It's 1978 Rome. Violence is in the air threatened by the revolutionary Red Brigade. American David Raybourne (Andrew McCarthy) returns to write for a small paper and a fictional book about them. His friend Italo Bianchi (John Pankow) is a leftist American lecturer at an university. His girlfriend Lia (Valeria Golino) is the estranged wife of rich and powerful Marco. Photo journalist Alison King (Sharon Stone) is also after the Red Bridgade and sees Raybourne as a possible lead. This is a fictionalized account of events leading to the real kidnapping and murder of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro.The directing from John Frankenheimer seems inferior or obsolete. The tension needs to be higher. This feels more like a 70's movie. Instead of three lead American characters, I would prefer to see a movie about Italian characters in this Italian drama. I'm not that interested in these Americans although the political intrigue seems compelling. The Americans can always walk away from any danger. It's an extra layer that separates these characters from the intensity of the story.

An intriguing film and despised. I do not understand why not give due weight to this film. Already I watched several times and every one of them I realize their best value. The story is very good, comes to political issues of an Italy relatively new, still very much alive in our memory. And the treatment of the film is very close to the reality of the facts. The cast works very competently. Sharon Stone is one of his good moments. Valeria Golino may have done their best work here and Andrew McCarthy surprised with his performance. The action scenes are well done, with some small mistakes, but perfectly acceptable in situations such as those portrayed in the film. In summary this is a great film, but you need to give a little more attention to it.

From right away, I wanted to yell at this film: get your plot straight, and tell it properly! OK, so, it would seem that David(Andrew, who returns to Rome to author a book, that turns out to be fictional - though it uses the real names of people, seeming to potentially get them in serious trouble... and in a twist that wouldn't have played out in a Saturday morning cartoon, what he writes is mistaken as documenting it) is with this chick who is divorcing a wife-beater and who she has a son with. And terrorists(who are only made out to look pure evil, which I could have understood if this had been made back in '78, but not in '91, where it was becoming clearer that calling such individuals and organizations freedom fighters can be more reasonable) are causing bad stuff to go down in Italy, though it's never made clear to what end, or if the government really *is* corrupt. All we know is that they're Communist, rendering this potentially a propaganda tool for the red scare. If we could at least care about the characters, however, the very introductions to our main characters ensures that they are wholly unappealing human beings(Stone is almost getting herself killed taking freaking photographs, obnoxious McCarthey wants to blow people up that we know nothing about(at that point or at all), etc.) and I couldn't care about them for the rest of this. Not one person in this had me engaged. Frankenheimer does infuse some scenes with tension and excitement... although this is definitely a thriller, with next to no real action, if it can be effective when it is there. The filming isn't bad, and the editing, as well(if some of the FX shots and stunts are poorly hidden). There is some moderate to strong language and a little female nudity and sexuality(at least one of the sequences is hot and with Sharon(the two are connected) in this. The DVD comes with a trailer. I recommend this to those who never support the people rising against those in power. 5/10

This is a rather two dimensional drama about some Americans who find themselves embroiled in the terrorist activities of the Red Brigade in Italy. The Americans are passionate idealists who have a lot of sex and the terrorists are the usual wooden movie sociopaths. The plot is interesting enough to hold your attention and the acting is convincing. The cinematography is very nice and holds it together enough to make it all worth while. There are very many nice shots of the streets and countryside of Italy.