SACCO & VANZETTI ("Sacco e Vanzetti", 1971)

"Let's leave politics out of the courtroom" (... and other disingenuous nonsense). This month, we're looking at a gripping docudrama that chronicles one of American history's most infamous judicial failures - the racially-charged murder trial of two Italian immigrants who names would become synonymous with the country's paranoid wariness towards the very "huddled masses" it claims to welcome. Join us as we discuss Giuliano Montaldo's electrifying courtroom drama...

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SACCO & VANZETTI ("Sacco e Vanzetti", 1971)
Dir. by Giuliano Montaldo
Available to rent on Amazon Prime, YouTube, or Google Play.

How deep does the bias run? On April 15, 1920, the robbery of a Massachusetts shoe manufacturing company results in two deaths. In June of the same year, two Italian-American men - Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti - stand trial for the crime. Suspected anarchists with backgrounds that incite disgust and distrust among the jury, Sacco and Vanzetti make convenient marks for the witnesses, who can all attest to memories of seeing similarly swarthy men holding the smoking gun and driving the getaway car at the scene of the crime. But as the men's impassioned lawyer fights rabidly to contest these claims, factual inconsistencies begin to crop up. How much does the prosecution really have on the defendants? And how much of this trial is simply a matter of ideological convenience?

An eye-opening and shocking account of the trial that threw anti-immigrant prejudice into the national spotlight, Montaldo's rousing portrayal of the Sacco & Vanzetti trial goes beyond a mere depiction of a singular historical tragedy, painting instead an alarming tableau of the political forces that uphold systemic racism as a powerfully convenient tool of the ruling class. Let's talk about it!

*As always, this is a movie discussion group—we invite you to watch the film on your own ahead of time, and come ready to discuss.*