Classici fuori Mostra - Il giorno della civetta (Day of the Owl)

“Damiani was right to deny Quien Sabe? the status of a western, a category that is better suited to Il giorno della civetta, heir twenty years later to In nome della legge: but mindful, in the meantime, of Sergio Leone’s teachings. […] The first ten minutes of the film present some of the foundational elements of a mafia movie: the supremacy of the Sicilian landscape, with the large inland town (the film was shot in Partinico), the heavy fictitious accent of the dubbers’ voices, the opposition between old mafia / new mafia with a long explanation about the money that is on its way for new tenders; the wisdom of the boss;  the theme of invincible “omertà”; the visit to the construction site; the figure of the widow; the «comedy part» entrusted to Tano Cimarosa in the role of Zecchinetta. But The Day of the Owl is the only film by Damiani that is also inspired by an almost didactic intent to explain the context; a film that appears explicitly as an «exemplary novella» of a political and criminal situation»”. (Emiliano Morreale)