The Wide Blue Road

It’s hard to imagine why the all-but-unknown fiction debut of director Gillo Pontecorvo (The Battle of Algiers)—the tale of a lowly Italian fisherman (Yves Montand) who is determined to give his family a better life at any cost—was greeted so unenthusiastically upon its initial release. It’s an inspired hybrid of neorealist politics and glossy production values.