Slap the Monster on Page One (1972): A Still Relevent Look at Media Manipulation

Released to Blu-ray by Radiance this week, Slap the Monster on Page One is a 1972 thriller with a political conscience from director Marco Bellocchio. It stars the great Gian Maria Volonté as Bizanti, the editor of Il giornale, a fictitious right-wing Italian newspaper. The action takes place in Milan, during the run up to a hotly-contested election between the ultra-conservative Christian Democrats, the paper’s preferred candidates, and the Communist Party. Montelli (John Steiner), the newspaper’s capitalist owner, is in a tight spot; his corrupt dealings are finally catching up with him. Fearing a potential blowback that may dent the Christian Democrats campaign, Montelli proves eager to hold off any bad press against him until after the polls close, and instructs Bizanti to smear the left wing as much as he can in the meantime. Fortunately for them, a young girl from an esteemed family is raped and murdered, and an informant for the paper names a young anarchist as the culprit. Understanding that this will discredit the left and benefit the paper’s right-wing candidate, Bizanti goes all out to derail the official police investigation and leave his readership in no doubt that the anarchist is the killer. But is he really, and will the paper let a small matter like the truth get in the way of a good story that is mutually beneficial for all concerned?

Much like that other Volonté vehicle, Elio Petri’s brilliant Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Slap the Monster on Page One is an intense study of conservative establishment corruption made by filmmakers who were of the left (Bellocchio and Volonté were both active communists), or at least sympathetic to the cause. The film is an impressive document of Italy’s so-called Years of Lead, but also remains an astonishingly relevent thriller. The themes that Slap the Monster on Page One explore here are incredibly topical given how, in recent years, we have seen just how far the so-called liberal mainstream media shape the story with their bias and destroy the reputations and character of some politicians whilst promoting and giving a free pass to others.

Bellocchio’s film understands that journalists are protagonists of the state, and that their job is to directly influence the society we live in, as opposed to merely interpret it for an audience. Volonté’s editor character is every bit as slick, corrupt and monstrous as his policeman in the aforementioned Petri movie. Indeed, whilst the monster of the title refers to the news stories of societal ills, it’s clear that the real monsters are the ones like Bizante, the editors and journalists who write up the very stories that will be slapped upon the front page, twisting and fabricating them long before that and solely for their own ends. Bizante knows that the paper’s informant Rita Zigai, portrayed by Laura Betti, the legendary Italian actress and muse of Pasolini, is a sad and vulnerable relic of the student movement of 1968. He knows that her romantic advances towards the much younger activist Boni (Corrado Solari) have been spurned, and that she is likely naming him as the guilty party as revenge for the personal humiliation his rejection resulted in. But he simply does not care. He does not care for the poor victim who was raped and murdered; he does not care about her grieving family; He does not care about justice – all Bizante cares about is selling newspapers and securing victory for a right wing party that will preserve a status quo beneficial to the vested interests of his employer.

There’s a scene in which Volonté’s editor character schools Roveda, the idealistic young journalist played by Fabio Garriba, about a story he has submitted – the headline of which reads ‘Desperate Gesture as an Unemployed Father of Five Sons Sets Himself on Fire’. That simply won’t do for Bizante or, he argues, the paper’s middle-class readership. He explains how ‘Desperate’ in conjuction with ‘Unemployed’ is a provocation likely to challenge or even punish the hypothetical reader, unsettling them about society and making them feel somehow personally culpable because of their bourgeois lifestyle, values and beliefs. Far better then to say ‘Dramatic Suicide’, as it not only uses less words, it also keeps the gory details of his death beneath the headline. Bizante knows that it is the headlines that people read, and that they must be designed to give the people the choice to read on or not. Also, because the man was from Calabria, Bizante reasons that they should identify him as an ‘Immigrant’, arguing that this is a useful one word description that also implies he was an unemployed family man. He also suggests removing the reference of the suicide victim having been ‘fired’ from the article, and a browbeaten Roveda suggests ‘left without a job’ by used instead. Bizante is happy. In one fell swoop they’ve now provided the palatable essence of the tragedy, whilst ‘othering’ its protagonist from the reader in such a manner as to remove any responsibility from the door of his capitalist employer class. It’s a brilliantly well done scene, that puts the whole film in a nutshell. Furthermore, you just know that rags like Daily Fail and the S*n would happily show this scene as part of the training of its ‘journalists’.

A fine example of Italy’s Years of Lead cinema, the only issue I personally have with the film is its ending and the fact that its sole working class character is depicted in a regressive manner, something which feels surprising given the politics of all involved. Radiance’s release of Slap the Monster on Page One boasts an impressive 4K restoration of the original print and extras including two interviews with Bellocchio; one archival from around the film’s release, and another newly commissioned for this Blu-ray. There is also an appreciation of the film by Alex Cox and a limited edition booklet featuring writing from Wesley Sharer.

Mark’s Archive – Slap the Monster on Page One