Sicilian, The

Aroview: Still reeling from the box office catastrophe of HEAVEN'S GATE, Michael Cimino turned his attention to this Mario Puzo-scripted saga about an upstart gangster (Lambert) who fights against the Catholic Church, the all-powerful Mafia, and an oppresive Italian government to regain Sicily's freedom in post-war Italy.

Though the miscasting of Lambert as the film's titular antihero diffuses much of Cimino's promising vision, this restored version reinstates an epic, lucid grandeur that was missing from the 115m. version that was cut by nervous studio execs.