Il Partigiano Johnny takes place from 8 September to the Liberation and has no intention of being rhetorical. Johnny (Stefano Dionisi) leaves the army and hides in the mountains. He is a loner and more of an intellectual than a man of action, but understands all the same that he must fight fascism. He has to join a political party and get his hands dirty and even kill if he has to. He joins the Resistance and this is his story, told through flashbacks. His university professors believe in communism but he does not agree with them, despite understanding the appeal of their slogans.
We meet the poorly equipped and untrained band of “reds” and also the “blues”, made up of former army officers and therefore professionally trained soldiers under northern command.
Johnny fights during the occupation of Alba and engages in gun battles with the fascists. He and his group flee across the mountains of the Langhe region and all this is narrated in a leaden, inorganic and relentless fashion. We see battles and moments of rest. At one point Johnny even manages to meet up with a girl who loves “losers” and with another who is also a partisan like Johnny. Johnny is pure of heart and never gives up, not even when things go seriously wrong and he is left alone in an isolated hut to die from cold. Johnny’s last battle is fought just two short months before the end of all hostilities.
From the novel by Beppe Fenoglio.