In his first film, Bellocchio attempted to break away from traditional analytical and descriptive methods of narration. “The style dictated itself while I was shooting,” he has said. “I simply wanted to convey my own love-hate feelings about life as effectively as I could, with no premeditation.” On the film's presentation at the 1966 San Francisco International Film Festival, Albert Johnson described Fists in the Pocket as “a deterministic examination of the way in which an adolescent tries to insert himself into the contemporary world. One is introduced to a family of three boys and a girl who live with their blind mother in a villa, outside of an Italian provincial town. The eldest son, Augusto, already has a place in the outside world, a job, and a fiancée. During a weekend visit he observes Sandro, the adolescent son, restlessly bored with his existence, and struggling with portents of epilepsy and incestuous devotion to Giulia, the sister. Leone, the youngest son, is a hopeless catatonic. Out of the grim material described, the director has created a genuinely moving slice-of-life, for the performances are extremely urgent, impulsive and alive.”