Product Details

• Actors: Gian Maria Volonté, Ennio Fantastichini, Renato Carpentieri, Tuccio Musumeci, Silverio Blasi
• Directors: Gianni Amelio
• Writers: Gianni Amelio, Alessandro Sermoneta, Leonardo Sciascia, Vincenzo Cerami
• Producers: Angelo Rizzoli Jr., Conchita Airoldi, Dino Di Dionisio
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• VHS Release Date: May 28, 1996
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302224551
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #299,498 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

An Italian courtroom drama, adapted from a novella by Leonard Sciascia. Both the novella and the film, directed by Gianni Amelio, are based on an actual criminal case-the 1934 trial, in Palermo, of a Fascist bureaucrat accused of murdering his wife and two of his colleagues. The killer (played by Ennio Fantastichini) freely admits his guilt, and knows that the punishment mandated by Mussolini's government-which he has served enthusiasticaly-is death. But the trial isn't the purely formal exercise that everyone expects it to be: one of the judges, Vito Di Francesco (Gian Maria Volonte), keeps fouling up the works by calling new witnesses and conducting lengthy, irrelevant-seeming interrogations of them. He wants to slow the proceedings down, to give his fellow-judges and the jurors time to consider the gravity of their responsibility-and perhaps to reconsider their authority to pronounce a sentence of death. The irony inherent in Di Francesco's strategy is that he is using his judicial powers in order to delay, or possibly avoid, exercising a judicial power he finds terrifying. Amelio treats the story, for the most part, as a conventional docudrama with an anti-capital-punishment message. The movie isn't bad at all-it just goes flat every now and then. Volonte, however, is a wonder. He looks slighter now than he did in his great roles of the sixties and seventies, but he's still a forceful presence; even when he seems to be doing nothing, you can't take your eyes off him. His role here isn't a flashy one: it's all stillness and reserve and long, thoughtful walks. Volonte's movements have a lyrical precision: they often evoke the images of aging we find in the radiant late poems of Yeats. Also with Renzo Giovampietro and Renato Capentieri. Cinematography by Tonino Nardi. In Italian. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Impressive, June 19, 2011

By 

Randy Keehn (Williston, ND United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Open Doors [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I bought "Open Doors" because it was an Oscar nominee in the category of Best Foreign-language films and that's as good a recommendation as any in my book. "Open Doors" is a pre-WWII Italian courtroom drama. The movie starts out by depicting the triple murders carried out by the perpetrator. There was no mystery as to Who, What and How; just Why was left unanswered. The Why was addressed in several ways by one judge in particular. Essentially, the movie uses this judge as a probe into guilt and innocence, crime and punishment, rationale and irrationality. By presenting the murders at the beginning, Director Gianni Amelio was able to strip away mystery and suspense and replace it with his inquiry into the morality of justice. If it sounds unappealing (and I had left it on the shelf for several months before viewing it) don't be misled. The personalities, passions and moralities are excellently done. How does society deal with a man who has been wronged and then reacts by creating greater wrongs? What is the definition of guilt and innocence in a corrupt world?

The cast of "Open Doors" is excellent and the serious approach to the subject is impressive. As a courtroom drama, "Open Doors" rates high. As a morality play, it rates even higher. There are a few speed bumps in the film to keep it from the highest rating but its' impact is still quite significant.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Every File a Corpse.", December 6, 2003

By 

anomie - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Open Doors [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Italian film "Open Doors" is set in 1937 Fascist Italy. A minor government official, Tommaso Scalia is sacked for embezzling funds. He retaliates by murdering his former boss, the man who replaced him, and then rapes and murders his own wife. Following the bloodshed, Scalia returns home to his young son, lies down on the bed, and waits to be arrested.

Judges are rounded up for the trial, and they are pressured to hand down a guilty verdict which is to be followed by execution. Even Scalia demands the death penalty, and the trial begins with a heated political statement from Scalia to the courtroom. One judge, Vito Di Francesco does not bend to the pressure of public opinion but quietly and stubbornly insists on conducting a through trial.

While the film attempts to deal with broader issues--Fascism vs. democracy, the death penalty, and whether or not Scalia is a victim of a corrupt system and guilty of crimes with extenuating circumstances--for me the story did not really move much beyond repugnance for Scalia's character. It's true that I wanted to know "why" he murdered three people, but I failed to see--even with the facts--that Scalia was the slightest bit sympathetic or even a victim of circumstance. Scalia was repulsive, and he committed some repulsive crimes. The film failed to present a convincing argument that Scalia was a victim of the Fascist state or any other such stuff. The film was ponderous, and only the performance of Gian Maria Volonte really made it worth watching. His character was the most interesting in the entire film. Compared to Amelio's other films "Lamerica" and "Stolen Children", "Open Doors" was a disappointment--displacedhuman