Roberto Rossellini's Paisan was a war drama film that basically depressed me. Because it was a long film with five episodes of depression, since people all have a misfortune happen to them in the end. Even more because its lack of a happy ending is what depressed me, but its not part of why what I think of the movie as a whole. Rossellini was set as the founder of Neo Realism, but was mostly underrated and never given much credit to his ability. The movie was a well-made film, with the many stories in it let you see how other people's lives are going on instead of focusing on just one person and his story. How many times have you watched a movie and wondered what happens to another character other than the main character, this movie gives you five different stories that all occurred at the same time and place. There is a story of a drunken black man who ends up spending time with some kids at the black market and he finds out how hard their life is, and has a different outcomes. Another was when a Italian hooker tries to get with a GI who was drunk, but he starts telling her of the girl he once met that was so pure and innocent, and the hooker who just happens to be that same girl and she leaves and gives him a note to go to an address the next morning. Next morning comes and she waits for him, but he never shows up because he thought the note was phony. This movie just has a lot of unfortunate endings occur to show that not everyone gets a happy ending in this life, and those who do are the ones who worked hard for it.
