'Milano Calibro 9′ (1972)  -  Fernando Di Leo.

Viewing maestro, Enzo G. Castellari's 'High Crime' and Fernando Di Leo's 'Milano Calibro 9′ explosively ignited my life-long obsession with Italian crime cinema, this bloody baptismal font drenched me indelibly with Poliziotteschi's original sin, as, Fernando Di Leo's, 'Milano Calibro 9' remains one of the towering artistic achievements of this visually astute filmmaker august filmmaking career. Your attention magnetised by the iconic opening montage, right up to the film's tumultuously nerve-shredding climax! Maestro, Di Leo vividly, and with mesmerizing immediacy constructs the tense, believable, dynamic pulse of underworld chicanery, locomotively propelled by Gastone Moschin's powerfully charismatic performance, and the densely throbbing, almost baroque jazz funk of cult progressive rockers Osanna, and sound-master, Luis Bacalov, who arguably composes one of his most compelling soundtracks.

Fernando Di Leo is unerring in fashioning his fierce vision of violent double dealings, hateful reprisals and switchblade-cool vengeance. With nary a skipped beat for the entire duration, the beautifully stylised 'Milano Calibro 9' remains a consistently rollicking, breathlessly exhilarating underworld blood-spiller, undiluted by soft-bellied tangents, or the vapid self indulgences of a lesser filmmaker. The pitilessly brutal gangster milieu simply doesn't get any better than this, and as much as I admire, Melville's studied Gallic cool, Di Leo's muscular mise-en-scene has iron clackers the size of prizewinning pumpkins with Noirish chutzpah to spare! Some may initially find these hyperbolic praises perplexing until they discover for themselves the pristine poliziotteschi perfection of 'Milano Calibro 9', as in one brutally pole axing knee to the gulliver it's all over, as one can never return to the anodyne world of mainstream crime cinema without a considerable degree of incredulity! Forget kale eye-wraps, probiotic plankton or zero gravity Rolfing massage, this machine tooled poliziottesco masterpiece will resolutely change your life!

 

 

Nifty artwork in the no less thrifty Arrow Blu!

'You're making my stach angry, and you REALLY don't want to do that!'