What would you do if you suddenly and inexplicably found yourself the potential target of a hitman? This is the precise situation that Nino Peralta (Giuliano Gemma), simple husband and father who works at a coffee stand, finds himself in when he is told that he is one of eight targets for elimination by one of the major crime families in the city. How did he wind up enmeshed in a wealthy woman’s kidnapping and what lengths will he go to in order to get his name taken off the list and survive?
A Man On His Knees is a relentlessly nihilistic, bleak film, one where absolution and innocence does not exist and where moral objectivity is a foreign concept. You are on one end of a gun or the other, and neither situation is a particularly good one. Structurally the film actually reminds me a little of a previous Radiance Films release, The Bandits of Orgosolo in illustrating how easily someone minding their own business can find themselves in circumstances beyond their control and get trapped in a vicious circle of violence. Film critic Roberto Curti’s excellent essay included in the physical booklet with the release compares Nino to a Franz Kafka protagonist, finding himself enmeshed in a whirlpool of existential dread with no means of escape. The comparison is apt, not just in the hopelessness of Nino’s situation but in the callousness and business-like indifference of those allied against him. The prime example is the hitman himself, Platamonte (Michele Placido), who seems nearly as put upon as Nino. It’s a job. He doesn’t enjoy it, but he has to do it. He’s just trying to survive too. He feels no particularly affinity for nor hatred toward Nino. To him, Nino’s just a name on a list that needs to be crossed off, so he can go home to his own family. Platamonte is a far cry from the sleek, stylish Hollywood hitman. He doesn’t seem very on-the-ball, wandering around and losing track of Nino. He’s just not very good at it. In some ways the dark ending feels inevitable even as it surprises. Director Damiano Damiani, who had released a string of excellent crime films at this point in his career, films A Man On His Knees with a keen sense of social realism, instilling a raw veracity to the events as they play out that help drive home how far away from a world of fantasy we truly are.
Radiance has once again provided a quite nice transfer which according to the notes provided was restored in 4K from the original negatives. Other than the opening and closing credits which look a little rougher and heavier on the grain than the rest of the film, the picture overall looks very good with the soft, naturalistic cinematography captured quite well with a balanced color palette and only a few noticeable moments of damage to the image. The original Italian mono track, also sourced from the original negative, doesn’t fare quite as well with noticeable hiss and popping on a few occasions, particularly when certain characters get a bit riled up. It is still overall a solid effort though and perfectly listenable. For extras, in addition to the aforementioned physical booklet, we also get a series of interviews from actors Giuliano Gemma and Tano Cimarosa (who played Nino’s friend) as well as assistant director Mino Giarda. They’re all nice interviews but Giarda’s is the most substantial of them. The best interview on the disc is with Alberto Pezzotta who literally wrote the book on Damiano Damiani and who helps put A Man On His Knees in the context of the mafia films of the ’70s.
Leave it to Radiance to bring us yet another hidden gem of Italian cinema with this Kafkaesque gritty crime flick with strong performances and a relentless, fatalistic view of humanity. For Damiani fans, this is a no-brainer, but even beyond the immediate audience, A Man On His Knees is a film that makes a bold statement and should be more widely seen.