Pasolini composed a verse commentary to accompany this compilation of late fifties newsreel footage, which he arranged from the perspective of a marxist critique of society. After Pasolini had completed this 50-minute film, the producers commissioned a second part, by Giovanni Guareschi, which presented a right-wing perspective and was recalled after accusations of racism. Unfortunately, Pasolini's film was all but lost to the viewing public in the process. In a recent reassessment of La Rabbia, film critic Amos Vogel writes: “It is a cry of anguish, a scream of rage. The profound moral fervor of this lonely genius burns through every frame of this subversive masterpiece. Entirely composed in staccato, machine gun-style montages...this compilation of horrors, banalities, injustices, and tortures--‘history,' in short--explodes in our faces.... The editing, visual style, and content are those of a master filmmaker, non-conformist, modernist, mordant.... ‘Here,' says Pasolini, ‘is a film about ordinary times. Man falls asleep in his ordinariness, forgets to think. This is why poets, in their artificial ways, must once again create extraordinary times....'” (in Film Comment)

Note: La Rabbia is presented without English subtitles.