Based on a true story, Vendetta tells the shocking and tragic story of a group of Sicilian immigrants working on the New Orleans docks in the 1890's. After the Chief of Police was brutally murdered, much of the city's Sicilian population was rounded up and brought in for questioning. Eventually, thirteen were formally tried for murder and nine went to trial, and while they were acquitted, a series of brutal lynchings showed they had as much to fear from the city's general populace as they did from the corrupt police force.
Acting
Walken's weird energy somehow fits 1890s New Orleans perfectly.
Writing
Nicholas Meyer adapts this with Star Trek II-level precision.
Production
HBO TV movie budget, but the period detail punches above its weight.
Director
Nicholas Meyer
Christopher Walken
James Houston
Pierrino Mascarino
Antonio Marchesi
Luke Askew
William Parkerson
Clancy Brown
Chief Hennessy
Andrew Connolly
Sheriff Bill Villere
Bruce Davison
Thomas Semmes
Joaquim de Almeida
Joseph Macheca
Andrea Di Stefano
Vincent Provenzano
Edward Herrmann
D.A. Luzenberg
Richard Libertini
Giovanni Provenzano
George Martin
Judge Baker
Daragh O'Malley
Dominic O'Malley
Kenneth Welsh
Mayor Joe Shakspeare
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was one of HBO's earliest original films, part of their 1990s push into prestige historical drama before The Sopranos changed everything.
The lynching of eleven Italian-Americans remains one of the largest mass lynchings in U.S. history and helped fuel the formation of the American Mafia as Sicilians began protecting themselves from authorities they couldn't trust.
US
