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Street Law (1974)

Dir: Enzo G. Castellari

Carlo Antonelli (Franco Nero) is banking his money when a vicious armed gang (hey, they even kick over a guy on crutches!) rob the Post Office.
He tries to grab back his cash but is brutally beaten by one of the gang and is taken hostage as they attempt to flee the Police.

After a long car chase the gang manage to escape but not before cruelly beating up Carlo.
Carlo gets little help from the Police though and the Inspector on the case (Renzo Palmer) seems to take little interest in his plight and scolds Carlo fro even getting kidnapped in the first place by reaching for his cash; “I was just trying to get my money. I sweat for that money you understand”!

Despite the warnings of his girlfriend Barbara (Barbara Bach in a pretty weak role), Carlo is determined, almost to the point of mania, in tracking down the robbers…With or without the Cops….

A year after the prolific and versatile film director Enzo G. Castellari (“Bronx Warriors”) successfully teamed-up with Franco Nero for the groundbreaking thriller “High Crime”, they came together again to ride on the Poliziotteschi bandwagon they had started with this Italian slice of vigilante action.
Opening with some righteous bloodletting, as Castellari has the credits play over a montage of violent crimes, before hitting us over the head with the brutal robbery and subsequent high octane car chase, “Street Law” instantly grabs our attention in the best way any thriller could.
It’s a breathtaking 15 minutes or so for sure, but is also misleading in what the main bulk of the film delivers.

Massimo De Rita and Arduino Maiuri’s screenplay is where basically the only fault with the film lies, and this fault is the basic lack of excitement or forward narrative progression which follows that bombastic opening.
De Rita and Mairuri’s script decides to make “Street Law‘s” vigilante a desperate, amatuer trickster more than a desperate, amatuer predator, despite the passion and obsession (thanks to Nero’s performance) Carlo shows at wanting to take personal, hands on, retribution.

The screenplay sees Carlo trying to set-up the gang via a phoney gun purchase, by blackmailing a small time hood named Tommy (Giancarlo Prete), but this is an overly padded aspect of the plot and is quite frankly lacking incident and bereft of any real excitement.
It’s obviously being used as a realistic method of finding the gang, but a whole section for example where Tommy tries to initially trick Carlo by delivering fake guns is simply unnecessary and given the outcome the whole scheme seems like a lot of screen time for very little in the way of plot progression. And certainly the film has not played like the balls-out vigilante rampage the trailer painted it as.
As mentioned above, the quest for revenge may be passionately felt but it’s execution is more stealth and subterfuge than hands-on action, at least until the expected slam-bang finale.

Thankfully though Franco Nero is in superb form and his character is an interesting one that we can sympathise, and often emphasise, with. As such the character study heavy first hour (at least after the brilliant, frenetic opening) manages to hold the attention thanks to Nero’s character and his performance if not the needlessly padded narrative.
We do feel Carlo’s anger and frustration during this period though, as he tries to set-up the crooks but is let down time and time again by the Police, and it also introduces the interesting pairing of Carlo and Tommy who make for a nicely mismatched, likeable pair and Giancarlo Prete gives an excellent performance.
But don’t let this ‘buddy-buddy’ aspect fool you into thinking that the pessimistic and cynical stance that the screenplay often takes is ever far away. This is the gritty 70’s after all and even the blinding Italian sun can’t hold back the darkness that often creeps into the screenplay.

The script seems to also be unsure on what stance to take with it’s lead character.
A scene later in the movie seems to suggest that the Cops were correct in their warning to Carlo about not getting involved (which of course is basically sound advice although, seeing as they are so weak willed to do anything, ultimately useless), but seeing as the troubles in his quest have basically been because other people have let him down (supposed helpers and the inactive Cops) all I took from this scene was that if those in a position to help had been half as driven in wanting justice as Carlo, the gang would have quite frankly been taken care of with little fuss.

In fact the sometimes overly ‘moral’ stance the film takes seems to be at odds with the world it has it’s protagonist exist in.
The script explicitly calls Carlo wrong in what he is doing and that he is just as bad as the criminals, and yet he went the lawful route at the start and got nowhere, he then took a risk to hand the gang to the Cops and he was still let down. Aside from doing nothing (but then we would not have a film) what options has the screenplay given Carlo?
The film has shown a system (the Police are shown in a constantly dim light) that fails to catch those responsible for brutal crimes, even when they are handed to them on a plate, due to lethargy and possible corruption and so what ‘moral’ law and ‘rightful’ justice is there to replace Carlo’s vigilante actions?
In fact this legal inactivity is given a kick in the pants purely because of Carlo’s actions.
So does Castellari support his lead character or not? Well, it’s truly hard to say because, although the interview with him on the DVD would seem to point to approval, the movie is far more schizophrenic on the matter.
But perhaps that’s the point.

But enough of the negative, lets leap on and hug the many positives here.
With heavy use of handheld camera Castellari and his Cinematographer Carlo Carlini (“The Big Gundown”) inject the film with the pace and energy it’s script lacks and the handheld approach really pays off during the brilliant car chase.
The Italian location filming takes in lots of impressive places as well, not just the bright city streets but also a huge container terminal, a ship yard and a massive factory fro the finale. But away from these more epic locales the film is not afraid to get up close and personal as we follow Carlo’s often oppressive and violence tinged excursions to places he really shouldn’t be.

Although the ‘Blue Underground’ DVD only has an English dub, we can at least be thankful that Nero dubs his own voice and that (the sadly late) Nick Alexander is involved on voice work. Any fan of 70’s/80’s Euro flicks will instantly recognise his tones coming from the mouth of Romano Puppo (“Contraband”) as the gang’s leader. As such, although Bach is blandly dubbed, the English track is another plus. Listen out for one weird bit of dialogue though when Barbara argues with Carlo; “What? “D’you think that you’re in the Far West”? Surely she means the “Wild West”!

Another strength (for the most part!) is the score by the always off -the-wall Guido De Angelis  and Maurizio De Angelis. The Instrumental part of their score is truly excellent and is a fine, funky and driving accompaniment to the on-screen action.
The occasional songs though (as is the case 90% of the time where the De Angelis guys are concerned) are sometimes more miss and hit but (as in their other Castellari/Nero flick “Keoma“) there is always one or two moments where the songs do work well with the on-screen events and even enhance them. But it is the (very catchy as well) instrumental score that is the highlight here and, along with the direction, acting and razor sharp editing (by Gianfranco Amicucci), it gives the film real drive and pace.
Fans of comic duo Bud Spencer and Terence Hill will get a kick from hearing the weirdly enjoyable and catchy theme song (“Dune Buggy”) from “Watch out we’re Mad” playing in a bar scene!

Castellari also delivers some fine and bloody action and although it is not as much as we would have liked what’s here is very good.
Enzo’s love of bloody, slow motion, glass to the face shots (as seen in the likes of “Bronx Warriors 2” and “The New Barbarians”) are present and correct and we have some very messy bullet hits and nasty beatings as well. And some of the stunt work is exceptional and very painful looking.

But away from the ‘human action’ we are also treated to some exceptional action involving vehicles.
Not just the aforementioned car chase but also during a brilliant sequence (in fact it lifts the stodgily scripted middle portion of the film) where Carlo is fleeing from a speeding car in a chokingly dusty quarry. Franco Nero does almost all his stunts here and as always he gives it 110% to ensure the sequence is a tense and enjoyable highlight.

The finale (which seems to say that, despite all the needlessly complex trickery beforehand, a good old fashioned shootout is the way of getting things done after all!) is a great piece of Castellari action and finally delivers what the opening promised.
Here we have slow motion, fast edits, harsh violence, blood soaked close-ups and thumping music all mixed together to create something very tasty and satisfying indeed!
This all leads to an epitaph that gives a nice little nod to that well-spring of urban vigilante films, “Death Wish” but puts it’s own twist on it resulting in a nicely satisfying conclusion.

So yes we do have a highly flawed script that sadly gives us a plodding middle section (which spends too much time on superfluous and unexciting events), a less than thrilling revenge plan by it’s otherwise passionate vigilante character and some mixed ‘moral’ messages about that revenge.
But we also have a brilliant opening section, a great score, lovely location shooting, rough and energetic Cinematography, some well crafted violent and bloody action, some fine support turns and a dynamic and powerfully emotional lead performance by Franco Nero, as a likeable man pushed out of his depth (Carlo makes mistakes and often has luck to thank for not ending up dead) into taking the only action he can see possible for his own mental survival.
Recommended.