SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

sunheadbowed 'Hawks and Sparrows' is the most Buñuel of Pasolini's early films in both mischevious tone and religiously subversive subject matter. The film even hints at Surrealism as much as it does Marxism, featuring a talking raven (described as a 'left-wing intellectual'), which is clearly an avatar for Pasolini, and a quarrel of hungry pagan sparrows that are converted to Christianity by monks with the lure of food.It is very light-hearted and comedic on the surface but this is dangerous, confrontational art when you understand the symbolism, the kind of filmmaking that made Pasolini many enemies. Both Italian film legend Totò and young Ninetto Davoli are excellent and have enjoyable chemistry together, the rest of the cast is mostly made up of neorealist non-actors.

Andres Salama I'm not normally a fan of Pasolini, but this not very well known film from 1966, a kind of bridge between his earlier realistic films (Accatone, Mamma Roma) and the later explorations into the realm of popular myth (the medieval Trilogy), is worth a look. It stars the legendary Italian comic Toto, and Ninetto Davoli, who was Pasolini's lover and would be featured in many of his films. The pair engages in a number of comic misadventures, both in the Italy of the mid 60s (where they walk through what seems to be a huge urban wasteland), and in medieval times, where they appear as disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi. The movie is shot in a free-form style, has a lot of off the cuff humor, and is a sort of an odd combination between the theater of the absurd, the slapstick comedy of the silent movie era and the political films of Jean Luc Godard. There are also many quotes for thinkers revered by the European left of the time, as well as a talking crow. The movie ends up showing the funeral of longtime Italian communist leader Palmiro Togliatti, though given Pasolini long time support of Italian communism is not clearly what this means.

jotix100 A picaresque approach by a master of the Italian cinema resulted in this personal and different film by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The director, who wrote and produced this picture, was in great form in this story that is more like a fable, deliciously acted by Toto and Ninetto Davoli, one of the best pairings in Pasolini's movies.The film is, in many aspects, a road movie. From the beginning, we watch as Toto and Ninetto take to the road in their trip to nowhere, it seems, but a trip which permits Pasolini examine some of the things that obsessed him, mainly his dislike for organized religion, as he perceived it in his country, as it clashed with reality. He takes the life of Saint Francis and the story about his relationship with the birds as the main topic for the movie.It's hard to add anything else to what already has been said by the valuable contributions to IMDb. This film is one of the most inspired by the director. In it, he doesn't pound on the viewer's head those things that were dear to him. In fact, the film has a whimsical touch as we follow the two travelers, Toto and Ninetto, through rural Italy as a raven keeps telling them stories.Toto is perfect as the older man who is living in his own world and doesn't see the changes around him. Ninetto Davoli gives a great performance as the happy go lucky son. Their surname, is Innocenti, or Innocent, which in a way, fits their characters rather well.The black and white cinematography by Mario Bernardo and Tonino Delli Colli works wonders for the film. Ennio Morricone's musical score also enhances all that one sees on the screen. This is a light Passolini, but one that delves deep into the subjects that were so dear to the director's heart.

ANNIESCLAN-1 Pasolini carried three labels that implied some sort of political or intellectual curiosity and complexity: Marxist, atheist, homosexual. And, like a true politician, he created evasive films that choose not to elaborate. Everything in The Hawks and the Sparrows is a contrivance used to further deepen the myth of the film. I was silly to think that I could discover something about Pasolini by watching it. Instead, I was separated by WWII-era political ideologies and symbolic occurrences. Yes, that's right, a talking crow is symbolic of a Left-wing intellectual while Toto and his teenage companion act as the apolitical naive characters whose journey ends at the beginning of the film. And you don't have to be a gnostic to find out; Pasolini chose to insert text that reads "the road begins and the journey ends" at the beginning of the movie. The insertions of text are instrumental to Pasolini; they also inform the viewer about the bird being the Leftist intellectual.Yet, most viewers will learn to dislike Pasolini's textual interventions. We want to be lazy, and we want to laugh at Toto's gesticulations and facial movements as he does the impression of the woman who uses the dentures. We don't want to get a history lesson, or at least not on our watches. And, if the text was never in the film, we would be able to disregard Pasolini's symbolic implications. But, since he puts that text in there and tells us what to think, we can't just dismiss it. That text dictates, it says that, even if you had created your own conception of what the bird symbolized, you're wrong, because, "for anyone who hasn't noticed, the bird is a left-wing intellectual." Truthfully, I might've been more interested in the connection between the word "wing" and the fact that the character was a bird than that the bird represented some type of ideology.Did I not know what I was entering into? I bought the movie, knew it was directed by Pasolini, the DVD box was blue on the side, no, there weren't any missing steps. But, even with all of the correct preparation before viewing The Hawks and the Sparrows, it would have been alienating. Although we learn about Pasolini's political status through the actions of a bird, a hatted man and a smiling boy, we are isolated from Pasolini himself. Using politics is a great way for someone to sterilize something. And, in the expressive and vivid area of art, an artist is kicking himself in the pants when he combines art with politics. Can anyone listen to John Lennon without thinking of his political life? Probably not. Which is the same case with Pasolini.As negative as this review may seem, The Hawks and the Sparrows is one of my favorite movies. I love talking birds over Ennio Morricone music. They work well together, like pepsi and Chinese food. I don't know how Pasolini pulls it off. Man. If anyone else tried to combine a political idea with art, it would be like trying to match navy blue with black. Maybe I'm creating the wrong visual image here. This movie is fantastic, especially when Toto and the boy get shot at, making them run up mounds of dirt.