La polizia incrimina la legge assolve

This classic 70s Italian crime flick was exactly what you'd expect: epic old-school car chases with Fiats and Alfas, the occasional shootout, and brutality that hits hard, especially when it's directed at women and children, which would be pretty much unthinkable by today’s standards. Honestly, it was intense at times. I was holding out for Franco Nero to completely unleash in the final act, but... the ending was a total letdown. It felt like it just ignored everything that came before it. Then I saw a comment suggesting that the TV altered the ending? If that’s true, why even bother? The whole movie is brutally raw, so changing the final moment seems pointless. The ending I was hoping for never came, and without any real payoff, it felt like it didn’t even end properly. (28.10.2020)

The cult status that this poliziotteschi enjoys in Italy is somewhat undeserved. Franco Nero, on whom the whole film stands and falls, is a great actor, with a wide range of expression, but here Castellari pushes him into a position that is not his own. It reminds me more of Azurito the rabbit on speed – he talks fast, or rather shouts, gesticulates a lot and excessively, just ridiculously overacting and it's not nice to look at. The plot is more sophisticated than in other poliziotteschi films, but it takes quite a long time before anything really interesting happens. There is little action, and instead of no-brain entertainment I got a lot of banter with the perpetually angry Nero. (05.10.2017)