to say too many things at once and such things are not necessarily all that well linked together, resulting in a weak plot. Morricone does as usual a good work, but not a great one, as no theme was in my head at the end of the movie (while watching it I completely forgot he was the composer).Anyway I really hope this movie will win some deserved awards as it is a great effort from a great master of cinema and, as Once Upon a Time in America, they both end with a laughter and leave the impression the whole story may be just a dream... this is ultimately what cinema is all about. 8/10