It's 1978 Rome. Violence is in the air threatened by the revolutionary Red Brigade. American David Raybourne (Andrew McCarthy) returns to write for a small paper and a fictional book about them. His friend Italo Bianchi (John Pankow) is a leftist American lecturer at an university. His girlfriend Lia (Valeria Golino) is the estranged wife of rich and powerful Marco. Photo journalist Alison King (Sharon Stone) is also after the Red Bridgade and sees Raybourne as a possible lead. This is a fictionalized account of events leading to the real kidnapping and murder of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro.The directing from John Frankenheimer seems inferior or obsolete. The tension needs to be higher. This feels more like a 70's movie. Instead of three lead American characters, I would prefer to see a movie about Italian characters in this Italian drama. I'm not that interested in these Americans although the political intrigue seems compelling. The Americans can always walk away from any danger. It's an extra layer that separates these characters from the intensity of the story.

David Raybourne is an American journalist covering political news in Italy during the 1970's. He gets involved with the Red Brigades when trying to help Alison King, who photographed them in action and discover the mafia net is at all levels...Wow.I've seen some bad films, but Frankenheimer has made some decent movies in the past, and this was supposed to be factual, so it had my attention.McCarthey is woefully miscast in this, and the film consists of him and the bloke from To Live And Die In L.A, eating sandwiches and drinking wine.It's supposed to be some controversial movie about the Red Brigade movement, but in fact it's nothing more than McCarthey being a dirty old man and pursuing Stone while Golino is waiting at home for him.Dialogue is beyond bad, and its filmed in such a way, it looks really really cheap, like true movies cheap.It's a torturous watch, and its no wonder McCarthy didn't really get any more starring roles after this, and Stone had to be more...revealing.Avoid.

John Frankenheimer made two beautiful films in his 40 years as a director, "The Birdman of Alcatraz" and "The Fixer". Both of these were about terrible conditions faced by a man in prison. Both of these films glorify suffering and the individual's ability to adapt and survive. They are both well worth seeing.It was when he stepped out of prison that Frankenheimer had trouble. He was considered an action director, but the action in his films generally matched the average action scenes in a television police show of the period. He also tended to have witless one-dimensional characters, either all good guys or all bad guys. Among his witless and tedious concoctions were "the Manchurian Candidate," (Good Americans against evil Chinese Communists) "French Connection II," (Good Americans against Evil French Drug Dealers) and "Black Sunday" (Good Americans against Evil Palestinian Terrorists).This movie has to be ranked as the worst of all these racist artless, thriller-less Conservative Catholic diatribes. In it, we have a good American against evil Italian Communists - the Red Brigades.Frankenheimer wants us to know that he considers the Red Brigades evil. So he has to make them do something evil or sadistic in just about every single scene. See the Red Brigades attack police at demonstrations. See the Red Brigades attack and burn cars and smash store windows. See the Red Brigades kill innocent bystanders, See the Red Brigades kidnap and kill politicians, See the Red Brigades paint graffiti on walls...According to Wikipedia, in the 70's and 80's, about 75 people died over a ten year period due to the Red Brigades - this total probably includes members themselves who were killed by Italian police. This movie shows the Red Brigades killing about 75 people in one week. None of the serious political issues of the time period are shown.I lost a lot of respect for Andrew McCarthy, Sharon Stone, and Valerie Galina for being in this boring and stupid cartoon.You might enjoy this film if you have been captured by the Red Brigades and they have given you a choice of torture or watching this movie. Well, actually, they would probably would not give you a choice, but would torture you by making you watch this movie. The fiends!

this may not be john frankenhiemers best work but is not one to overlook. i feel at the time of its release andrew mccarthy career was already over and although he does a fare job of it he did not help it's release and sharon stone was not yet a house hold name.plus Italian politics of the 70's doesn't really sound that inviting.however this little film is exiting,intriguing and well plotted. you feel for andrews plight and you feel lost in a world you don't really understand just like andrew. weather intentionally or not it works for me i don't it want all laid out. the actions of the red brigade are not answered just like the news we watch every night. john frankenhiemer made the best of a hard subject and the last third of the movie is very tense. with a good twist and a message that has not dated.also the DVD quality is very good but where are the subtitles and how about some extras, the deleted scene is odd to say the least. if your a sharon stone fan its a must one of her better early performances.