I've never really looked deeply into Giuseppe Tornatore's work. I really don't like Cinema Paradiso (1988), though I seem to be in the minority on that one. This was his directorial debut, made two years before the film that brought him to the attention of the film world. And wow! This is one hell of a debut film. One of the greatest I can think of. A sprawling epic about the rise of a professor convicted of murder to the top of the Camorra (a mafia in Naples). And it is so good. With such a long running time I thought it might be a slow burner. But not at all. It is fluid in the way that Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995) are. Short scenes, intense and it never lets up. Visually stunning. Fluid camera moves, careful compositions and the staging of violence is outstanding. Knives, bullets, bombs in every other scene. A blood soaked epic. I can't understand why it is so little known. It's among the best gangster films of the 80's and I can only say Once Upon a Time in America (1984) outright beats it. A masterpiece of Italian crime cinema.