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List Price: $39.98 | | Label: KOCH VISION
Salesrank: 78397
Released: August 26, 2003 |
| Our Price: $12.79 |
| Used Price: $10.89 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The darkest days of World War II set the backdrop for this epic story about the turbulent life and death of Benito Mussolini (Bob Hoskins, Mona Lisa, The Long Good Friday), Italy’s fascist dictator known as Il Duce. This compelling, historic drama takes place in war-torn Italy and traces Mussolini’s vacillating relationship with his son-in-law, Count Galeazzo Ciano (Academy Award®-winner Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs), whose anti-Nazi sentiments place him, his family and Il Duce in great jeopardy. Academy Award®-winner Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking, Thelma and Louise) plays Edda, the spoiled yet passionate daughter of Il Duce, who is torn between her love for her husband and her father. Pressed by his advisors and Germany’s Hitler to rid himself of the rebellious Ciano, Il Duce is forced to sign the order for his son-in-law’s arrest for high treason. But Edda holds Ciano’s incriminating diaries that can spell doom for Il Duce and his fascist cause. This four part factual drama reveals the dictator as a complex but flawed leader – a hero to his people, a traitor to his country and a loving father who allows politics to force him to doom the son-in-law whom he loves dearly. Most telling is the dictator’s admiration of Hitler – the flaw that eventually seals his fate.
Mussolini and I Reviews:
Mussolini and I 
2006-03-13 - My only major critisim is that it should have focused more on the politics of Ciano and his diaries. It spent to much time dancing on the outside of something he was an insider too. You learn nothing about pre war and wartime europe and italy except they lost the war and he was killed for betraying Mussolini.
Historical drama 
2004-11-27 - For anyone who can sit through the nearly 4 hours of this movie, there is the reward of learning a lot about a man who is a shadowy historical figure to most of us. Mussolini is shown as a complex figure, torn between the demands of his job and thos of his family. Key figures in this drama are Edda, Mussolini's daughter and Count Ciani, her husband, played compellingly by Susan Sarandon and Anthony Hopkins. At the beginning, Ciani is Mussolini's right-hand man, but eventually his anti-Nazi views put him at odds with his father-in-law. Both Edda and her mother are loyal to their husbands, despite the men's attentions to other women. The path of WWII is traced, and emphasis is put on the uneasy alliance between Mussolini and Hitler. This is an interesting and compelling story.
