Il Postino

Michael Radford

Is hero worship to be summarily dismissed as the lack of independent intellectual examination, or is there something more to it? The character of the postman Mario, played by Massimo Troisi, is not just another star-struck fan but is truly devoted to his hero Pablo Neruda. What propels Neruda to become attached to Mario is probably Neruda’s awe with the way Mario takes poetry so seriously in ‘real’ life. For the postman, not just the personal, but also the political, is poetical. The film makes one look afresh at the power of evocative poetry and how even conspicuously apolitical cultural media can leave indelible marks on our tabula rasas.