Flight of the Innocent (1992) User Reviews

Kidnappers

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 21 March 2006]

Italy went through a wave of kidnapping not long ago where wealthy citizens, or their children, were taken away by professional bandits. Most of the people behind this type of crime were from the Calabria area. In fact, it was an industry where some poor people without scruples stood to make a lot of money by extorting rich Italians with the crime they were committing. These evil men would keep the unfortunate victims hidden and would only return them to their families when they received payment. Some times the kidnappers killed their prey when something went wrong.

The film concentrates on two enemy families of kidnappers. When Vito's father kills two opposing members of another gang, their family comes to get revenge and kills six members of the young boy's family. Vito runs away to go look for a brother at a cave, where he discovers a boy, who has been kidnapped, lying dead. When he discovered the boy, he also found a knapsack with an address printed in it, which he assumes is the dead boy's.

The film follows Vito as he flees from the enemy that wants to kill him in amazing fashion. This peasant boy, who probably hasn't left his backward area, finds uncanny ways to avoid being killed and outsmarts the guys that are pursuing him. Eventually, he ends up at the house of the dead boy, where the distraught mother believes her kidnapped son has returned home, to the horror of her husband, who sees the truth.

This Italian film, directed by Carlo Carlei, is a document about that era of that tragic period in the country. Mr. Carlei paces his story well in the way he sets the chase of the boy as he tries to evade his pursuers. Manuel Colao is perfect as the young boy. Francesca Neri and Jacques Perrin are seen as the parents of the kidnapped boy.

The film will not disappoint because it shows the sure hand of a director, Carlo Carlei, who takes us for an exciting ride.

The Long Journey of an Innocent Orphan

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 17 January 2016]

In the countryside of Italy, there is a feud between two families of kidnappers and the boy Vito (Manuel Colao) escapes from the slaughter of his family by the other family hiding under his bed. Before dying, his father advises him to warn his older brother that is hidden in a cave. When Vito arrives there, he finds his brother and a boy called Simone that had been kidnapped by his family dead. He finds a backpack with Simone's address in Rome and he decides to travel to Rome to meet his cousin Orlando (Lucio Zagaria) to flee from the killers that are hunting him down. Orlando gives a pack to Vito to keep for him and he puts in the backpack. Soon Orlando is murdered by the killers and Vito decides to seek out Vito's parents. When he meets them, the disturbed mother Marta Rienzi (Francesca Neri) wants to keep Vito with them, while her husband Davide Rienzi (Jacques Perrin) does not believe in him and decides to pay the ransom to retrieve his son.

"La corsa dell'innocente" is a great Italian thriller based on a dark period of Italian history when there were abductions of wealthy people and even politicians. Through the long journey of an innocent orphan victim of a war between two families of kidnappers, the director Carlo Carlei exposes the drama of a family that had the only son kidnapped by a gang. In addition to the great story and performances, the film shows beautiful landscapes and monuments in Italy together with a wonderful music score. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Vôo do Inocente" ("The Flight of the Innocent")

Through the eyes of a young child with no strong payoff

[jordondave-28085 · 7/10 · 23 September 2023]

(1992) The Flight Of The Innocent/ La corsa dell'innocente (In Italian with English subtitles) THRILLER/ SUSPENSE

The theme is similar to a later release "I'm Not Scared" also from Italy, co-written and directed by Carlo Carlei where at the beginning of the film, a kidnapping occurs from a wealthy Italian family in exchange for money, only that other baddies know about this. As well with intentions to shoot and kill all the ransomers and to use this ransom scheme keeping all the money themselves. All of this seen through the eyes of a little boy who narrowing escaped, after witnessing his whole family slaughtered! Barely remembered this film and had to see this film again to fully grasp what I didn't like about it and after seeing it again, I didn't enjoy the fact that the story was supposed to be from the boy's point of view and witnessed every one of his family member killed by guns and when the other killers or the other ransomers finally got there comeuppance or their deserts- nothing was shown except by what the protagonists heard. The film seemed like the film flip flopped and was somewhat disappointed that the film did not actually show the killings of the other bad guys who seem to be more cruel and have taken away more lives! Spoiler warning- the story has one plot hole but is not really a big deal is when the Italian media and the police showcases the family slaughtered as well as the wealthy man's son, the police should've been able to find the hideout as well as the other bodies around the area. The scene is important because the wealthy man should've known about his son's deceased either from the police or the media because the cave where the wealthy man's son was hidden was very close by to the first family ransomers! Very brutal how the director showed all the shootings, especially from the eyes of an underage little boy.

Una vera corsa

[cmmescalona · 25 January 2004]

Corsa means race. And this is one of epic dimensions. It is interesting to point out that Carlo Carlei, the director, was in his first effort at the time.

As a director myself, I find some of the many runs of Vito a bit over the top. But, at the same time, I must admit that the scarcity of dialogue and the stupor in Vito's attitude is alluring and simply unnerving.

This is a film that uses in a very effective way the dramatic and cinematic expression of Panavision. This format is completely accepted as the de facto standard for any major release. But the complexities of using this format in a story that will be told through the eyes of a child is not easy.

The superb landscapes and contrasts that make this film as visually stunning and as dark as it is is not a small achievement for a first film. Actually, it's quite unbelievable this is a first directorial job.

The natural settings and lighting give, to some scenes, a beautiful psychological break within all the violence and desperation the main character experiences.

But, above all, this film is effective. It takes the audience completely off-balance and never lets it go. It's gripping. Even with some really redundant scenes and not so believable twists. But we have to remember that for some dramatic purposes, these twists are a valid resource.

Music becomes almost a character in a very unobtrusive form, and I like the sparse passages of really weird and doom-reminding sounds.

The language is beautiful, even when the boy and his family speak with a very tight lilt -true to their land. I only object to the incredibly bad voice-over of the only french actor, it's a voice that is as unconvincing as if the man was talking with Hugh Grant's voice.

Even when all the slo-mo scenes are masterfully planned and shot, the violence is overwhelming. I wouldn't be that explicit, but -then again, this leads the audience to the unexpected with such a speed that it is pretty justified.

All in all, La Corsa... is a riveting film. Manuel Colao's performance and beauty are all the more enticing within such a dark subject matter.

A Trully Excellent movie.

[alexmoi58 · 10/10 · 15 January 2004]

Honestly is one of my all time 10 best italian movies ever. I cant understand how a director like Carlo Carlei it`s not working in Hollywood after this one, like G.Tornattore o R.Bennigni this movie is a great movie and also very original, touching and well shooted. E X C E L E N T italian movie E X E L E N T Carlei "avanti caro"

Absolutely Dreadful: Schmaltzy, Amateuristic,Predictable Dreck

[film_ophile · 4/10 · 28 July 2011]

Oh how i wish i could save people from watching this film. It is sooooo cheesy, soo over the top, i wanted to laugh, as in a serge leone film, but unfortunately the director here was dead serious. arggggh. felt like a series of commercials. ALL it had going for it, and I mean ALL, was some beautiful scenery shots including some great Roman buildings. Other than that, if you are a sophisticated film goer,you will buck at the melodramatic schmaltz (both of the repeated shots of bloody murders, the repetitive slow motion shots of bloody deaths, and the light-filtering-in-the gauzy- child's- bedroom shots with the vaseline- coated lens.) Fortunately I could fast forward through all the stupid predictable dreck.If I save one person from watching this, i will feel so much better.

disappointing

[arzewski · 4/10 · 6 January 2006]

Although from a cinematography the production is good, the story and the actors are in doubt. First the story: it is about a kid from a crime family in the deep south that escapes from a deeply agrarian society to the heavily services-oriented north. Well, sorry to tell you, but the deep south as it is mythologized in the Godfather movies, doesn't exist anymore. Everybody has a cellphone now, nobody wants to be a Sheppard anymore, everybody wants to have an office job. The story is highly simplistic and idiomatic, kind of a cute story of a sweet looking kid with bad guys around him. Then the actors: the parents of the kidnapped child are "acting" the part that it is so obvious. When they see the child's school backpack, the knee to it, pick it up, and embrace it. So obvious, that it is classic "B" movie, and so predictable, more for a melodrama aired in soap-opera afternoons. Even how the director directed the shots has some unnatural feel: when the kid emerges from the crypt in the cemetery, he is made to turn his head slightly and then express surprise to discover there is a vehicle. It is as if the kid didn't have peripheral vision. Such scene direction by putting emphasis on frontal screen scape is typical of television direction of simple and uncomplicated easy-to-do productions. To have it here just shows how simplistic that was. But it was the only time it happened, otherwise, the other scenes are more dynamic

Fantastic Italian Thriller

[MrBuzz · 7 August 2003]

If you are looking for a movie that has a great story, well done acting,fantastic direction and a score that will give you goosebumps when you hear it, look no further Flight of the Innocent is a Masterpiece of pure action and excitement.

I have just finished viewing this movie for the fifth time and I am still not bored with it. I am writing this review now since I have just found out that it has finally been released on DVD, which now is probably the best chance to view this movie better at home.

I have this movie on video bought years ago when it came out and the movie although now 10 years old has not aged a bit. One reviewer asked where the boy got hold of the address, without give any details away about the plot,I would like to point out that the address was written on the boy's bag.

Like I stated before, I have seen this movie more than once and the movie has no plot holes at all. The movie is quite violent especially the shootings, but also a very intelligent one that grabs the viewer from the very start and never lets go.Take note of this movie and if you see it at your local DVD store give it a rent. You will not be disappointed. 10/10

A boy on the run, seeking new parents.

[ItalianGerry · 21 June 2004]

(Plot spoilers ahead.) Violence erupts in a shepherd's field in the Italian region of Calabria. Several men are shot and killed. Later the entire family of the men responsible for the slaughter is itself brutally wiped out in a revenge massacre, except for the young Vito, hiding under the mattress of a bed. He spends the rest of the movie evading his family's murderers, who need to get him out of the way.

Vito realizes his own family was part of a kidnapping crime involving a young boy (son of wealthy Sienese parents). The two murderous and murdered crime families had clashed over the issue. The kidnapped child has been killed, but the surviving criminals still want to collect the ransom, asserting that the child is alive.

Vito runs away, on foot, by train and truck, any way he can, seeks sanctuary with a relative in Rome (and his girlfriend), until he too is killed. He is questioned by the police, sent to a safe haven, apprehended by a gang member, escapes, continues his noble quest to seek the parents of the slain boy, to tell them what happened, to return to them the ransom money he had found, to tell them not to pay a ransom because their son is dead. At heart he is engaged in a quest to seek new loving replacement parents, to become a substitute son to "replace" the son the Sienese couple has lost.

He finds the family's home, with information found in the kidnapped child's bookbag. He barges into the house. The lost child's mother (Francesca Neri) finds this young intruder, takes a liking to the lad, going so far as tenderly bathing the boy and outfitting him with her missing son's clothes. The father (Jacques Perrin) refuses to believe his boy is dead, and negotiates with those still seeking the ransom. This final confrontation between father and criminals causes Vito to be nearly killed…but because of him the villains are subsequently snuffed out by the police in a final violent shootout.

Vito dreams of a world where all can live in harmony, children are safe, and blood feuds are unknown. Would that were so.

This is a beautifully made film with moments of great excitement and tension and sudden bursts of extreme violence and slaughter that look like out-takes from Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch." Nevertheless, there is a tenderness at the core of the film, which is often very lyrical, sometimes excessively so in long-winded dreamy evocations that pop up from time to time…and at the ending. In short, it's a good thriller, with a humane dimension, on a relatively rare topic, the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta and its record of child-kidnappings.

Performances are uniformly convincing with the remarkable Manuel Colao as the sweetly poetic and shrewdly cautious youngster. Jacques Perrin and Francesca Neri as the kidnapped kid's parents are perfect, and Federico Pacifici is frightening as the deranged scarfaced killer. The direction by Carlo Carlei, whose first film this was, is top-notch.

I used to show this film to high school students of Italian, despite the R-rating (for violence) and it invariably went over very well with the teen audiences. It is of interest to note that the 2003 Italian film "I'm Not Scared" ("Io non ho paura") by Gabriele Salvatores, has a story with a number of similarities to this one.

On the other hand...

[eelpie · 31 March 2001]

Jtur has a fair point, you could add that the picture never shows how young Vito obtains the address of his goal---but this is a parable, not a New Realism movie with peasants employed as actors. The most striking feature of this highly cinematic picture is that for the whole 101 minutes it has little dialogue. You could write the lines on a couple of pages. It cuts to the chase in the first 30 seconds, and never stops. At the climactic moment, when the young hero bursts into speech for the first time, putting his own life on the line and thereby redeeming his whole murdered criminal family, it has marvellous dramatic, emotional and philosophical impact, nobly underlined by the literary epitaph. Somehow, I can't see the Disney organisation taking on a big issue and dramatically working out its theme in this way. Flight of the Innocent is so well structured. Every 10 minutes, there is a plot point, and it certainly has no "sagging centre"---an exceptional achievement in any picture. The boy just runs and runs and runs, until he is in the arms of---well, don't let's spoil the story, because this is a passionate statement about a genuine horror of southern Italian life, and well worth seeing.

Tolerable, but not great (Possible SPOILERS)

[jtur88 · 5 February 2001]

This film was a bit too Disneyesque for me. The requisite beautiful child, equipped with intellect, wisdom, incredible luck---everything but a dog. With three years of school, he reads remarkably well. Fresh from a Sicilian olive orchard, he's street wise enough to have Rome eating out of his hand. He's the only target that's too small for the bad guys to hit unerringly with every shot. To make matters worse, befouled with needlessly explicit violence, which kicks it out of the Disney Channel, straight into Action-Max.