March on Rome (film)

March on Rome
Directed by	Dino Risi
Produced by	Mario Cecchi Gori
Starring	Ugo Tognazzi Vittorio Gassman
Music by	Marcello Giombini
Cinematography	Alfio Contini
Editing by	Alberto Gallitti
Release date(s)	1962
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

March on Rome (Italian: La marcia su Roma) is a 1962 comedy film by Dino Risi with Vittorio Gassman and Ugo Tognazzi, aimed at describing the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini's black shirts from the point of view of two newly recruited, naïve black shirts.

The movie's main theme is the gradual betrayal of all the promises of the fascist party: the two gradually tick all the main points of the fascist program as described on a propaganda flyer every time they are contradicted by practice. In its early stages fascism was a radical republican movement, suspicious of large businesses, nobility and the Catholic Church (Mussolini himself had been a socialist early in his career, being cast out of the party when his nationalism grew more and more pronounced). When arriving in Rome, and having ticked them all off, they leave the fascist party in the moment of its victory.

Quotes

• The expedition is burning down a building of the Communist party. One of the two recruits asks why they are contradicting their declared principles of freedom of speech. The fascist gang leader replies that "They have freedom of speech, we have the freedom of beating them up. If they do not want to speak because they are afraid, so..."

• The fascists are victoriously parading in the streets of Rome. A counsellor reminds king Victor Emmanuel III that they are still in time to send them away. The king replies "Nah, let's keep them for a few months".

External links

• La marcia su Roma at the Internet Movie Database