maybe i was naïve, but i found myself pulling for the antiheroes in the Godafther (e.g., the baptism scene). the notion of romanticism doesn't happen at all in this film. the above scene shows the two gangster-wannabe kids, who basically quote Scarface all the time, steals a cache of weapons from the local chieftain and fires them.

the entire movie is so bleak that you get the sense that it took place in a third-world country, which is what southern Italy is like. The industrial North, however, is totally different, and to make this cycling related, the North is also where Campy and Bianchi are from.