Poliziotteschi
Featuring nine hard-hitting, white hot lead-filled, pedal-to-the-metal movies straight out of a 70s Italy that was bitterly and dangerously divided along political and social lines, all of the films in the Poliziotteschi collection offer a fascinating insight into a highly specific time and place where corruption and class informed the filmmakers' choices in these often morally dubious action-packed thrillers.
Brutal criminals and super-cool cops collide in knuckle-breaking car chases featuring gorgeous retro automobiles flung through traffic at insanely dangerous speeds, and gritty violence doled out by anything from a Colt .38 to a fork lift truck! Featuring the work of extremely brave stunt men literally risking it all for some truly death-defying moments, in these Italian crime thrillers, or crimi, you hold on tight and you take justice any way you can get it.
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The Day of the Owl
1968 • Italy • Directed by Damiano Damiani
The Day of the Owl stars Franco Nero as a police chief who, while investigating the death of a construction worker, goes up against corrupt officials and a ruthless mafia boss (Lee J. Cobb). Adapted from the celebrated novel by Leonardo Sciascia (Illust...
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The Case Is Closed: Forget It
1971 • Italy • Directed by Damiano Damiani
Nero portrays a simple man thrown in jail for a misdemeanour in The Case Is Closed: Forget It. Inside, he sees the grim reality of life behind bars, where the mafia controls everything. A powerful production with Nero on top form and supported by a stro...
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How To Kill A Judge
1975 • Italy • Directed by Damiano Damiani
In How to Kill a Judge, Nero plays filmmaker Giacomo Solaris, whose latest film features a judge corrupted by the mafia and who is later found murdered. The real judge the character is based on seizes the footage, but is later killed in the same way. Fe...
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Savage Three
1975 • Italy • Directed by Vittorio Salerno
By day, Ovidio (Joe Dallesandro, The Climber) and his two friends work at a data center. After work, they blow off steam by committing random acts of savage violence, swiftly graduating from sparking a riot at a football game to vehicle theft, rape and...
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The Big Racket
1976 • Italy • Directed by Enzo G. Castellari
Over a long and wide-ranging career, director Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma, The Inglorious Bastards) helmed some of the most infamous of all the poliziotteschi – the gritty, action-packed crime films that proliferated in Italy throughout the 70s. In 19...
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Highway Racer
1977 • Italy • Directed by Stelvio Massi
Devil-may-care driving ace Marco Palma (Maurizio Merli, Violent City) of the Rome police’s Mobile Squad has a reputation for risk-taking – making him the perfect candidate for an undercover op to take down “Il Nizzardo” (Angelo Infanti, The Godfather), a ...
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Colt 38 Special Squad
1976 • Italy • Directed by Massimo Dallamano
The city of Turin is in the grip of a brutal crime boss known as “the Marseillaise” (Ivan Rassimov, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key), and plenty of cops have good reason to want him dead – none more than Inspector Vanni (Marcel Boz...
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The Heroin Busters
1977 • Italy • Directed by Enzo G. Castellari
Over a long and wide-ranging career, director Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma, The Inglorious Bastards) helmed some of the most infamous of all the poliziotteschi - the gritty, action-packed crime films that proliferated in Italy throughout the 70s. In 19...
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Like Rabid Dogs
1976 • Italy • Directed by Mario Imperoli
Three wealthy youths – ringleader Tony (Cesare Barro, Violence for Kicks) and his friends Rico (Luis La Torre, Evil Eye) and Silvia (Annarita Grapputo, Magnum Cop) – get their kicks from committing a series of random thefts and murders. Commissario Muzi ...
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No, The Case Is Happily Resolved
1973 • Italy • Directed by Vittorio Salerno
While out fishing at a tranquil lakeside one peaceful afternoon, Fabio Santamaria (Enzo Cerusico, Blood and Black Lace) inadvertently witnesses the brutal murder of a young woman. Terrified that he too will be targeted by the maniac, Fabio resolves to ...
