Street Law (1976)

An action-packed thriller about a frustrated crime victim who takes the law into his own hands. Violence in the streets is the predictable result.System Requirements:Running Time 103 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR UPC: 827058104890 Manufacturer No: BU1048 Product Description

A cut above the usual vigilante film

Enzo G. Castellari's Street Law aka Il Cittadino si Ribella is surprisingly entertaining and not quite the Death Wish clone the marketing promises, largely because Franco Nero's would-be vigilante is so hapless that he spends much of the film getting beaten up by the crooks he's trying to track down after being humiliated in a bank robbery. He's also a far from admirable figure who constantly breaks his word no matter how many times he gives it and frequently behaves like an out and out coward completely out of his depth. It's a long way from a great film, but it's shot with some style and imagination and an interesting use of derelict or decaying locations, among them a ship in dry dock - the ill-fated Achille Lauro, no less!

Blue Underground's DVD only offers the film in a dubbed English version, but it's a good transfer with a few decent extras - commentary by Enzo G. Castellari and Franco Nero, who both turn up in the retrospective featurette Laying Down the Law (which prominently features Nero's ego!), a US TV spot and dubbed Italian theatrical trailer June 19, 2007

An innocent banking customer training himself as a vigilante

Il Cittadino si ribella,or Street Law, by Enzo G. Castellari
filmed in 1974, will appeal above all to the director's fanbase,
as well as those who have a modicum of fascination with the
sociological and historical aspects that are shown in the movie.
e.g. there are extensive high speed car chases despicting the core
of major cities in Italy. The FIAT model cars from the 70's, are
comical, such as model 127, or 125, Morris Mini, Mercedes, Ford
compacts, Alfa Romeo, etc. There are other aspects that are also
interesting, such as the European aspects to the scenes, the
interiors to Italian homes that were typical of the time, somewhat
dated in terms of construction made today.

Giancarlo Prete is at his best, in this movie, as compared to his
other one New Barbarians, with the humor, optimistic aspects to
his dialogs, while Franco Nero, brings the more physical,
intellectual and deeper mood to the acting. Barbara Bach brings
feminine and much visual appeal, especially by constituting a
contrast to the other actors, and one-dimensional aspects to this
film's story. She had not yet hit the bigtime, later as a Bond
girl, of course, when this film was shot.

There are a number of positive aspects to cover, not the least of
which is the amazing crystal clear digital transfer to DVD 30
years after the movie was made, coupled with the adrenalin pumping
action scenes, ranging from a stolen purse by a motorbiker, a
store heist, a bank robbery, a car jacking, molotov cocktails
setting building ablaze, etc.

The soundtrack is a mixed bag, some great elements inspired from
the Animals's Eric Burdon, to Rolling Stones (Coming Down Again,
Goat's Head Soup, or Black and Blue's Memory Hotel), to Doors,
etc. combining superb lead and base guitar work, and also on keys.
The vocals are the sore spot, as the singer clearly was short on
experience, training and range from his dead-pan delivery,
something also sorely seen in Day of the Cobra.

The plot is about an innocent banking customer who loses his
deposit during a heist, is unable to get it back or win any
cooperative with police, and resolves training himself to become a
police detective, and to purse his agressors on his own time and
dime as a vigilante.

Nero admits having rushed Castellari in filming this movie, and
unfortunately, it shows, considering the leaps of logic and holes
in the story that the public will perceive, as well as the lack of
fully mulling over how realistic it was to have a double-agent in
the underworld team up with Nero, to bust up the bad guys, and
become his best pal, for reasons not fully explained in the
narrative. Those downsides surely could have been worked out, had
the director been allowed the 3 or 4 months he had anticipated vs.
the 2 weeks Nero allowed to start shooting.
May 17, 2007

"...and when the law is unjust it's not only your right but your duty to rebel!"

A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed, or locked up; but if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you, you become something else entirely.
Henri Ducard - Batman Begins (2005)

I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!
Howard Beale - Network (1976)

Can't you people take the law into your own hands? I mean we can't be policing the entire city.
Chief Wiggum - "The Simpsons"

Street Law (1974) aka Il Cittadino si rubella aka Vigilante II...directed by Enzo G. Castellari (High Crime, Keoma, Bronx Warriors 2), the film stars popular Italian actor Franco Nero (High Crime, Keoma, Force 10 from Navarone, Die Hard 2: Die Harder). Also appearing is Giancarlo Prete (Mister X), Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me, Caveman), Nazzareno Zamperla (Ballad of Death Valley), Massimo Vanni (The New Barbarians), and Romano Puppo (The Heroin Busters).

The film begins with a four and a half minute display of various criminal activities including breaking and entering, vandalism, arson, theft, armed robbery, kidnapping, and murder...seems the criminals are running rampant and the authorities can do little to stop them. After getting all that out of the way we see a well-dressed man entering a bank and proceed to engage in some sort of transaction. Shortly after a gang of vicious masked gunman make the scene, manhandling patrons and bank employees alike. The well-dressed man, named Carlo Antonelli (Nero) tries to grab his dough on the counter, but gets brutalized by the robbers, who then grab him up (presumably as a hostage) during their getaway to which they beat the crud out of him in the car. After a lengthy high speed chase sequence the robbers escape, leaving a bloodied Carlo behind, frightened and humiliated by his ordeal. The authorities give Carlo a hard time for defying the robbers, and when their efforts to catch the criminals comes up seriously short, Carlo decides to take matters into his own hands in bringing the offenders to justice, much to the dismay of his girlfriend Barbara (Bach). After some failed attempts to get information from any number of underworld types, Carlo eventually resorts to blackmailing another crook named Tommy (Prete) to help him in his obsessive quest (Carlo stalked the man and eventually took some incriminating photos). Eventually Tommy and Carlo catch up to the original crooks, which results in Carlo receiving another beating, but afterwards Carlo comes up with a convoluted plan to finger the crooks and cause a public stir, along with forcing the police to crack down on criminal activity in general. Eventually the crooks force a showdown with Carlo, one they'll make sure he doesn't walk away from...

While this film was most likely inspired by the popular Charles Bronson feature Deathwish (1974), it tends to follow a slightly different route in that Nero's character spends an awful lot of time stalking criminals for the purpose of collecting information to report to the authorities in the hopes they'll actually act (Bronson's character actively sought out to deliver some hot-leaded justice). This results in Nero's character grousing constantly about how the authorities are ineffectual (apparently a common sentiment in Italy at the time) and espousing how the common man needs to stand up to the lawless (the Italians seem to like to spell out as much as possible for audiences), receiving numerous beatings, eventually turning on his attackers only when they forced his hand. As a result, the film starts off quickly, slows down in the middle, and then picks up again in the last twenty minutes or so...there's a whole lot of time spent as Carlo sets up Tommy so he can use him as an underworld source, along with their setting up the whole scheme to force the authorities to put pressure on the thugs. I did learn quite a few things, though, including the following...


1. Franco Nero's got spooky eyes.
2. When robbing a bank, it's advisable to keep the getaway car nearby as if you have to run a quarter of a mile to get to it, that only eats up valuable escape time.
3. In Italy you can be arrested for insulting a public official.
4. Italians don't seem to be adverse to smacking women upside the head.
5. Franco Nero sure does like to smoke.
6. In Italy you can be arrested for simulating a crime.
7. The lines painted on Italian roadways designating lanes seem to be there only for decorative purposes.
8. In Italy, three time losers (criminals who are caught and convicted three times, of felonies, I'm guessing), are sent to prison for life.
9. Franco Nero is a master of expressing shock and awe, even when it's unwarranted.
10. Getting shot in the meaty part of the thigh is apparently infinitely more painful than getting shot in the kneecap.
11. Beating someone repeatedly about the face with a shovel causes a lot less damage than I would have expected.
12. You can actually score film that runs an hour and forty minutes with only two bits of music played over and over again (although I wouldn't recommend it).

As far as the performances go, Franco Nero emotes the hell out of his role, for better or worse...I'm not a huge fan of actors wearing every emotion upon their sleeve, but at least it was entertaining. He does deserve a lot of credit for his athleticism as he seemed to really take to performing many of his own stunts, some of them appearing quite dangerous. As far as the rest, they did all right (for an Italian made crime drama), although I'm unsure what the point of Ms. Bach's character was other than to provide a pretty face and continually harp on Nero's character like his conscience come to life. Castellari does manage to keep things moving along (the first fifteen minutes are a blast) and overall I thought this an entertaining entry into the vigilante genre, I felt it could have done with a little less character development around the middle. This is the original version that played in Italy before it was transported to the states with some of the violent bits removed. I did like the theme song used in the film, but after hearing about thirty times it tended to wear a little.

The picture quality on this Blue Underground DVD release, presented in widescreen (1.85:1) anamorphic looks decent, but does include some flaws. There is a grainy quality throughout, one that ranges from slight to heavy at times, but I dealt with it telling myself it sort of corresponded with the gritty and sometimes raw material. The audio, presented in Dolby Digital mono, is a little uneven at times (the music often blares, while some of the dialogue is difficult to hear during the quieter scenes), but all in all came through well enough. As far as extras there's a commentary track with director Enzo G. Castellari, a featurette titled `Laying Down the Law' (17:27) which includes current interviews with both director Enzo G. Castellari and star Franco Nero, the latter who seems to have aged better than expected, a theatrical trailer, and a television spot. While watching the interviews with Castellari and Nero (these two seem to love on each other quite a lot), there's a really funny bit where Castellari talks about working with Barbara Bach, basically stating that while she wasn't a great actress, at least she was punctual...

Cookieman108
July 14, 2006

Third Time's A Charm

Alright, this is now the third time I've written a review for this film. My first two weren't posted and God only knows why, but hopefully this one will be. I'll be much more brief if that'll help. Street Law is an Italian(part of Blue Underground's Enzo Castellari triple feature) Death Wish inspired crime thriller. Franco Nero's a victim of a beating and decides to get revenge when the police end up being useless. Nero does a great job(some wonderful facial expresssions) as a far from perfect vigilante. Highly recommended for fans of the Italian style. Sorry this isn't a more detailed review, but frankly, I'm sick of writing it over and over. July 2, 2006

Great film, lousy DVD

I'm really tired of the shoddy DVD manufacturing used by many studios and distributors.

This is a great film. I have it on tape. I was thrilled to see it'd been released on DVD. I love Italian knock-offs of American films (STREET LAW seems inspired by DEATH WISH), and I'm a Barbara Bach fan.

So I bought this STREET LAW DVD brand new, as soon as Amazon offered it, without waiting for the price to go down. I unwrap the pristine-looking DVDm pop it into the player, and after a few minutes it pauses.

Then it pauses again. It pauses constantly throughout the film. I mean at least once a minute, often several times a minute. Pause, pause, pause. Most of the pauses are brief, some last several seconds. I eventually took out the DVD, cleaned it, but it didn't help. I suffered through 50 minutes of this film, then gave up.

VHS was a decent format. Tape had problems, but nowhere near as bad as DVD, with all the skipping and scratching. (And Google "DVD rot" -- see what comes up.)

Still, changing formats is a great way for studios to resell us movies we'd already bought, so I guess it makes sense for them.

I don't know whether I got a bad copy of STREET LAW, or if this DVD is part of a bad batch, or how widespread the problem is. But beware. June 4, 2006

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