The Five Days

Meo Cainazzo seizes the opportunity when artillery blasts shake Milan to break out of prison. The chaos of the Austrian bombardment creates confusion among the guards, allowing him to slip away into the streets. His primary goal is to find his gang leader Zampino, suggesting loyalty to his criminal associates despite the revolutionary turmoil around him.

Earlier scenes establish Meo's criminal background and his connection to Zampino, making his first instinct to rejoin his old allies rather than join the revolution.

While wandering through the chaotic streets of Milan searching for Zampino, Meo encounters Romulus, a warm-hearted Roman baker who has come to the city to help his uncle with work. The two unlikely companions form an alliance amid the upheaval, with their contrasting backgrounds, a petty criminal and an ordinary tradesman, creating a partnership that helps them both survive the Five Days.

Their meeting sets up the film's central dynamic of two men from different worlds navigating the revolution together.

Baron Tranzunto forces Meo and Romulus into his brigade to expand his military force during the uprising. The baron is ambitious and seeks to manipulate the revolutionary momentum for his own purposes. The pair have no choice but to comply, becoming unwilling participants in a conflict they did not originally join.

The baron's recruitment reveals his opportunistic nature and sets up the power dynamics that will drive much of the film's conflict.

When Baron Tranzunto attempts to assault the woman who was denounced as a collaborator, Romulus intervenes to defend her. During the ensuing struggle, the Baron falls down the stairs and dies. Romulus is then captured by the Baron's men and executed by shooting. His death marks a devastating turning point, showing the personal cost of taking a stand against brutality.

Romulus's earlier acts of kindness, helping build the barricade and assisting with the childbirth, establish his protective nature, making his intervention at the Baron's house a natural continuation of his character.

When Meo finally reunites with his old gang leader Zampino on the final day of the uprising, he discovers that Zampino has been secretly collaborating with the Austrians throughout the revolution. This betrayal reveals that some leaders exploited the Five Days uprising for their own gain, undermining the revolution's ideals. The revelation exposes the corruption and manipulation that plagued the revolt.

Earlier moments hint at the revolution's compromised leadership, but Zampino's betrayal becomes the ultimate symbol of this deception.

A man denounces his girlfriend as a collaborator after discovering her with an Austrian soldier. Baron Tranzunto's men use this accusation as justification to raid the location, killing the soldier in the street. This incident illustrates how the revolution devolved into suspicion, violence, and vengeance, with denouncements becoming excuses for brutal reprisals.

The earlier atmosphere of patriot fervor and Austrian reprisals creates the tense environment that makes such violence possible.

Baron Tranzunto dies after falling down a staircase during a confrontation with Romulus. When the Baron attempts to assault the woman who was denounced, Romulus steps in to defend her. In the struggle that follows, the Baron loses his balance on the stairs and falls to his death. His death comes as both a consequence of his violent actions and a symbol of the uprising's chaos.

The escalating violence throughout the film builds toward this confrontation, where even those in power become vulnerable to the turmoil they created.

The revolution fails because it was corrupted from within by leaders like Zampino who secretly collaborated with the Austrians, and by ambitious figures like Baron Tranzunto who exploited the uprising for personal power. The film shows how internal betrayal, violence between revolutionaries, and Austrian reprisals combine to undermine the Five Days uprising. By the end, Meo is left disillusioned as the noble cause he hoped for reveals itself as manipulated and hollow.

The baron's recruitment of unwilling fighters and the betrayal at the top levels of the rebellion plant seeds for this eventual collapse.

After being denounced by her own boyfriend as a collaborator, the woman becomes the center of a violent confrontation. Baron Tranzunto's men seize her along with the soldier she was found with. The soldier is killed in the street. The Baron then attempts to assault her at his residence, leading to Romulus's intervention and the chain of events that results in both the Baron's death and Romulus's execution.

The woman's vulnerability throughout reflects the broader victimization of civilians caught between all sides of the conflict.

Meo and Romulus join local residents in quickly erecting a barricade using furniture from a nymphomaniac countess's home. This farcical moment illustrates how ordinary people are drawn into the conflict, using whatever resources are available. The barricade becomes a symbol of collective resistance, though the comedic sourcing of its materials reflects the film's tragicomic tone.

This early act of participation commits the pair to the revolutionary cause, making their later forced recruitment less surprising.

Amid the chaos of the Five Days, Meo and Romulus stumble upon a woman going into labor and assist her in giving birth in a makeshift shelter. This scene provides a rare moment of tenderness and humanity that contrasts with the surrounding violence. It underscores how civilians, including vulnerable pregnant women, must continue to live and survive even as conflict rages around them.

The contrast between this act of creation and the violence that follows highlights the film's thematic tension between life and death.