There is no doubt that the film does have propaganda value, but this value is purely objective: there is no moving eloquence to bolster its documentary vigor.

This one-way pathos trundles along for three hours slowly, glumly, predictably.

It's as if Sicily has existed in a bubble, unchanging for a century as sons take over the boats of their fathers and children apprentice at their feet, taking their place in "a hopeless slavery."

Luchino Visconti's epic account of peasant defiance inflamed and squelched, where to live in poverty is to drown on dry land