A different way of telling a story

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Blistering performances.

I am pretty sure you could interpret "Il Ferroviere" ("Man of Iron" or "The Railroad Man") multiple ways. On the basic level, it's about a seemingly average working-class family who, through the course of the film, disintegrates. On the other hand, I am sure that many seeing the film might see it as an indictment of the hypocrisy of the Italian family. Whether the writer and director intended this to be the case is anyone's guess, though I am sure it could easily be seen both ways. Of course, the film ALSO could be a story about hope.As I mentioned above, the Marcocci family seems pretty ordinary. The father is an engineer for the railroad and two of his children are grown and one is still a small boy. Through the course of the film, you learn more and more about the family and ultimately the people within it slowly lose control and the family unit is at stake. First, you see that the father drinks a bit too much. Then, you learn that he's a bit of a bully--with the old fashioned idea that the father, Andrea, is the dictator (albeit sometimes benevolent) in the household. This is actually a pretty 'normal' style of parenting in the day. Not healthy but probably not that unusual. He occasionally slaps around his wife and his kids because to Andrea that is how a father keeps order. But the family has had enough of the control and violence and rebellion begins creeping into the seemingly happy household. Will the family survive and rebuild? Or, will the worst happen? I could easily talk more about this, but really think you should just see the film.The film is very interesting because it does something very unusual. At times, the film shows from the viewpoint of the director (who also played Andrea, by the way)--sort of a neutral observer. But the, in an odd twist, the young child narrates at times--and I really liked this because although he only looked about 7 year-old, he was VERY astute and really seemed to have a great understanding of what was happening around him much of the time. So, while Pietro Germi directed and starred in the film, the one who later ending up upstaging him was the boy, Sandrino (Edoardo Nevola) and this made the film very unusual.Now as for the style of this film, I've seen it described as an Italian Neo-Realist picture. While some might agree, I am not so certain. It's almost like a Neo-Neo-Realist film. Let me explain. In the 1940s, Italian directors like Rosselini and De Sica made some wonderful films about working class people. But just because a film is about these people doesn't make it a Neo-Realist film. They also had to be acted exclusively or almost exclusively by non-actors. Perhaps the lead could be an established actor (such as Ingrid Bergman in "Stromboli"), but the rest of the cast or nearly all of them should be non-professionals in natural settings. However, most of the characters in "Il Ferroviere" had been in other films and were quite experienced. This is NOT a complaint--this IS a good film. But it isn't exactly like the earlier films--mostly because with the mid-1950s, Italians (who had been in financial ruin since WWII) could now afford paid actors and even nice sets if needed! So, in essence, the Neo-Realists stopped making these films because they could afford to make prettier and more polished films--and the public probably demanded this as well. I am sure this was liberating for the filmmakers, but some of these earlier and 'rougher' films were masterpieces (such as "The Children Are Watching Us" and "Umberto D.") and I really wished they'd continued making them.So what did I think of this not-quite-Neo-Realist film? Well, I loved it and can live with the fact it isn't 'pure' Neo-Realism because it is a very well made film. However, I need to tell you up front that it started very, very slowly and I could see someone losing interest. Stick with this one for many reasons. The acting is great, the direction amazing AND the ending is terrific--thanks, inexplicably, to little Sandrino!! I also loved that although some folks seemed bad in this film, you COULD understand them and they weren't all bad--like most real people. Well worth your time. And, so good I even considered giving it a 10...though didn't because I almost never give movies a score that high.By the way, in no way is this meant as a criticism, but as an American I can't help but notice that in so many old Italian films people seemed so incredibly emotional and loud. This is NOT criticism, but I was wondering if this is a true portrait of the people or perhaps a bit of a cliché. I honestly don't know and would love your input. I just know that few American families are quite THIS intensely emotional--which may or may not be a good thing.

Il Ferroviere is the story of train engineer Andrea Marcocci and his family in good times and bad seen mostly through the eyes of his youngest son. Marcocci is a lover of wine and song but he is also an obstinate proud man, his own worst enemy as he manages to alienate family and co-workers in post war strike prone Italy. The film opens with him in high spirits but he is soon beset by problems which include an unmarried pregnant daughter, a deadbeat older son, a work accident that ruins his career, performing scab labor and a drinking problem.Il Ferroviere is a rather mawkish melodrama with weak neorealist roots. The child's viewpoint and the father's shame echoes The Bicycle Thief but with less of a sense of desperation. Italy is a decade out of the war and well on the road to recovery. The problem is the bellicose sometimes brutal Andrea who brooks no descent or criticism.Looking and acting like Kirk Douglas Director Pietro Germi casts himself as Andrea. He is all bombast and not very effective at modulating his moods. He's all rage and melancholy. It is left up to his forever suffering wife to bring out the good in him. Sure he's beat her but he works hard for his family she reasons. In Patriarchal 1956 Italy this is acceptable behavior and to drive that point home we have a scene where Andrea pummels his pregnant daughter while neighbors listen but do not intervene.I find it ironic that director Germi who brilliantly eviscerated Italy's antiquated marriage laws with the classic comedy-satire Divorce Italian Style (61) condones Andrea's family battering by making him an overall sympathetic character. He is quick to be forgiven but his pride won't allow him to be as fast.As a timepiece Il Ferroviere provides some disquieting insights with it's sentimental chauvinism but overall it's little more than a heated family drama with an operatic tone that sounds off key most of the time.

Andrea Marcocci's life takes a tragic turn when family and social problems threaten him with total collapse, pushing him further into drinking and farther from his youngest son, whose own story unfolds innocently enough even in the midst of a painful adult world. In a configuration which would do Welles proud, Pietro Germi not only helms the project with an empathetic directorial eye (making use of a fairly 'restless camera' in the process), he also pens some meaningful dialogue and narration, as well as jumping enthusiastically into the put-upon role of the lead character Andrea. Providing the basis for these three main corners of the film's development, the overall vision is tightly organized and well-crafted. There is an evident love for tracking shots, which are handled well and with theatrical ease. The viewer is whisked through homes, along sidewalks, matching the movement of any number of forward-moving folk. Which is another large aspect of this film: there is solid forward momentum -- towards death or life one cannot say at any point, but the film proceeds there at a confident speed. As a bonus, a bittersweet score interacts quite well with what happens on-screen and evenly matches the tone and pace of the film.With echoes of "The Bicycle Thief", this is a serious (but not devastating) film offering an emotional look at the workman's Italy in the 1950's. What makes it special is the occasional inspired scene or performance which hints at the greatness lurking just beneath its half-sentimental surface. Of special note are the shifts in focus between the various occupants in the story, such as the relationship (and stark contrast) between the dark goings-on and Andrea's young, perceptive boy Sandro. Although the child starts the film intrusively enough, he quickly becomes an integral and engrossing part of the story, taking charge of the narration even and guiding your hand through his family history as much as he interconnects and guides the family in the creation of that history. Certain touches highlight the immense depth he wields, yet also the unmarred innocence. He's at once very young and very old, very naive and very wise ... a startling character which grounds a great deal of the film.Also of worth is the continual upswing and downswing in mood throughout the film. In one moment it seems like a marriage will be mended, the next it seems about to shatter. In one moment a man is drinking his life away, when only a short while later his life is immersed in a scene seemingly straight out of the ending of "It's A Wonderful Life". And this is where there exists a major separation from the tragic Bicycle Thief; as much as life can hit hard and swift, so too can it blindside one with blessings, forgiveness, and hope. Bittersweet though the climax may be, it nonetheless imparts a view that some days are indeed diamonds, to be cherished while you have them, and most days are coal, to be weathered as best one can, striving for a bright horizon that may not come. But strive we must.

This likable and virtually unknown early film by the director of the acclaimed DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE is a domestic drama replete with the essentials of the genre: emotional outbursts, separations, and final tearful reunions. A railroad engineer, husband and father, nearly goes to pieces after accidentally running down a suicide on the tracks and barely avoiding collision with another train. His domestic life is derailed as well. He has an older son who is a bum, an alienated and embittered daughter forced to marry her cad-like seducer. Only his wife and younger son, eloquently played by Edoardo Nevola, are any consolation to him. The film rises above the limitations of soap opera through the beauty of the characterizations and the quality of the performances. Pietro Germi, who directs and stars, is able to give us, through a highly detailed and virtuoso performance, something of the feel of frustration and fear (made worse by excessive drinking) which accompany sensitive fathers with the bulk of their lives already lived. There are some heart-wrenching dramatic moments, as when the small son tries to retrieve his drunken father from the wine tavern and those scenes which show the man's worker friends ostracizing him because he becomes a scab during a railroad strike. The movie bears some obvious resemblances to DeSica's BICYCLE THIEF, the gritty locales, the social commentary mixed in with personal drama, the poignant father-son bond that is the worker's eventual salvation. There are some excesses as well, particularly in the over-acting of Sylva Koscina as the man's daughter. Carlo Rustichelli's lovely musical score is an asset when not being overly cloying.