Poliziotteschi!

POLIZIOTESCHI:

Poliziotteschi is a sub-genre of crime and action film that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and became popular in the 1970s. Poliziotteschi films are also known as poliziottesco, Italo-crime, Euro-crime or simply Italian crime films. Poliziesco on the other hand is the 'proper' Italian adjective for police-related dramas, ranging from Ed McBain's police procedural novels to CSI forensic investigations. 'Poliziesco' is used generally to indicate every fiction production where police forces (Italian or foreign) are the main protagonists, 'poliziottesco', on the other hand with the '-esco' desinence (akin to the English '-esque') suggesting a low-key derivative imprint is only ever used to indicate 70s-era Italian produced 'tough cop' and 'crime' movies. Recurring elements in poliziotteschi films include graphic and brutal violence, organized crime, car chases, vigilantism, heists, gun fights and corruption up to the highest level.

History:
Although the genre has its roots in the films of the late 1960s, such as Bandits in Milan (Banditi a Milano, 1968) by Carlo Lizzani, it was highly influenced by American rough-edged police thrillers of the early 1970s. These include Dirty Harry, The French Connection and Serpico. With directors such as Fernando Di Leo and Umberto Lenzi and actors such as Maurizio Merli and Tomas Milian, poliziotteschi films became very popular in the mid-70s after the decline of spaghetti westerns. The genre lost its mainstream popularity in the late 1970s as comedy and horror films started topping the Italian box office. Poliziotteschi films are today less well-known than the more popular Italian "genre films" such as gialli, spaghetti westerns and horror films, but are still published by DVD companies specializing in cult films.

Italian social and political climate of the time contributed to make the movies' echo even bigger; after the rapid growth and economic expansion of the 60s, the 70s started with a recession fostered by the 1973 oil blockade, the cities turned gloomier and more insecure, episodes of diffused micro-criminality did much to shake the public sense of safety and political terrorism both of neo-fascist origin (often backed by "rogue" elements of the secret services and the CIA) and of leftist-revolutionary inspiration featured heavily on the media.

Although based around crime and detective work, Poliziotteschi should not be confused with the other popular Italian crime genre of the 1970's, the Giallo, which refers to violent 'murder-mystery' crime films. Directors and stars often moved between both genres, and some films could be considered under either banner, such as Massimo Dallamano's 1974 film What have they done to your daughters?(from Wiki)

Of the ones I have seen so far Lenzi's ALMOST HUMAN, Castellari's THE BIG RACKET & Fulci's CONTRABAND are my favorites.

I know Bonomomomo has seen CONFESSIONS OF A POLICE CAPTAIN and Col. Morty will be getting that, Martino's VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS and more when his sets arrive.

Anyone else get a kick out of these?

Fabio Testi is a detective hell-bent on stopping a violent gang who've been extorting money from the local small businessmen. After being taken off the case by his superior, he assembles a group of those who've suffered at the hands of the gang and they take matters into their own hands.

This is one of my favorites.

Fast paced and full of car chases & shoot outs director Enzo Castellari keeps this moving and Fabio Testi turns in a good performance as the bad-ass Inspector who's had enough.

Available on DVD from Blue Underground.

Recommended.

Picked up GRAND SLAM not so long back, anyone seen it, havn't had chance yet.

"live like a cop, die like a man" is supposed to be real good.

I have Mean Frank and Crazy Tony, Death Dealer aka Executioner, and Dobermann and one American crime drama that would fall under this category Zebra Force.

Hows it goin'?
This is my first post on 'Exploitnation' I only just came across it a few days ago and I find myself thumbing thru it every half hour in work. I'm hooked! Anyway, Poliziotteschi totally rocks. Maurizio Merli is easily the Bobby De Niro of the genre! Check out 'Violent Naples' 'Rome:Armed to the teeth' 'The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist' all directed by Umberto Lenzi.I wrote a section on Poliziotteschi on my blog if you want to check it out. Alfa Digital and No Shame DVD have released a lot of these on DVD. If you like tough cops, fast european cars and all-out 70's action....check them out.


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