Caliber 9 (1972)
Fernando Di Leo often comes up as one of the really important names with Italian eurocrime, so excited to now be able to dive into his films. This film is more gangster drama than action. It is bleak, depressive and clearly inspired by the genres American counterparts with police officers having high level political arguments on how to deal with criminals, and who the real criminals really are. It is not afraid to make blunt statements about social class critique and fascist police state. However, these elements with the police seems almost tacked onto the main narrative and the two isn’t perfectly merged. What it does mirror, is the generational shift happening within both the law enforcement system and the gangster environment. The old honor code being replaced a “every man for himself”-brutality. Di Leo offers less spectacle than Castellari within the genre, and is more resembling the political bleakness of Sollima.
Rating: 4