I watched this disc tonight. I was aware of the Italian release from Ripley's Home Video, which contains the Italian audio as well as English audio, but I had assumed that this film was meant to be shown in Italian because it was made by Italians (and French), so I was pleased when I thought that Kino's release would include the film in Italian with English subtitles. Sadly, that isn't the case, but unfortunately, it seems that Kino's disc is also missing subtitles for sections of Italian dialogue in the English audio track.
It turns out that much of the film is in English, with many English-speaking actors, mainly from the UK and Ireland. However, Riccardo Cucciolla and Gian Maria Volontè, the actors who play Sacco and Vanzetti, respectively, are not speaking English, but Italian, and they are dubbed in English most of the time, almost certainly not by themselves. Initially, I was confused when I put the disc in and found that Kino's Blu-ray only contained English SDH subs for the English audio and not English subtitles for the Italian audio, so, I stopped the film and looked up more information about it. That led me to this
comparison at the Movie-Censorship website, which unfortunately, is working off an older master of the film, with run times that do not match the Blu-ray. One thing is clear though, that Kino's Blu-ray has markedly different subtitles for the sections of Italian in the English language track. Most importantly, there are at least five different instances of Italian the first 75 minutes that are subtitled in the older master, but
not on Kino's Blu-ray. The most notable of them is a flashback scene of Vanzetti about 53 minutes in, working selling fish in the street at Plymouth, which lasts about 45 seconds and is all in Italian.
On Kino's Blu-ray, subtitles do not appear for any Italian dialogue in the English track until 76 minutes into the film, when Sacco is in his cell as the crowds are chanting "Freedom for Nick and Bart!" over and over again. Here is the first subtitled scene, there are four lines, all of which are subtitled, differently than the previous version:
The next scene with Italian dialogue is right after a cut to the protest, with Sacco talking to his wife and son through a divider. This entire scene has been subtitled on the Blu-ray, but unfortunately, Movie-Censorship haven't provided any information on if this scene is subtitled in the older master, though obviously I assume it should be. It starts at 1:18:57:
[Show spoiler]
However, these are the only scenes of Italian dialogue in the film that are subtitled on Kino's Blu-ray. There is another brief scene starting at 1:21:34 where Sacco laments in his cell. In the comparison, you can see that this has been subtitled in English on the older master, but once again, it is not subtitled on Kino's Blu-ray:
[Show spoiler]
Now, it's possible that the company that made the older master subtitled the additional scenes in error, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, because the audience is supposed to understand and empathize with Sacco and Vanzetti, and if they are speaking unsubtitled Italian, that alienates them from the audience.
There are also a few other issues, which are likely inherent to the English audio itself. One paragraph in the comparison states:
Quote:
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The image fades over in a flashback to the view of the changing room in the factory where Sacco works. He changes his clothes. In the Italian version, Sacco's lawyer continues to argue in court. He explains that on the day of the robbery, the workers had not even been given permission to leave the factory grounds. This essential information, which calls into question the judge's later decision, is completely withheld from the viewer of the U.S. version, as only ambient sounds can be heard.
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The additional dialogue is also missing as described above from the English dub on the Blu-ray, but is there in the Italian audio track.
More generally, there seems to have been a bizarre attempt to alter certain dialogue in the English track, particularly replacing the word "anarchists" with the word "radicals". This was obviously not done by Kino, but probably around the time of the theatrical release, and American dubbing artists came in to loop lines for several English actors, resulting in a sudden difference in voices. This is most obvious near the end of the film, when Vanzetti is called into Governor Fuller's office. The replacement of this word even affects the ending of the film, although strangely, multiple utterances of the word "anarchists" remain in the English audio track anyway.
Other than the missing subtitles for the Italian dialogue, I think Kino have done a good job (some raised blacks are noted), but I would like to see the film in Italian with English subtitles someday. I think that would bring an English-speaking audience closer to Sacco and Vanzetti while simultaneously distancing that audience from the Americans that persecuted them.
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Sacco & Vanzetti (1971)
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