This is a rare review by me of a television series, “The Sea Beyond” or as it appeared a few years ago when first televised in Italy, Mare Fuori.The series began in 2021 and four years of the series have been shown, while the 5th series is about to begin. My review covers only series 1 and a few episodes into episode 2. I watched it on Netflix, with English subtitles and English voices. I shall discuss why I think this off-beat serial is important. It takes place in a juvenile detention center in Naples, southern Italy.
Much of the action concerns two new inmates to the Center, one is a young, tall, talented pianist, with long fingers, Filippo. His parents are wealthy and reside in northern Italy in Milan. He is on a vacation trip to Naples with friends and they are high and goofing around with locals. The group gathers round Filippo, picks him up, grabs his legs, and dangles him over a high railing. They quickly pull him back to safety, and then he wants to do the same to one of them – and proceeds to do so. He alone is holding the boy by his legs over the edge when, opps! He drops him. The young guy dies. Filippo is now considered a murderer. By contrast, Carmine is from Naples, knows the city and its ways. He is born into a crime family; indeed his mother is now the capo(capa?) of the Di Salvo family. In the series, Carmine is first seen on a roof top at a table speaking with another young man. The other guy is from a rival crime family, and the discussion quickly turns to economic conflict when Carmine accused the other gang of moving in on Di Salvo territory. The other lad pulls out a pistol, aims at Carmine, and shoots. His gun misfires. From the back of his shirt Carmine now pulls out his pistol, aims at the other guy, shoots, and then shoots a few more times to be sure. They had probably been friends before, for now Carmine puts his arms round the dead youth and hugs him.
Both Carmine and Filippo are sentenced to the Naples Center. Because they are the only 2 murderers among the inmates, they are placed in a cell together, one further down the hall from the more common inmates. Carmine may be a new to the inside, but he feels he knows the rules. He seems to be Mr. Macho, calm and cool. Filippo has never been in such an atmosphere, and hopes for early release, after all, it was not intentional, it was more like an accident. What Filippo did now know is that the youth he dropped was connected to another crime family, and they will do all to prevent an early release for the Milano. In addition, Filippo speaks northern Italian and has trouble even understanding some inmates in the Detention house. He is a fish out of water, and looks to Carmine for clues on how to survive.
While Filippo may think Carmine is on an easy street, Carmine knows better. He will not be getting out early; he will be in prisons for 20 years. He has a girl friend, already pregnant, - what kind of life can they have now? Also, Ciro is the top dog of the other inmates, and Ciro is no friend of the Di Salvo group. Filippo may think Carmine is well adjusted in the Center, but Carmine calls himself a dead man walking. But unlike Shakespeare's Hamlet, Carmine is not contemplating suicide. He is not asking To Be, or Not To Be, even though he is fully aware of life's slings and arrows. Just to walk down the hall, many of the other inmates purposely bump into him, not hard, but so he'll know he is a low man in the ranking system. Life's slings and arrows. But the sharpest arrow hits Carmine not from one of the inmates, but on visiting day.
There is a large room with tables to seat 4 scattered about, and lawyers, friends, and relatives come to see the inmates. Carmine's brother had already visited and they argued. Today, the big arrow came, his mother. She asks if it is true he does not want to do what his brother instructed him to do. Carmine squirms, “Mom, I just can't do it. I can't.” She pushes, demanding that Carmine kill a man in the Center, one who is a threat to the Di Salvo family. Again, Carmine says no. She slaps him hard. Some other tables look. Then she stands over Carmine, seemingly so sweet, and says to him softly but with an edge of disgust, “Be a Man!” and leaves.
With Hamlet, to be or not to be. Carmine has to endure the slings and arrows of living, the bumping in the hall, the minor insults. But Carmine is not thinking of suicide. To be or not to be – a man, does that mean he must kill? Carmine's question is, not to be on not to be; but to kill or not to kill.
Filippo would sometimes try to follow Carmine's advice, but sometimes he would or could not. At first, he thought he might buy good-will of the other inmates, having things purchased for them, but that did not work. They often held him more in contempt, or simply wanted more. Ciro basically forced him to join his group, and Filippo had little choice. But in following Ciro's orders, he got Carmine in trouble with a packet of drugs, for which Carmine stoically took the blame. When Filippo thought he needed a weapon, he stole a razor blade, for which some of the blame ended on Carmine. At one point a bully chokes Filippo and demands he jerk the bully off. This is not porn, and you barely see anything below the belt, but you hear the aggressor say “jerk it faster.” Things in prisons. On the other hand, there is a piano in a section of the Center, and Filippo's playing becomes a hit But it is not easy adjusting to confinement, and one morning Carmine sees Filippo on the floor spaced out from drugs. Carmine tries to assure him that he is better than that, the sinking into the world of addiction.
There is one administrator who takes an interest in Carmine, the Commander. He looks upon Carmine as a son, trying to disentangle him from past problems. The Commander also knows, when younger, he saw a man kill another, and the murderer was a member of the Di Salvo group. The commander was able to get Carmine to the hospital to see his pregnant girlfriend when she was getting pictures of the fetus in her stomach, the child of Carmine. The commander encourages the relationship of Carmine with Nina, his girl, to continue, even though Carmine sees a long-term confinement ahead.
One day some heavy supplies have unloaded, and Carmine is pulling the heavy cart toward a storage room inside. He is accompanied by a burly delivery worker. Once inside, the worker grabs Carmine by the throat, choking him. “Why haven't you done it? What's your plan? If you don't do it soon, we'll get you!? Coincidentally, Filippo enters the area, and sees the worker choking Carmine; “What's going on?” The worker walks away. “Carmine, tell me what happened? He was choking you.” “ Nothing happened,” the usual answer of most inmates to all questions. This time Filippo is not in the mood to hear a bull sh*t answer. “Carmine, if you don't tell me, I'm going to go to the commander.” Carmine reacts: “ You're going to go to the commander. You're going to do that. If I want to live, I have to kill the commander.” Carmine starts to cry. “To live, I have to kill the commander.” Filippo, “What are you saying?” Carmen, crying - “I don't know what to do.” as he grabs Filippo's shoulder and begins to cry on him; Filippo hugs Carmine in response. Carmine's Macho cool is washed away in his tears. To be or not to be? No, the real question here is to kill or not to kill.
In most films, this is not a question. In super heroes, if they are to save the world from Mr. Freeze, or the Joker, or the many other mighty film villains, the super heroes must be willing to kill to save the earth. How else can they save the world? Old war films, if the question is raised, it is answered in a few minutes with a bullet. There are 2 old films where this is an important question, both American films made after WWII. In 1952 “High Noon” was shown with Gary Cooper as a Sheriff in the old West and Grace Kelly (who would later be royalty in Monaco) starred. In the film, she was a Quakeress, opposed to killing, and he was to meet a criminal who threatened to kill him for sending him to jail in the past. The criminal would arrive on the train at noon. She decided she could not marry a sheriff who shoots people. Great pressure on the sheriff. What will he do? To kill or not to kill. Another film of that era, released in 1956 was “Friendly Persuasion,” with Gary Cooper again, Dorothy McGuire, and Anthony Perkins, as the young Quaker in the American Civil War. Should he take up a rifle? Should he kill? But the issue seems to have been solved long ago in Hollywood. Of course, you kill. You kill to save the world. I see far fewer films today, but I think it is a non-issue in Hollywood. That is why I am rather surprised to see the issue flare up in a serial from Italy. Also important, if you watch about 3 minutes of this serial where Carmine is choked, and finally cries “To live, I have to kill the commander, I don't know what to do.” To kill or not to kill, this scene in a serial is far more powerful than most actors in Hamlet declaring to an audience “To be or not to be, that is the question.'' Carmine's plea is far more urgent, far more immediate. And the young Italian actor whom I had never heard of, makes his point more powerfully in 3 minutes than most Shakespearean actors as they mull over the philosophical pluses and minuses of living or suicide. Carmine has to make a decision SOON. Hamlet can afford to ham it up over the centuries. Carmine is played by Massimilano Caiazzo. In the early parts of Series 2 of the Serial, Carmine gets married, then has a mental breakdown, and begins to look like a shorter Luigi Mangioni with a bad haircut. As the series goes on, it becomes more of a regular teen drama, who is dating whom, etc. But the first of this series I found provocative and entertaining. Unfortunately, questions do not end with, to kill or not to kill. The next question is too often, Kill or Be Killed.
Hugh Murray
WARNING! VIEWING "THE SEA BEYOND" ON NETFLIX MAY BE ADDICTIVE!
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