Mediterraneo (1991)
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Mediterraneo Movie Review
Mediterraneo is a 1991 Italian period drama film directed by Gabriele Salvatores. It’s a solid and harmless, but certainly undeserved Oscar winner.
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“Why didn’t you make love to me?“
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This is a populist film by all means, the kind of period drama that the Academy just loves so obviously they ate it up and gave it the award. But ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ was nominated that year and that movie’s a masterpiece so its loss to this inferior flick hurts quite a bit.
Mediterraneo follows a group of Italian soldiers during World War II who are stuck on a Greek island where they find their humanity, love and friendships. In the historic context, the movie’s somewhat problematic as it makes the Italians seem innocent during the war which certainly wasn’t the case.
But it’s a fine testament nonetheless to the power of humanity against all odds and the movie’s actually rather sweet-natured and very well established and endearing in its character interactions. The characters are much better developed than in your usual period pieces and the acting is very good across the board. I liked the romances and their friendships as well.
But Mediterraneo felt overly sugar-coated in some parts and particularly made for the masses in its approach and certainly execution. That bothered me along with an overly emotional ending and some scenes that felt too manipulative.
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The imagery is strong of the island and the atmosphere is leisurely and peaceful. The score is also tender and absolutely magnificent, probably the most memorable thing about the entire film. Technically, the movie’s solid, but directionless and weakly scripted. The dialogue is good though as is the characterization.
This is a very solid, harmless, cute movie that is difficult to hate. It’s not a great movie by any means, but it’s not bad either as it has its many merits. But it’s still way too old-fashioned and typical to its detriment, though the inclusion of some homosexual characters certainly made it more interesting and modern. It simply did not deserve its Oscar and the Academy was way too easily persuaded by its evident charms.
Mediterraneo is a typically populist, traditional and sweet-natured period piece which the Academy just eats up which is why it won the Oscar undeservedly so in the year of the great ‘Raise the Red Lantern’. It’s a solid, harmless flick which is so tenderly scored and actually quite good in characterization and some very endearing scenes, but overall it felt too safe, overly emotional and never particularly sophisticated.
