And the moral of the story is, you can’t really trust criminals very much. This illuminating idea underpins the ending of The Big Fake, which hinges on a morally bankrupt betrayal that isn’t especially surprising given everything we’ve seen in the rest of the movie. Toni selling out his pious priest friend Vittorio is just the latest manifestation of his endlessly self-serving impulses, though it at the very least feels slightly more justifiable than some of his prior decisions, thanks to Donata’s pregnancy and Vittorio’s own actions.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The Big Fake is kick-started by three friends trying to make a name for themselves in Rome, and falls apart largely because one of those friends, Toni, can’t get out of his own way. A talented forger, Toni instantly falls in with a gangster named Balbo, but also can’t resist helping his delinquent pal Fabione steal things from safes. Naturally, one of the purloined items, the memoir of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro, is an item of interest to the militant group the Red Brigade, which kidnaps and eventually assassinates Moro. Toni is strong-armed by a State actor codenamed the Tailor to frame his friend Fabione and implicate the Red Brigade. When Toni refuses to acquire the memoir from Fabione, his hands are destroyed to ruin his forgery career, and Fabione is killed anyway for simply possessing the memoir, despite having handed it over.
And thus we have our final act set up. Let’s break it down.
All For A Good Cause
It’s important to note before delving into any specifics that Toni justifies all of his actions in this final portion of the movie, at least to himself, by the fact that Donata is pregnant with his child. Despite his fling with Virginia, he is able to reconcile with Donata, and the knowledge that he’s going to be a father is what inspires Toni to get out of Italy before the Tailor can dispose of him for his involvement.
Given how willingly Toni got involved in all this in the first place, and his lack of faithfulness to everyone, though especially Donata, it’s difficult to really root for him here. But his escape plan requires some capital, so he devises a heist to drum up the funding and hopefully make his safe exit under the Tailor’s nose.
The Heist
With Moro’s memoir stashed in Vitorrio’s safe, Toni contacts Zu Pippo with a pitch to retrieve his stolen proceeds from a reserve warehouse. His cut of the haul would be enough to facilitate his and Donata’s disappearance. With agreement from Zu Pippo, Toni assembles Balbo’s old team to help pull off the heist with the aid of a kidnapped bank employee, and then frames the Red Brigade to look like they’re responsible and attract the attention of the Tailor.
This is all successful, but Toni didn’t account for Vittorio switching sides. The Tailor was able to lean on the priest by threatening to expose his connections with Toni. On the flip side, he had enough contacts in the Vatican to make Vittorio a cardinal if he agrees to hand over Toni’s insurance policy, which indeed he does.
This betrayal is intended to justify the decision that Toni ultimately makes. In terms of whether it does or not, mileage may vary.
Toni’s Decision
Much like how Toni didn’t anticipate Vittorio selling him out, the Tailor didn’t anticipate his assassin, Sansiro, having a relationship with Toni. But during his forgery pomp, Toni had made Sansiro a passport, and Sansiro, hesitant to be indebted to anyone, had promised to owe him one in the future. Or maybe it’s just that they’re both Inter Milan fans. Those feelings can run pretty deep.
Either way, Sansiro has to deliver a body to the Tailor, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be Toni’s. The price he has to pay is selling out Vittorio, allowing Sansiro to kill him for the betrayal, so that he and Donata can go free. One imagines that he’d have agonised over this decision for a bit longer if Vittorio hadn’t already stabbed him in the back, but the ending of The Big Fake reveals that he took the obvious, selfish option, as well he might.
Toni has a bit more complicity in Vittorio’s fate than you might expect, leaving him a note implying he knows about the betrayal, and a set of keys to the vehicle that he’ll ultimately die in. Toni doesn’t overtly tell Donata what happened, but the implication is fairly clear, though it’s likely she’ll be able to square that with her conscience, given that she, Toni, and their baby are able to make it out of Italy unscathed.
Based On A True Story
The Big Fake provides a kinder, more hopeful ending for Toni than the real-life figure on whose exploits the movie is based. Antonio Chichiarelli was shot and killed on September 27, 1984, and only his partner, Cristina Cirilli, and their son survived.
While the movie is loosely based on Antonio’s life – he was implicated in many exploits that are similar to the ones depicted here – it more closely replicates the Italian political climate of the time. The kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades very much happened, and has been described as “Italy’s 9/11”.
