"La grande strada azzurra" is a co-production between no fewer than four European countries, but the dominating one here is, as you can see from the title, Italy for sure and the movie is also from beginning to end in the Italian language and nothing else. The literal translation for this one is "The Wide Blue Road" and this is stated here on imdb. I am not even sure if it is the international title, but I have a feeling anyway that this is not exactly a film that got really shown frequently in the United States. Probably not in England either. But instead, you may be lucky to catch it if you originate from Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Souther Europe. In my country, Germany, this was just on television, almost in the middle of the night, but still. And as this film is almost 65 years old now, maybe older when you get here to read this review of mine, this means quite something. The title sound really typical, also with the use of the color there, like a Fellini film or maybe Pasolini film, but it is no such thing, which you may have guessed already from the relatively low amount of votes here on imdb. Comfortably in triple-digit territory still and way closer to 500 than to 1,000 at this point. This film is originally based on a novel by Franco Solinas and he also worked on a screenplay here. His co-writer is Gillo Pontecorvo and these two collaborated on the screenplays for other works too. They were both nominated for an Oscar approximately five years later. Pontecorvo is also one of the two directors here. The other would be Maleno Malenotti (is that an alias?) and he is the least famous from the bunch of writers and directors here. The third writer is Ennio De Concini and he even won an Oscar, also slightly over five years after this film. None of them is alive anymore, but it seems that with the exxeption of Solinas, they all had fairly long lives.
The cast is basically the reason why I came across this film, why I decided to watch it tonight. And I am pretty sure this is not shown too often nowadays anymore, so I wanted to take the occasion this time. The reason for me to check this one out is not Emmy-nominated actor Yves Montand in the lead and by the way I see he was born in Italy, so makes sense he is in here too, even if most see him as a Frenchie these days. The actual reason is a certain Terence Hill, who still went by his real name Mario Girotti here. He was way under 20 when he appeared this movie and still this was not even close to the very early days of his career. Yep, he was a child actor. Now he is over 80 in fact and I hope he still has a few years left. I just finished a Bud Spencer movie marathon the other day and you cannot do something like that without running into Hill at some point, so I thought that I give this film the benefit of the doubt here, also without Spencer around, who was himself not even 80 when this was made. As for Hill, he looks so young here that, if you don't know he is in this film playing Renato, you could perhaps not even make the connection. He may not have huge material, but he has some alright screen time here and there, even if his character is mostly just there and not saying too much. The one exception is a romantic moment in which he says that he wants to marry a girl that also plays a relatively big role in this film and the confrontation later on when she is about to leave him is another slightly memorable moment. Another remotely bigger moment for Girotti here. Today, probably more people (at least here in Europe) know him than Montand who was already a bit of a star at that point.
So I mentioned Montand twice already. Haven't seen him in too much though otherwise, so I cannot go a lot into detail. He was not bad in this film or anything, but also not on a level where I would really get curious about his other works. As for the rest of the cast, it is a bit of a mix. The two female actors with the most screen time are Italians, but if we are looking at the guys we got many other nationalisties too: Italians, Serbs, Spaniards, Germans.. Makes sense I assume with the great quantity of production countries. I cannot say too much about the other cast members here though, so I guess if you care specifically about one or two of them, go check out their bodies of work. Even Peter Carsten I really don't remember having seen in anything else, although he had a pretty prolific career for decades. Maybe my loss. Also it can be added here that despite this film being from the 1950s, this is already in color. Not to be taken for granted and I think with Italian films especially from back then, a bit of an exception. I like it though. You can see from my rating I am not a big fan of this film, but I think in black-and-white it would have been even more forgettable and with the color in the title, they also kinda have to do it in color. This also shows you it is no Fellini because he usually went with b&w except in his later days. As for the story here, I must say that unfortunately I never really got sucked in by this movie at all. The introduction and beginning is still alright, but it just did not manage to make the next step quality-wise afterwards. The problem is not that this is a fairly slow movie really. I would have been perfectly fine with that because a slow movie set next to the Italian seaside is something I'd always consider giving a chance and checking it out. The images in terms of landscapes were sometimes alright, but as a whole I also expected more. The story can be summarized quickly. We have a fisherman at the center of the story who uses, unlike the others, explosions for his work. As a consequence, he tends to get into a lot of trouble with his competitors, with police (because it is not legal), with hid children because there is a constant danger with the direction he is thus taking with his job.
More drama is linked to potential drowing (of course, because the sea is always there with this movie and that I liked) and, on a sligtly less dangerous note, troubles of the heart because characters are falling for other characters and love and affection are not always the case for both (potential) partners. Sorry, that's a clumsy way to put it, but you know what I mean. The latter also refers to Hill's character as well as the young Federica Ranchi, who is also one of really not too many people from this film that are alive now in 2021. Good for them though. She is also a bit stunning in here. I may be biased there because I have probably always had a soft spot for Italian women or at least a softer spot than for most other nationalities, so no surprise I say so about her and this movie. Same by the way applies to the older Alida Valli, who is no longer with us anymore sadly, but this should not really surprise anybody given the year she was born. Back to the story here, we have two crucial moments for which there's (implied) deadly consequences to the way the protagonist chose when it comes to how he wants to catch fish. This shows you how dangerous it all really is. Reminded me a bit of the search for gold in America, even if that happened way before the days during which this film here is set. Unfortunately, I must say that the emotional impact on me with these scenes especially was not as mentionable as I would have liked it to be. I mean it's kinda easy to feel for the kid in the end with the tragedy happening there and how he has to leave on his own, but I will not forget about all the mediocrity from previous occasions during these 1.5 hours. Plus a few minutes credits. Speaking of Hill (and Spencer), you also get a little fighting in here, but it's not for comedic purposes at all, so definitely just a coincidence there and Hill's character is not a part of this anyway. He was way too young there really to fight the big guys.
What else can I say here? I kinda like the title. It sounds inviting in the sense of baing a metaphor for the sea. I wish the film could have been only half as nice as the title suggests. But it is not. I can see why so few people saw it only and also I do not really understand why critics loved it this much. Maybe really blinded by the all-in ending. Even the rating by "normal" users here on imdb is still (far) too high I would say. I mean it is not a failure by any means and never was, but the good moments are just too rare overall this time. I must say I am glad it was a fairly short movie. Stated the duration earlier. Even if you love Terence Hill (like myself), it is not a convincing watch and it is probably good enough a decision to simply only watch the scenes that include him and skip the rest. Interesting though to see him as a 100% serious character for once. Even in the more serious western films from early in his career, there was always a little tongue-in-cheek with him. This is different. In general, there is absolutely zero comedy in here, which maybe hurt the film a bit. It just felt too sterile and bleak and that is probably a negative achievement indeed looking at the beautiful place where it is set. Oh and no matter how young Hill may have been when he played the part, he is by far not the youngest in here as we have to boy / child actors that are maybe half his age. Okay, that is all now. You see I did not write too much about the plot and individual scenes because to me the film simply did not seem interesting enough. The soundtrack was okay at times. All in all, I give it a thumbs-down and I have no need really to watch this film (ever) again. There probably won't be too many occasions anyway. You might wanna skip too. That's all.
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