Counterculture and the Role of Subversion in the Anti-Mafia Movement: Marco Tullio Giordana's One Hundred Steps
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Katherine Plunkett (Art and Anthropology, 2025)
In his film One Hundred Steps (2002), director Marco Tullio Giordana examines the life of anti-mafia political activist Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato within the context of mafia corruption and socio-political movements of 1970's Sicily. Through his depiction of Impastato's life, Giordana explores the early countercultural and subversive nature of the anti-mafia movement and Impastato's role as a figurehead. Giordana's narrative choices regarding the historical accuracy of the film inform the film's emotional impact and role within the contemporary anti-mafia movement as a call-to-arms.
The film deals with Impastato's anti-mafia activism, family dynamics as the child of a mafioso, and his subsequent murder by the mafia in 1978.1 Impastato is seen as involved in various youth counterculture movements, such as the Italian Communist Party and a Music and Culture Club that explores anti-mafia resistance and rock music. The inclusion of these countercultural groups in the film speak to a wider historical context of the role of subversive groups in anti-mafia resistance due to the nature of the mafia and Italian society. Due to the nature of the mafia's relationship with the Italian government, the anti-mafia movement was initially a subversive movement in Italian society. Since Italy's founding as a unified state in 1861, the mafia had served as a form of organized violence that kept less-controlled regions, such as Sicily, in check. The mafia's involvement in the Italian state meant that questioning the mafia was questioning the country's entire political system, resulting in the beginning anti-mafia movement being inherently subversive towards the established political order.2
In One Hundred Steps, Impastato not only meets opposition from his family and the mafia, but also from the people of Cinisi, Sicily and the leaders of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Mafia resistance was not only politically subversive but socially subversive, as Italy relied on the social order of omerta, the code of silence. To outwardly speak against the mafia was more socially scandalous than the actual acts they committed, depicted in the film through Impastato's Radio Aut, through which Impastato subverts omerta by discussing mafia corruption.3 In addition to clashes with the mafia and Cinisi's society, Impastato split from the PCI as it became a more legitimate party focused on electoral politics instead of activism.4 Impastato's departure reflects the larger generational divide in the party as the younger generation became more activist-minded, and further demonstrates his subversive relationship to the Italian government, which, following a successful election, now included the Communist party.
"Mafia resistance was not only politically subversive but socially subversive, as Italy relied on the social order of omerta, the code of silence."
Through Impastato's story, the audience gains an accurate understanding of the role of counterculture in anti-mafia resistance. After Impastato's death, his friend Salvo Vitale speaks on their radio station, saying: "Turn your back on it. We all know how these things work anyway….Why don't we Sicilians admit once and for all that we want the Mafia" (36:08-36:34).5 Giordana includes this scene to openly call out the code of silence and the complicity of society in the mafia, ensuring the viewer explicitly understands this relationship. By depicting Impastato's founding of Radio Aut to openly speak out against the mafia, Giordana demonstrates how anti-mafia resistance was socially subversive, and relays the historical reality of the Italian public and the mafia.
While the film's narrative accurately reflects the relationship between anti-mafia movements and counterculture, Impastato's personal family dynamic is dramatized inaccurately to create a microcosm of that relationship. In the film, Impastato both politically resists the mafia and rebels against his mafioso father, a rebellion that has widely been described as over-dramatized and inaccurate to his life.6 By exaggerating the family aspect of the narrative, Giordana creates a personal narrative that carries a metaphorical truth of the function of resistance in Impastato's life, personalizing and intensifying the theme of rebellion and subversion. Giordana sets Impastato up as an exemplary figure who is intended to encourage a sense of personal justice and responsibility in his audience.7 Young audiences in particular can relate to the dramatized aspect of Impastato's life, as many of them could relate to parental clashes over family expectations. Giordana uses this potential connection to actively work against societal and familial pressures, such as the omerta of the 70's, by presenting Impastato as a model who placed his values and resistance to injustice above all.
Amid the family drama, scenes such as the one featuring the Music and Culture Club reconnect the narrative to counterculture and its role in anti-mafia resistance. In this scene, Impastato tries to lead a discussion on Rosi's Hands Over the City, but his even, professional tone of voice is interrupted by loud bursts of rock music until he relents and the members of the club jump up to dance. The inclusion of Hands Over the City, one of the staples of Italian political film, connects One Hundred Steps to this genre, but the crowd's disinterest also accurately reflects the generational divide present in this age of counterculture.8 The audial clash between Impastato's lecture and the music is the metaphorical sound of this generational divide. The youth that would rather dance than debate an old movie are the youth that have divided the Communist party, affected more by countercultural social movements like rock n' roll than specific party ideologies.9
The use of Hands Over the City illustrates the narrative choices Giordana has made to accurately portray history. Impastato quotes the caption of the film: "The characters are fictitious, but the social nature they derive from is real"(30:30-32:02).10 The line seems to address how Giordana dramatizes Impastato, pushing him more into the realm of a fictitious character, while accurately depicting Italian society and counterculture. Following Impastato's speech, the audience experiences a wide shot of the crowd dancing to Janis Joplin's Summertime, an emblem of 60's counterculture and a call to action against injustice. The wide angle, the inclusion of Summertime, and Impastato's line about the reality of the social nature in the film convey that this shot is an accurate reflection of 70's countercultural society.
After quoting Hands Over the City, Impastato argues that, "Being a work of art, a movie can't show reality as it actually is" (30:30-32:02).11 This scene functions as Giordana's acknowledgement that he has not achieved historical perfection, but is "reinvent[ing] reality, looking at it from a different point of view" (30:30-32:02).12 The implication is that Giordana consciously made Impastato more fictitious while accurately portraying society. As a result, Giordana uses both the exemplary figure of Impastato and the reality of the rebellious spirit of counterculture movements as a call to action.
The depiction of the countercultural movement then serves to empower younger generations by demonstrating they are capable of achieving actual change.
While Giordana uses the anti-mafia movement's subversive roots to encourage social consciousness, he works within the realm of the legitimized contemporary anti-mafia movement that sought to educate students. According to Millicent Marcus, Doctor of Italian film studies, Giordana's mission is to "reinvent and transfigure the story of Peppino Impastato and to infuse it with meaning for a contemporary social context notoriously deficient in the revolutionary fervor that animated the 1970's liberation movements."13 Much like the youth in the film, Giordana is working against a generational divide, addressing a younger generation that did not personally witness the violence of the mafia. He does this outside of the film as well, visiting schools to discuss the film and ensure younger generations understood the reality of the mafia.14 By intensifying Impastato's personal emotional narrative, Giordana attempts to help young audiences who may relate to Impastato's family struggle connect to the larger historical narrative. The depiction of the counterculture movement then serves to empower younger generations by demonstrating they are capable of achieving actual change. This is reflected in the final scene, where the people march after Impastato's death, implying the movement continues on after him. Audiences watching this in 2000 understand that what Impastato and the anti-mafia movement worked towards has since been achieved, creating a hopeful and empowering tone that frames Impastato as a martyr of the cause.
Giordana's narrative choices in One Hundred Steps serve to inspire and educate his audiences, especially contemporary youth. He accurately portrays the society of the 70's, illustrating the role of the mafia and the subsequent subversive nature of the anti-mafia movement. Conversely, Impastato's personal life is inaccurately dramatized to establish an emotional connection with young audiences. Through this emotional connection and the depiction of the empowerment of the youth involved in counterculture, Giordana is using film to instruct and inspire his audiences. While the family drama often takes the forefront of the narrative, it is the accurate picture of counterculture movements that completes Giordana's message: Impastato may be the example to aspire to, but the people of countercultural movements are who the audience members can easily be – average people working together for justice.
End Notes
1. Stefano, George de, "Marco Tullio Giordana’s The Hundred Steps: The Biopic as Political Cinema," in Mafia Movies: A Reader, Second Edition ed. Dana Renga, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019), 253.
2. Puccio-Den, Deborah, "Mafia: State of Violence or State Violence: The Impastato Affair and the Concomitant Recharacterization of Subversive Groups and the State in Italy (1978-2002)," Quaderni, vol. 78, (2012).
3. Puccio-Den, "Mafia: State of Violence or State Violence…"
4. Lange, Peter, et al, “Mobilization, Social Movements and Party Recruitment: The Italian Communist Party since the 1960s,” British Journal of Political Science, vol. 20, no. 1(1990): 18.
5. I cento passi, directed by Marco Tullio Giordana (2000), YouTube.
6. Stefano, "Marco Tullio Giordana’s The Hundred Steps…," 256
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., 255.
9. Lange, “Mobilization, Social Movements and Party Recruitment…," 30.
10. Santi, Lionello presents a production from Galatea, dir. Francesco Rosi. (2006). Le mani sulla città. Irvington, NY : Chatsworth, CA :Criterion Collection ; Distributed by Image Entertainment.
11. Santi, dir. Rosi, Le mani sulla città.
12. Ibid.
13. Stefano, "Marco Tullio Giordana’s The Hundred Steps…,"253.
14. Summerfield, Giovanna, "Nuddu ammiscatu cu nenti?: i ribelli contro la mafia," Cahiers D'Études Romanes, vol. 45 (2022).
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