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.

The railroad engineer Andrea Marcocci (Pietro Germi) has been working with his partner and friend Gigi Liverani (Saro Urzì) for thirty years and feels happy and proud with his work, drinking wine after hours with his friends in a bar owned by the former railroad man Ugo. Andrea is married with Sara (Luisa Della Noce) and his young son Sandro (Edoardo Nevola) is very close to him; however Andrea has issues with his unemployed son Marcello (Renato Speziali) and with his pregnant daughter Giulia (Sylva Koscina),whose boy-friend Renato Borghi (Carlo Giuffrè) was forced to marry her. When a suicidal crosses the tracks of his train in a curve, Andrea feels deeply affected by the accident and almost collides with another train. The railroad company investigates the accident and steps Andrea down from his position. The domestic life of Andrea is also affected by his aggressive behavior and Marcello and Giulia leave home. Later Andrea also leaves home and starts to drink until the day Sandro visits his father in a bar.

"Il Ferroviere" is a human and realistic melodrama with a corny but beautiful conclusion. The drama is watched through the eyes of the clever Sandro that sometimes does not understand what is happening with his dearest family. The stereotype of the Italian people is explored with cries, separations, discussions and a reunion in a Christmas Day, and it is very easy for a Brazilian understand the situations since our people has similar behavior. The acting is top-notch, but the performance of the boy Edoardo Nevola is awesome. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Ferroviário" ("The Railroad Man")

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.