In 1950, Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano is found dead in a backyard. According to the authorities' official announcement, Giuliano was killed in a shooting with the carabinieri, but asked by reporters some locals recall that they first heard three single shots and much later shots from a submachine gun.

In a series of nonlinear flashbacks,^[6] the film recounts Giuliano's criminal career, starting in 1943 after shooting a policeman. In 1945, Giuliano's gang is officially declared part of the military arm of the separatist party MIS which fights for Sicily's independence. The separatist movement is supported by the Allied Forces and the Mafia. After the 1946 declaration of Sicily's autonomous status, MIS' former militant members are granted amnesty, but Giuliano proceeds with his illegal activities, entangled in kidnappings and blackmail. While still adored by the local people at first, his popularity wanes after the 1947 Portella della Ginestra massacre, where his gang shoots eleven people during a May 1st gathering of supporters of the Communist and Socialist parties. One after one, his confidants are betrayed or cooperate with the police. During a meeting, Giualiano is shot by his former closest companion, Gaspare Pisciotta. Afterwards, the carabinieri, who had been waiting nearby, stage a death during a shootout.

Two years later, Pisciotta and the highest ranking members of Giuliano's gang are sentenced to life for the Portella della Ginestra killings. Pisciotta accuses the Mafia and members of the authorities of having given Giuliano the order for the massacre. In 1954, Pisciotta is poisoned in prison. The film ends with the shooting of a Mafia informant in public in 1960.

• Salvo Randone as President of Viterbo Assize Court
• Frank Wolff as Gaspare Pisciotta
• Pietro Cammarata as Salvatore Giuliano
• Sennuccio Benelli as Reporter
• Giuseppe Calandra as Minor Official
• Max Cartier as Francesco
• Fernando Cicero as Bandit
• Bruno Ukmar as Spy
• Cosimo Torino as Frank Mannino
• Federico Zardi as Pisciotta's Defense Counsel
• Francesco Rosi (narration)^[7]

After having been denied a public funding,^[8] Salvatore Giuliano was produced by Franco Cristaldi with funding by the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro.^[9] Filming took place in 1961^[10] at the locations of the actual events in Sicily, using mostly local non-professionals as actors.^[7][11]

Although the titular character of the film, Giuliano himself is seen only briefly, either as a dead man after his killing, or as an indistinct figure.^[7][8] By these means, Rosi (in the words of critic Michel Ciment) stressed his rejection of identification with his subject.^[12]

Salvatore Giuliano was received well by Italian critics and audiences (although it was denied the entry to the Venice Film Festival),^[8] was awarded numerous national film prizes^[2] and reached number ten in the list of the most successful Italian films of 1962.^[8]

While it received a Silver Bear at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival and was titled "a major Italian film" by the critic of weekly German newspaper Die Zeit,^[1] the reaction of New York Times critic Howard Thompson upon the film's 1964 New York premiere was reserved, titling it "a curiously disjointed drama with a superbly imaginative camera eye."^[13]

In later years, critics' opinions of the film were unanimously positive, calling it "almost certainly the best film about the social and political forces that have shaped Sicily" (Derek Malcolm, The Guardian),^[7] "a landmark in political cinema" (Trevor Johnston, Time Out Film Guide),^[4] and an "exciting piece of filmmaking" (Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times)^[14] by a "bravura director" and "inspired innovator" (Michael Sragow, The New Yorker).^[11]

Film historian Gino Moliterno argued that "Rosi's highly original strategy in this landmark film is to aim at neither an "objective" journalistic documentary nor a fictional recreation but to employ as wide a range of disparate formal and stylistic elements as necessary to conduct a committed search for the truth that becomes, in a sense, its own narrative."^[6]

Director Martin Scorsese cited Salvatore Giuliano as one of his twelve favourite films of all time.^[15]

• Silver Bear for Best Director, 12th Berlin International Film Festival, 1962^[1]
• Grolla d'oro for Best Director, 1962^[2]
• Globo d'oro for Best Film, 1962^[2]
• Nastro d'argento for Best Director, Best Black-and-white Cinematography and Best Score, 1963^[2]

• Salvatore Giuliano, a 1986 Italian opera by Lorenzo Ferrero
• The Sicilian, a novel by Mario Puzo based on the life of Salvatore Giuliano
• The Sicilian, a film based on Puzo's novel, directed by Michael Cimino

• Gesù Sebastiano (a cura di), Francesco Rosi, Giuseppe Maimone Editore, Catania 1993
• Kezich Tullio e Sebastiano Gesù (a cura di), Salvatore Giuliano, Giuseppe Maimone Editore, Catania 1993
• Annarita Curcio, Salvatore Giuliano: una parabola storica, https://www.doppiozero.com/materiali/salvatore-giuliano-una-parabola-storica

• Salvatore Giuliano at IMDb  
• Salvatore Giuliano at AllMovie
• Erickson, Glenn (20 February 2004). "Salvatore Giuliano". DVD Savant. Retrieved 8 November 2009.