Overview: Mistaken as a witness to a crime, Nino (Giuliano Gemma, The Iron Prefect), learns from a friend he has been put on a Mafia hit list and is being stalked by an assassin (Michele Placido, Romanzo Criminale). A man with a troubled past, Nino knows only too well what he faces and uses all his strength and cunning to keep himself and his family alive.

Featuring stunning performances from both leads, Damiano Damiani (The Day of the Owl) applies his trademark realism and socio-political commentary to A Man on His Knees, charting Nino’s desperation as he refuses to kneel before the power of organized crime.

Newly restored in 4K, Radiance Films is proud to present one of Damiani’s finest films on Blu-ray for the first time in the world.

Blu-ray Verdict: In the mafia films made in Italy in the late 1960s, the mob always wins, and the individuals trying to stand up against it are, again and again, shown to be naïve and childish in their belief they can make a difference. A Man on His Knees, however, tells a different story.

Targeted by the criminal powers that be in Palermo for his alleged role in a kidnapping plot in which he was uninvolved, ex-con Nino Peralta (Giuliano Gemma) decides to stand up to the threat. He would rather, as the title suggests, live on his feet than die on his knees, so he confronts the man who has been hired to kill him repeatedly, eventually beating him up in the hope of driving him away. But then things get complicated.

What does living on your feet look like? How much can you compromise before you realize you’re kneeling after all? And how bad is it, really, to kneel, if it means your life, and that of your family?

The proud Nino is forced to consider and reconsider these questions as he tries to simultaneously stay alive, protect his family, and not compromise his personal principles. Sometimes, that looks like collaborating with his own would-be killer. Sometimes, it means calling that man a friend. At other times, though, it means returning to his former life of crime, and even committing murders of his own.

Though Damiano Damiani’s (he of 1968’s excellent mafia film — also set in Sicily — The Day of the Owl) film takes at least 30 minutes to truly get going, once it does it’s awfully good. Rather than the broad examination of corruption that was at the heart of those earlier films about organized crime, A Man on His Knees offers instead a close look at one man in crisis, and whether or not individuals can ever survive when facing the overwhelming power of the mafia.

As Nino, Gemma is excellent: still, serious, and resolute, showing little on his face, but expressing emotions loudly through his body language and posture. It’s an impressive performance from a man who is typically best in roles that offer him the opportunity to show humor, one that deservedly earned him a major acting prize in Italy. And just as good as Gemma is Michele Placido as Platamona, Nino’s would-be killer.

Where Gemma is all contained rage, Placido is vociferous indignation, offering noise and aggression in place of Gemma’s wary reserve. Always clad in a sharp suit, Platamona is an alluring, often overwhelming presence, one that is sometimes cocky and dangerous and, at others, tentative and desperate. It’s a wild, riveting performance and, ultimately, the one upon which the film hinges.

By the end of A Man on His Knees, nothing has been resolved. Nino lives to fight another day, but whether or not he’ll win is very much an open question, and the power of the mafia seems to go on forever, no matter how many fissures Nino is able to open up in its facade. It’s perhaps a less grim conclusion than the ones that ended films like The Day of the Owl and We Still Kill the Old Way, but there’s also no assurance that, ultimately, Nino will make any more difference than did the protagonists of those earlier, superficially darker films.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
New 4K restoration from the original negative
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
Archival interviews with stars Giuliano Gemma, Tano Cimarosa and assistant director Mino Giarda
New interview with Alberto Pezzotta, author of Regia Damiano Damiani
Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista
Booklet featuring new writing by Roberto Curti
Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and marking

www.radiancefilms.co.uk