One of the more interesting films remembered for the wrong reasons is Year of the Gun, 1991 political thriller directed by John Frankenheimer. The plot is based on the eponymous semi-autobiographical novel by Michael Mewshaw, American journalist who used to live in Italy in 1970s, during historical period known as the “Years of Lead”. The protagonist, played by Andrew McCarthy, is David Raybourne, American freelance journalist who comes to Rome in early 1978, in a time when Italy is beset by political turmoil, with weak government of ruling Christian Democrat party unable to deal with poor economy and radicalisation of large sections of society, with far left and far right groups engaging in street violence, bombings, kidnappings and assassinations. The most notorious of extremist groups is the far left organisation of Red Brigades. Raybourne thinks that his old friend Italo Biancho (played by John Pankow), university professor with leftist sympathies, must be connected with Red Brigades and hopes that this could allow him to make scoop of a lifetime. Raybourne has another, more personal, reason to be in Rome – his girlfriend Lia (played by Valeria Golino), woman from rich family stuck in a loveless marriage. Raybourne believes that he can rescue her if he earns enough money with his upcoming novel, which deals with hypothetical kidnapping of Aldo Moro (played by Aldo Mengolini), former prime minister and influential Christian Democrat politician who advocates so-called “historical compromise” with opposition Communists, a project disliked by extremists from the both sides of the aisle. Raybourne meets Alison King (played by Sharon Stone), American photojournalist specialised in covering violent conflict and begins feeling attracted to her. In the meantime, manuscript of his novel gets in possession of Red Brigades that are actually planning kidnapping of Moro. Raybourne and King thus, inadvertently, become terrorists’ targets.
Unlike Italian cinema, which often used the messy, corrupt and violent realities of First Italian Republic as source of inspiration for many remarkable films, Hollywood was less keen to deal with the subject. This could be explained with Italian politics being too complicated for an average American viewer, as well with lot of the events from the period making Americans look bad due to real of alleged involvement of CIA with Mafia, right-wing paramilitary thugs and terrorist outrages, some of which that serve as basis for conspiracy theories to this day. Year of the Gun, made in relatively safe period following the end of Cold War, tries to use infamous Moro Case as basis for an exciting political thriller. Director John Frankenheimer, whose 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate represents the classic of that particular genre, might have looked like a good choice for the task, but his work here is disappointing. Partly because of lacking budget, partly because of overcast weather that makes Rome’s locations look unattractive and partly because Frankehneimer’s lack of inspiration, the film looks almost like television production. Things are even worse with the script by David Ambrose, which makes fatal mistake of telling its story from the perspective of foreigners that aren’t directly affected by the mess Italy finds it in, but who also can expect to survive the ordeal, unlike their Italian friends. The complicated story is presented in a way that doesn’t make sense to anyone who isn’t familiar with 1970s Italian politics, and the ending is, despite artificially pumped melodrama, completely implausible and anti-climactic. Comparison with The Day of the Jackal, another thriller that mixed fiction with real history (and which is actually mentioned by one of the characters) makes Year of the Gun look even worse. While most of the cast is adequate, American actor John Pankow is doing admirable job playing Italian character. Andrew McCarthy is, on the other hand, relatively bland as strangely passive protagonist who turns in some sort of action hero only at the end. Most of those who watched this film probably remember it mostly for the role of Sharon Stone, who takes part in a raw sex scene that could be viewed as something of dry run for her much better and more memorable performance in Basic Instinct. The scene, however, isn’t reason enough for this film to be recommended.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
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