The Conformist, like several other recent films, deals with the complex question of the fascist sensibility…. For example, three characteristics of the fascist sensibility that are evident today have figured in films like Z, Joe, The Confession, Patton, Investigation of a Citizen, The Damned, and The Conformist: the tendency to defend established values and myths as inviolable axioms; the tendency to see ideological and even, sometimes, personal conflicts as irresolvable by compromise and, therefore, to accept and apply violent solutions; and the tendency to use allegiance to institutions of power and authority as a psychic crutch. The result is a preoccupation with a hostile, threatening environment in which the hero, by aligning himself for or against the forces of law and order, achieves a sense of purpose. It is, essentially, the quest for identity played out in political terms….

The overall style and structure of these films are...