Francesco Rosi helms this elegant and wonderfully stylish paranoiac thriller that concerns the investigations of Inspector Rogas(Lino Ventura) as he unearths some dark truths in this particularly confounding case.Various high profile judges are being assassinated by a mysterious sniper; are these the crazed retributions of a lone vengeance-seeking individual with a murderous grudge against these aging magistrates; or is this a vile political conspiracy of far reaching consequence? The labyrinthine plot is handled magnificently by Rossi, and one couldn't ask for a finer protagonist in the enigmatic, crumpled form of the wonderful Lino Ventura; a sterling performer whose magnificent CV boasts some star turns in many of France's finest crime epics, including some of the very best of Jean-Pierre Melville, but his dogged interpretations of Inspector Rogas might be one of his most endearing and robust performances I have ever seen. 'Cadaveri Eccellenti' (1976) is Italian cinema of the highest calibre and alongside Damiani's epic 'How To Kill a Judge' (1974) is one of my favorite conspiracy thrillers to come out of Italy in the 1970's.

Made in between, Lucky Luciano and the much acclaimed Christ Stopped at Eboli, this is a fabulous, very impressive tale of the power of corruption and paranoia. The wonderful Lino Ventura is spot on as the laconic detective investigating, first the assassination of judges and then to what lies behind. Not everyone is so keen, of course, and as the plot thickens we begin to join up the dots that represent, the church, the judiciary, the mafia and the government. Maybe its all the fault of the hippies and students or maybe the corrupted officials will inadvertently fan that flame. Measured, beautifully photographed and never too explicit, we journey with mr Ventura and just hope he is on the right track. Fantastic opening with long corridor and religious artefacts and mummies that wouldn't look amiss in a Luis Bunuel film leading us to the first brutal killing. Surely a candidate for best film opening ever.

Francesco Rosi's Cadaveri Eccellenti is a noble addition to the body of superlative thrillers that the 1970s produced. Based on a novel by Leonardo Sciascia, it is, however, a bit unusual. Closer to the paranoid thriller The Parallax View than exposés like All The President's Men and The Three Days of the Condor, it's more of a meditation on power and the lies governments create to maintain their power. A district attorney is murdered, followed by several judges. Inspector Rogas (Lino Ventura) is assigned to helm the investigation because he's the best man in the force. But the political contours of the murders test his freedom to investigate. His meticulous method clashes with his superiors' wishes for a swift solution when he starts investigating the private lives of the dead men, throwing doubts at their much-touted incorruptibility. His own convictions become a liability when he's forced to work with the political police, on the assumption that revolutionary groups are behind the murders. Slowly Rogas uncovers what he thinks is a conspiracy, but benefiting who is another matter.The movie, entertaining as it is, deviates in critical aspects from the superior novel. Important scenes are shortened or omitted, and new ones are added for no good reason. Rosi's communism also shines through the movie. Although Sciascia had left-wing sympathies, he was wise enough to recognize that when it comes to craving power, there's no difference between left and right. For that reason his novel was very critical of everyone. Rosi portrays the communists in a more positive, turning the writer and journalist Causan (Luigi Pistilli) into a heroic, truth-seeking man, when in the novel he was a coward terrified of being involved by Rogas in his dangerous conspiracy. The movie also makes the connection between the killer of judges and the government almost undeniable, whereas the novel never made it clear.Lino Ventura is nearly perfect in the movie: he plays the introspective Rogas almost as I imagined him: calm, reserved, compassionate, and with a fragile side; the mere act of putting on glasses to read something says so much about his character. He reminds me of Morgan Freeman in Seven.Other characters walk through the movie doing a good job: Pistilli doesn't play the Cusan I expected, but he always adds color to any scene. Renato Salvatori and Fernando del Rey play small roles too. Max Von Sydow was miscast, in my opinion, as the president of the Supreme Court: he looked too young for such a responsible position, and sadly his dialog with Rogas, so powerful in the novel, was greatly truncated, minus my favorite line, "judicial errors do not exist," when Rogas exposes the theory that a wrongly accused man is killing judges.Cadaveri Eccellenti is a fine movie, much more interesting and suspenseful than I remember when I watched it back in 2005. Its combination of talents shouldn't leave any film lover unmoved: the legendary Tonino Guerra on the script and Pasqualino De Santis (Death in Venice, The Damned, A Special Day) in charge of the cinematography alone guarantee that this movie is worth watching. When you add the imagination of Leonardo Sciascia and a strong performance by Lino Ventura, playing his way through beautiful Italian landscapes, you have a winner.

What more can be said? This is one of the finest examples of Italian cinema I have seen. Gripping, intense and thought provoking. Not to mention fantastically acted, directed, edited, shot and produced.The story revolves around Lino Ventura, Italy's No.1 homicide detective. He is called in onto the case of an assassinated judge and has to piece it together. As the movie proceeds more judges are killed by an unknown party....What makes this movie shine more than anything is the plot, it's thicker than cement. When you think you have your finger pointed in the right direction, something else pops up and leads you in yet another direction... FANTASTIC!!!