With a plot practically ripped from the pages of contemporary newspapers, this Italian political thriller uses that country’s internal corruption and intrigue as the landscape for telling what is, ultimately, a very human story about individual bravery and the bonds between men. Set in modern-day Sicily, this 1993 film examines the tacit collusion between government entities and the Mafia that serve to keep the wheels of society well-greased and the headway made by the current movement aimed at cleansing the entire political system. The story centers around a judge from northern Italy who comes to the Sicilian town of Trapani to replace a judge who was killed off, along with three bodyguards, in a organized hit. Yet, more than the story of this brazen new judge, La Scorta is the story of his four bodyguards. For most of them, their assignment to this detail is random; luck of the draw could have sent them to much less dangerous details. What we witness are the individual coping strategies of the men and their growing involvement and commitment to their assignment and to each other. Gradually, they become more than mere bodyguards; they become the judge’s executive assistants and close friends. Their dedication to the magistrate’s truth-seeking agenda and to the man himself eventually overrides personal concerns for safety and prestige. It becomes a study in the process of male bonding in addition to being a study of the corruption rife throughout the Italian political system. These bodyguards are average citizens and soldiers who rise, altruistically, to the occasion. La Scorta is their story. Director Tognazzi (son of famed actor Ugo Tognazzi) visually abets their tale with some grand and dramatic camerawork that lifts these characters from the ordinary to the heroic. The film also features a music score by one of the masters, Ennio Morricone. With a dramatic realism that even reneges on a standard-issue happy ending, La Scorta reduces Italian politics to a human and easily grasped level.
This article appears in July 14 • 1995 (Cover).
