“A meticulous and angry new documentary, offers an implicit critique of the lovable-goombah view of organized crime. Directed in brisk, journalistic style by Marco Turco. Mr. Stille, one of the best English-language writers on 20th-century Italy, serves as narrator and tour guide... The details are fascinating.”
– A. O. Scott, The New York Times

“EXCELLENT CADAVERS is seldom at a loss for excitement. Marco Turco’s lively documentary retraces 30 years of mob action and government reaction in Sicily. Stille is accompanied by veteran Sicilian photojournalist Letizia Battaglia, whose haunting photos, along with contemporary interviews and archival news footage, make up a multimedia mosaic of the recent past... Berlusconi’s anti-judicial rhetoric could have been copped from a Tom DeLay rant against activist judges.”
– Joshua Land, Village Voice

“Marco Turco’s thorough, eye-opening documentary. Like a great trial lawyer Turco uses dramatic flourishes for affect but builds his case upon fact after undeniable fact. The expressions of those caught in the crossfire of this war will haunt you.”
– Jason Bogdaneris, The L Magazine

“Turco’s fine-grained...examination of the brutality and political influence of Sicilian Mafia families circa 1992... Grounded in a collaboration with American writer Alexander Stille...and photojournalist Letizia Battaglia, whose bloody crime-scene images possess a Weegee-esque curdled beauty.”
– Paul Arthur, Film Comment

“Harrowing. A blood-soaked reminder that urban terrorism wasn’t invented yesterday.”
– Jay Carr, amNY

“It would be hard to find a less romantic portrait of the Mafia than that which is presented in Marco Turco’s smart adaptation and updating of Alexander Stille’s famous 1995 study. Even the money-hungry louts of The Sopranos and Donnie Brasco look lovable in comparison to their bloodthirsty Sicilian counterparts.”
– Chris Barsanti, Film Journal International

A powerful, mind-boggling documentary, based on the eponymous book by Alexander Stille about the Sicilian Mafia and the heroic prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino -- who brought hundreds of criminals to trial beginning in the 1980s (in ’82 there was a Mafia killing in Palermo every 3 days), until they themselves were murdered in 1992. Their work galvanized public outrage as Mafia foot soldiers testified in court that they threw bodies into vats of acid to liquefy them. The violence they described was embodied by the no-holds-barred photographs of death in the streets, made by Letizia Battaglia, who appears in the film. The Mafia’s pervasive hold on Italy is documented here, as well as the entrenched corruption of the nation’s politicians, dating back to the end of World War II, when Mafia figures were installed in positions of power to counteract the growth of the Italian Communist Party.

Directed By Marco Turco • Italy / France, 2005 • 92 Minutes • In English & Italian with English Subtitles • First Run / Icarus Films

• Author Alexander Stille on WNYC's The Leonard Lopate Show, July 7, 2006
• Q & A session with EXCELLENT CADAVERS author Alexander Stille (Recorded July 12, 2006 at Film Forum)