Sacco and Vanzetti

Peter Miller
First Run Features (2007)
Reviewed by Anthony J. Nocella, II

As I watched Sacco and Vanzetti, an 80-minute documentary by Peter Miller, it drew me to the point of grabbing my pen, and paper and repeatedly rewinding the film so not to miss an important fact, interview, or scene about one of the most famous political trials in U.S. history. Sacco and Vanzetti, which holds parallels with today’s post 9/11 political climate, documents the discrimination of immigrants in the U.S. in the 1920s along with the repression of dissent, which at the time specifically targeted communists and anarchists. While the murder trial is infamous in U.S. history, as historian Howard Zinn notes in the film, it is too often left out of many high school and college history textbooks.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two Italian immigrant anarchists  arrested in 1920 in Brockton, MA for the accused murder of a pay-clerk and guard during the robbery of the Slater-Morrill Shoe Company. While many witnesses during the trail stated that that both were working and not even close to that location, their statements were thrown out by the judge because they did not speak English, but rather Italian. And therefore were viewed as biased because Sacco and Vanzetti were both Italian.

It was that type of prejudice and scrutiny that made this case so horribly famous and had several hundred thousand protesters around the world voicing their disgust during the trial and imprisonment of Sacco and Vanzetti. They believed that the Italian anarchists were innocent and unfairly tried. The case deeply touched many including Woody Guthrie who wrote numerous songs about the two, guitarist John T. La Barbera who composed music for the film, and the renowned artist Ben Shahn who was so greatly moved that he created many pieces about the  trial including a mosaic that covers a whole external wall of a building on the Syracuse University campus. Interviewed in the film are family members and neighbors of Sacco and Vanzetti, Studs Terkel, Arlo Guthrie, and many others. Along with these interviews, the films outstanding music, captivating pictures, and video clips of the trial and massive protests make this a comprehensive and fascinating resource.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the documentary won the American Historical Association’s Best Historical Film Award. To learn more about this case one can visit the downtown library in Boston, MA, which is a sight to see in itself. There within it is an entire room dedicated to the trial including photographs and 3,500 feet of written material from the case. One will also find, in a locked glass cabinet, the death masks of Sacco and Vanzetti which were created from placing plaster on top of a cloth on each of their faces: a practice which was only done to the very wealthy and famous at that time. 

Today the Boston City government along with many politicians and scholars proclaim that innocent men were framed for a crime they did not commit. As a criminologist, I feel that the film holds up as one of the top documentaries on a particular crime case. Timely lessons are to be learned from this unbiased and engrossing film. Miller has beautifully documented what should be required viewing in classes on American History.