There is a danger in watching a show about a dictator. Not the danger of propaganda, but the danger of myth. We often look back at the 20th century’s tyrants through a haze of black-and-white newsreels—stiff, slow, and unreal. We tell ourselves they were monsters, but in doing so, we distance them. We forget the magnetism. We forget the crowd.
In the show, we watch the opposition fold. We watch the King, Victor Emmanuel III, refuse to sign the arrest warrant because he is scared of a civil war. We watch the elites negotiate with the thug because they think they can "manage" him. mussolini: son of the century
Watch it. Not to gawk at the past, but to recognize the rhetoric of the present. Because the "son of the century" has many grandchildren, and they are still shouting at the camera, demanding you choose a side. There is a danger in watching a show about a dictator
But that is the point. For too long, we have turned fascism into a Halloween costume—obvious evil. Mussolini: Son of the Century reminds us that the original fascists were young, stylish, and furious. They didn't smell like sulfur; they smelled like cheap cologne and adrenaline. We tell ourselves they were monsters, but in
Sky and Canal+’s new series, Mussolini: Son of the Century ( M. Il figlio del secolo ), directed by the legendary Joe Wright ( Atonement , Darkest Hour ), refuses to let us forget. Based on Antonio Scurati’s bestselling, prize-winning novels, this is not your grandfather’s history lesson. This is a panic attack set to punk rock. Forget the caricature of the bombastic, chin-jutting clown. Luca Marinelli (who gives the performance of the decade) presents Benito Mussolini as something far more unsettling: a hyper-intelligent, vindictive journalist. A political opportunist who understood, before anyone else, that the feeling of power was more important than the mechanics of governance.