Customer Reviews

Excellent Cadavers

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"Excellent Cadavers" is how the bodies of Mafia-assassinated prosecutors, judges, and other members of Italian and Sicilian society were referred to when the judicial killings began in the 1970s. Based upon the book by Italian-American author Alexander Stille and drawing upon the work of Sicilian photojournalist Letizia Battaglia, this superbly produced and presented 92 minute documentary chronicles the efforts of two courageous Italian prosecutors whose work in the 1980s to expose and imprison the leadership and the membership of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra ultimately led to the 'Maxi-Trials' held in Palermo in a heavily-protected underground bunker the size of a football filed where hundreds of Mafia defendants, ranging from street soldiers to Dons, were tried and convicted. "Excellent Cadavers" is an informed and informative, making it 'must viewing' for academicians, criminologists, and the general public with an interest in organized crime generally, and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in particular.

It's not Hollywood. The truth is ugly, brutal and unromantic. The judges who fought the Corleonese were tough and determined to end the control of the mob. They not only had to fight hundreds of years of tradition and intimidation, but also corruption at the very top of the Italian Political system. Andreotti and Berlusconi be damned. A very well documented treatise on bravery.

... if it were not for the man (Alexander Stille I presume) who keeps walking in and out of the screen when you least expect it. He wrote the book, that is fine! but does he have to spoil the landscape too? I find him extremely irritating.