I've noticed that many here seem to struggle with the end of the film and find it disappointing, but to me it's the only sensible and logical end. Yes, it's abrupt, cold and bleak, but that's the whole point. If you don't understand it, in my opinion you miss the essence of the story. Felice is the own actor of his downfall here, nobody else.
From the first to the last minute, we follow Felice's viewpoint, but his vision is an illusion and the last moments of the film are a return to reality. He's very much the captive of his nostalgia and it's a story how nostalgia can blind you. Every single person he meets in this film tells him to leave, yet he prefers to stick to his romanticized bubble of adolescent friendship and dream of making bad good again. One of the most telling scenes of the film is the dinner with the Camorra family. In the reactions and faces of everybody around, you can almost viscerally feel the abyss between Felice's world and the reality of the situation.
The great irony of the story is that Felice acted rationally when he was 15, but totally irrationally 40 years later as a grown man. What he did at 15 may not be particularly noble, but it was sensible. To think that there would still be a special bond with O Malommo after all these years is a delusion that only he believed. Let's not be foolish here, from Oreste's point of view Felice is a traitor and he has enough reasons to want to get his revenge on him. It's Felice who broke their friendship, not Oreste, And he's a liar, he's been talking too much, and to the wrong persons, and Oreste knows it. So is Oreste's action at the end unexpected? No, except if we follow Felice's own bubble world (and that's also both the power and perversity of the film). Why do you think O Malommo was able able to become and stay the boss of the Sanita for so long? Because he's always put his own skin first, whatever it takes. His survival instinct is almost animalistic. And the failure of Felice's to understand this very fact could only end this way, however sad it is.
From the first to the last minute, we follow Felice's viewpoint, but his vision is an illusion and the last moments of the film are a return to reality. He's very much the captive of his nostalgia and it's a story how nostalgia can blind you. Every single person he meets in this film tells him to leave, yet he prefers to stick to his romanticized bubble of adolescent friendship and dream of making bad good again. One of the most telling scenes of the film is the dinner with the Camorra family. In the reactions and faces of everybody around, you can almost viscerally feel the abyss between Felice's world and the reality of the situation.
The great irony of the story is that Felice acted rationally when he was 15, but totally irrationally 40 years later as a grown man. What he did at 15 may not be particularly noble, but it was sensible. To think that there would still be a special bond with O Malommo after all these years is a delusion that only he believed. Let's not be foolish here, from Oreste's point of view Felice is a traitor and he has enough reasons to want to get his revenge on him. It's Felice who broke their friendship, not Oreste, And he's a liar, he's been talking too much, and to the wrong persons, and Oreste knows it. So is Oreste's action at the end unexpected? No, except if we follow Felice's own bubble world (and that's also both the power and perversity of the film). Why do you think O Malommo was able able to become and stay the boss of the Sanita for so long? Because he's always put his own skin first, whatever it takes. His survival instinct is almost animalistic. And the failure of Felice's to understand this very fact could only end this way, however sad it is.