Excellent Cadavers
August 2008 Reviewed by: Marc Mickelson Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Mafia war: Most of us have a rather theatrical notion of what this phrase means. A few higher-ups get "whacked" and there's a somewhat higher-than-normal level of power-grabbing and bloodshed. But the citizens of Palermo, Sicily know all too well what a Mafia war can really mean: people, including government officials, gunned down in public places, and bombs destroying roads and buildings along with their intended human targets.

Excellent Cadavers -- the phrase for high-profile victims of Mafia assassinations -- tells the story of Palermo's very real, very violent Mafia war. It chronicles the fight of magistrate Giovanni Falcone against La Cosa Nostra in Sicily, work that lead to a "maxi trial" of 475 Mafia-connected defendants, two years of testimony and four years of appeals. Falcone and fellow magistrate Paolo Borsellino literally put their lives on the line to fight the Mafia on its home turf, making targets of any and all who aided them. What they didn't realize was the strength of the Mafia's deep-rooted political power -- and that even with almost 500 criminal figures locked up, the strength of the organization would waver only slightly. In the end, Falcone and Borsellino would be murdered two months apart in 1992, and while these killings led to rioting, nothing could break the back of the Mafia.

The movie unravels like a theatrical thriller that's spiced with courtroom drama. Interspersed with news footage and narration from journalist Alexander Stille, whose book the movie is based on, are B&W photos from that time, many from the scenes of murders. These always bring viewers back to the hard reality that people were dying in large numbers as part of an organized political battle.

The picture quality and stereo sound of the DVD are unspectacular but certainly adequate given the subject matter of the movie, and while the extras seem scant, the inclusion of a gallery of the photos used throughout the film is welcome, especially because each picture is annotated. Stille's book was also made into a 1999 movie starring Chazz Palminteri and F. Murray Abraham. A short feature on that film could have added some context to the events of the documentary.

In the end, after all the blood was spilled and the trial had long been finished, little changed in Sicilian society. Eighty percent of businesses still paid protection money to the Mafia, which remained at the center of Sicilian politics, affecting policy in the way the lobbying groups do here in the US -- behind the scenes and as quietly as possible. Excellent Cadavers doesn't have the obvious drama and narrative sweep of The Godfather or Goodfellas, but it also makes those movies seem quaint in comparison.

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