Review of Rocco and His Brothers

I had some big problems with this movie, especially the mind-boggling plot turns that afflict its second half. It struck me that by far the most sympathetic character in the film was Annie Girardot as the prostitute who has the extreme bad luck to become involved with both of the brothers played by Alain Delon and Renato Salvatore. She rejects the bad brother (Salvatore), because he doesn't respect her and gives her stolen jewelry. She then begins a new and more fulfilling relationship with the good one (Delon), and they fall genuinely in love. When Salvatore finds out, he rapes her in a fit of jealousy and beats his brother for taking up with her. Now get this: Delon dumps her and tells her that she must go back to Salvatore because his reprehensible actions prove that he's the one who really needs her the most! Now some have interpreted Delon's sacrifice as a saintly one, but personally I thought it was just as cruel to her in its own way as anything his loathsome brother did. Incredibly, Girardot does attempt to begin another relationship with Salvatore, but it is, of course, doomed to failure and predictable tragedy. If she had any sense, she would have left both of them! Ultimately, my impatience with the increasingly irrational and unbelievable actions of these three characters overrode my enjoyment of the film.