Rogue Cops & Racketeers

Director Enzo G. Castellari doesn’t attract the same kind of attention as his fellow genre-workhorses in Italian cult cinema circles.  Perhaps because his films never went overboard on gore (like Fulci) or caught on with U.S. distributors (like Leone).  On the whole, Castellari’s work is indistinguishable from other films of the period: fast-paced knock-offs of Death Wish and The French Connection.  But the action scenes, which vacillate between Peckinpah-inspired slow-motion and whip-pan intensity, are cinematic creations unto themselves.  Castellari puts his camera right in the thick of things – tumbling weightless off a cliff, between the headlights of a muscle car, or popping off a thug through a 1-inch diameter pipe.  There’s an energy to his choice of angles, a devil-may-care inventiveness to his staging that was an obvious influence on modern-day filmmakers.  

And The Big Racket finds the director spreading his visual flourishes throughout the film.  Fabio Testi stars as a driven police investigator desperate to bring down a gang of racketeers forcing local business owners to pay protection money.  Opening with a montage of indiscriminate destruction, Castellari doesn’t let up this time around, filling the film with two rapes, countless shootings and one particularly nasty death at the hands of an angry mob.  It all converges with warehouse shoot out for the ages, this time with Testi aided by a dirty half-dozen of fellow victims out for revenge.

 

The plot zigs and zags rather indiscriminately.  An Olympic skeet shooter stumbles conveniently into a gunfight and is then absorbed awkwardly into the plot.  Testi’s relationship with an aging grifter (Vincent Gardenia) is as confusing as it is clichéd.  But Castellari’s camerawork is nimble and often ingenious, with a multitude of “film school” moments aspiring directors would love to steal.  Like a low-rent DePalma, the director seems to relish interjecting his style, making the film a sweet ride for cinephiles.  

 

The Heroin Busters is less action packed, but considerably more polished.  In fact, disregarding another confusing opening montage of disconnected crimes, the film stands up quite well against U.S. cop capers of the same period.  The pairing of Fabio Testi with David Hemmings (Blow Up, Deep Red) brings out the best in both actors, especially Testi who even sweats cool.  And the final act is full of one walloping action set-piece after another for a non-stop 30-minutes.

 

Working undercover to track down the head of a dangerous drug cartel, Testi infiltrates the organization by taking some outlandish risks (like ripping off police headquarters!) that eventually blow his cover.  Now he’s a target for the cops and the criminals with only Hemmings flat-footed Interpol agent for back-up. Unlike other Italian directors often clumsy attempts to mimic American style, Castellari intuitively knows where to place his camera for maximum effect.  The Heroin Busters is slick and compulsively entertaining with a one-of-a-kind score by Goblin (Suspiria).  

 

Both titles had been released previously on standard DVD by Blue Underground and didn’t look too shabby.  But Arrow Video’s two-disc special edition Blu-ray set is quite an improvement, sporting new 2K restorations that look as good as anything released today.  The all-new slat of extras includes commentary tracks, interviews, video appreciations and limited-edition packaging with lobby card reproductions.  Absolutely essential stuff!