The power newspapers once held can easily be forgotten in the 21st Century. When I walk around my neighborhood in the morning, I rarely see a newspaper on someone’s driveway. I don’t subscribe to my local paper since it’s $35 a week, it’s tiny and they don’t even print a Saturday edition. I used to deliver the evening newspaper in the early ’80s and it was only $4 a month. A single newspaper is more expensive than your cable bill. People would rather get their news from reading the Facebook feed of their “friend” or the numerous “news channels” on the cable dial that don’t do much real reporting. But once upon a time, the newspaper dominated the way people got their news. In major cities, there were numerous papers that fought for readership. Which one you subscribed to described your personality and outlook on life. The attitude of the editorial leaked into the tone of the news articles. Slap The Monster On Page One is about a conservative newspaper in Milan Italy in the early ’70s that can easily be about the numerous conservative news channels on streaming apps.
Things are heating up on the streets of Milan, Italy with an impending election. There are a lot of left wing, right wing, fascist and socialist rallies all over the place. There is also a riot from members of a radical party that decide to attack the offices of the Il Giornale (The Journal) newspaper. The publisher of the paper Bizanti (A Fistful of Dollars‘ Gian Maria Volonté) refuses to call the police so that his windows can be broken and they can be victims on the front page. When a Molotov cocktail ends up in the office and catch a newspaper stand on fire, Bizanti pushes it to a better angle for his photographer to capture the blaze before allowing it to be extinguished. Bizanti is using all this to push his fascist agenda and demand more police action. He is also wanting to push his favorite politician, but the guy is in a bit of hot water over a scandal. Bizanti meets with the guy and explains that instead of writing articles that deny his scandal, he’s going push the murder of a young woman. He turns her death into major sensation. He goes beyond the police reports and begins to make his readers swear that a radical leftist is the real killer and suspect the politician’s main rival. The police are eager to chase down the clues in the paper. Will the real killer ever be found?
Slap The Monster On Page One must have been inspirational for Rupert Murdoch. Bizanti’s approach to how to cover a story and twist it to fit the narrative of the paper that the readers demand is the core philosophy of News Corp and Fox News. Bizanti points out how the headline is everything along with the first few paragraphs. That’s all the average reader will make it through. This is how he hooks readers into his view of the story. The facts can come later in the article when nobody’s really reading. The idea of reporters working directly with a politician as almost their press agent is the norm for Fox News. Their anchors are encouraged to be pals with the powerful. In the movie, there is one real reporter at Il Giornale who is trying to uncover the truth. Today’s pseudo news channels have eliminated those people from the staff. They’re all for hiring willing puppets who love the attention more than the truth. The narrative cannot be derailed by facts because that turns off their audience and lowers the ratings.
It’s rather strange to think that in 1972 when the movie came out in Italy, Americans saw newspapers as a bastion of truth when The Washington Post investigated the Watergate break in that led to President Nixon’s resignation. Slaps The Monster On Page One could be viewed as a cynical version of All The President’s Men. Then you remember how the news organizations run by Rupert Murdoch have protected their candidates. Fox News paid $787.5 million settlement after pushing a lie that voting machines were rigged. Instead of shame, the company viewed it as the price of doing news business their way. Over half a century later, Slap The Monster On Page One gives us the true future of organizations that bring “news” to the viewers.
The Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The 4K restoration brings out the gritty nature of Milan in the early ’70s. The Audio is Italian in LPCM 2.0 mono. You hear a lot of in the streets whether it be from the riots or traffic. The movie is subtitled in English.
Marco Bellocchio (19:39) is an archival interview with the director. He sees he film as unique in his career. He talks about coming on a week into production when director Sergio Donato had a falling out with star Gian Maria Volonté. We learn about the odd coincidences going on during the shoot including the political leader whose car exploded.
Mario Sesti (24:47) is a critic and author gets into the film’s impact on the times. It does reflect the tensions and anxieties in Italy at the time. He gets into the actors in the film.
Alex Cox (9:53) has the director of Repo Man and Straight to Hell dig into his bottomless knowledge of Italian cinema. He tells us to ignore the IMDB trivia that claims the film was originally being made as a western when the director gets fired. He even quotes a passage from his great 10,000 Ways To Die book about spaghetti westerns. He reflects on how the film does show the way newspapers will work stories to reflect the people they want in power.
Limited edition booklet featuring new essay by Wesley Sharer on the film.
Radiance Films present Slap The Monster On Page One: Limited Edition. Directed by Marco Bellocchio. Screenplay by Sergio Donati and Goffredo Fofi. Starring Gian Maria Volonté, Laura Betti, Fabio Garriba, John Steiner, Corrado Solari & Jacques Herlin. Running Time: 88 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: November 19, 2024.
