Giordano Bruno (1973)

Perfect cast and a good story

Good movie but grossly overrated

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

about freedom, knowledge, fight against prejudices. maybe, about the Church. Giordano Bruno becomes the symbol of the fight for ideas and ideals. for transform the philosophy as tool for everybody. for define the knowledge as supreme form of liberty. and for save an ideal, against the obstacles. a film who, for music and for the atmosphere, for the performance of Gian Maria Volonte and for the force of the last scenes, remains a must see. as political film, off course but, maybe more important, for the wise way to present and sustain ideals and force of faith. because, in fact, it is just a faith story. religious. but not only. the motif - the generous manner for give a touching, coherent and useful warning with universal impact.

This a film for the thoughtful. It relies on intelligent dialogue,great acting and period recreation. If you want action, look somewhere else,but this film is simply DRIPPING with dramatic tension from start to finish.It is gripping portrait of the times and politics when the church sought to consolidate it's power over a changing world and persecuted many like Bruno, Copernicus, Galileo.Due to constraints of time it only outlines the free thinking ideas and philosophy of Bruno that led to his trial for heresy.If you want to understand them fully you must look to his writings. I saw one post that said he found it boring ; I can't believe that. I found it riveting from the first frame!

An exquisite movie. I saw it two days ago and many of its images are still popping out in my mind. Other commentaries explain much better the story of Giordano Bruno that I could ever try to attempt, so I will only point out the magnificence of the interiors with frescos on every surface, with multicolored intarsio marble floors (The Vatican with the most exquisite and amazingly luxurious interior decorations ever dreamt by human minds --Titans of the visual effects to bring out the pathos in the viewer --believer--in this case). The appalling beauty of the Catholic Church prelates costumes (Armani, Oscar de la Renta, eat your hearts out!), their jewels, their tiaras, their gloves... My, my! The preciousness of the visuals in this movie reminded me of the movie "L'Innocente" ("The Innocent") by Visconti, equally jaded and ultra sophisticated with its exquisite details of costumes, jewelry and interiors. A surprising fashion show within a very serious picture! Volontè does an incredible job in his creation of Giordano Bruno, and everybody else in the cast is excellent. The script superb, as superb is the director. Only for grown ups (not because of obscenity, but because the concepts exposed in the lengthy dialogs are not easily digested by feeble minds).

Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher who excited the rage of the Catholic Church and finished in the flames of a pyre in Campo dei Fiori in Rome on 17 February 1600. Today a statue stands in his honor in this piazza. As a very young man he entered the Dominican Order, was ordained in 1572, but within a few years was running through Europe, publishing a variety of clever and original literary, theological, and philosophical texts that made many angry. In 1591 he reached Venice, where he displeased a Mocenigo and was denounced to the Inquisition. He was sent to Rome, where he spent six years in prison before he was burned at the stake for heresy. Gian Maria Volonté, one of the great actors of the century, who appeared in such disparate films as For a Few Dollars More, The Abyss, and Il Caso Moro, stars as the sensual and highly intelligent monk. The narrative begins with Bruno's arrival in Venice, and naturally the movie compresses much and doubtless has simplified. Nonetheless the skillful evocation the character of Bruno in the Venice and Rome of the 1590s is highly enjoyable. I watch this movie three or four times a year.