Few directors have polarized audiences quite as strongly as Lina Wertmüller, and this film offers plenty of provocation to support her notorious reputation. Giancarlo Giannini portrays a petty thief who is sent to an insane asylum after murdering and dismembering the pimp who coerced his sister into a life of prostitution. He is then ordered to join the Italian army and is eventually captured by the Germans and sent to a concentration camp, where he attempts to seduce a sadistic female commander. Wertmüller's satire of Italian machismo was honored with four Academy Award nominations, including the first Best Director nomination given to a woman.