Street Law (1976)

Pretty Good

best movie i've ever seen.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Carlo Antonelli (Nero) is a humble, but fairly well-off Genoese engineer. One day while at the bank, a gang of street toughs break in, rob the place, and assault some of the patrons. Unfortunately, Carlo is one of those unlucky customers, and the baddies even briefly kidnap him during their quest to evade the law. Carlo is profoundly changed by the experience. At first seeking help from the proper authorities, his anger and frustration grows and grows due to their lack of help. He decides to take matters into his own hands. Along the way he meets Tommy (Prete), a small-time thug who reluctantly agrees to help Carlo in his search for justice and revenge. Carlo also tries to enlist the help of Barbara (Bach) but her style of assistance isn't nearly as forceful and effective as his and Tommy's. Will Carlo track down his assailants? Find out today! Street Law, aside from being a great and highly entertaining movie, is probably the most well-known example of Poliziotteschi in America. During the heady days of VHS, the cassette got wide distribution by VidAmerica. Most people with memories of video stores can remember that box, with the hooded thug pointing his gun at you. Sure, that guy isn't really in the movie, and the artwork kind of takes away from the serious-minded tone of the film, but so what? Once again, director Enzo G. Castellari proves himself a master of any genre he turns his attention to, imbuing the film with a confident, competent, professional vibe that never drops the ball in the entertainment department.Maintaining the intense, angry core of the movie is the great Franco Nero. You really feel for his character, and the violent bits have all the more impact for it. In classic Italian style, there are many insane, real stunts where it looks like dudes are seriously putting their lives at risk to entertain us. No CGI here! All of this is set to the incredibly beautiful background of Italy. Everything from the car chases to the few humorous asides are all directed and shot to perfection by Enzo and his team. But his trump card is getting the fabulous Guido and Maurizio DeAngelis to do the music. Their main theme is pitch-perfect and the awesomeness of this song, "Goodbye My Friend", just raises the bar even more for the movie as a whole. Just the way the song is cued at specific parts of the movie shows a genius for editing and rhythm.Of course, Street Law is filled with 70's style. Sure, it's a film relevant to the time it was made thanks to the subject matter, but the clothes, hair and home/office decor are fascinating in their own right. The prevailing style of the day seems to be to wear a sweater with a large-collared shirt underneath, with a blazer. All of which are made of different materials and designs. A lot of the exterior shots do look like it was cold out, so this probably kept everyone warm, not to mention stylish.How can you lose with a movie about a one-man justice squad starring Franco Nero and directed by Enzo? You can't, and the inoffensive dubbing doesn't get in the way, plus the cool climax puts the icing on the cake. If you don't already have it, be sure to pick up the Blue Underground DVD.

Street Law (1974) ** (out of 4) Italian crime flick has Franco Nero playing a man who walks into the post office one day and ends up getting kidnapped by the men robbing in. The three bad guys severely beat Nero and although he survives the ordeal his hatred just grows when the police refuse to help him. Soon Nero is entering the underworld to try and locate the men so that he can seek revenge. Considering this was released just three months after Charles Bronson's DEATH WISH, I'm really not sure how much of an influence the American film had on this one but the end result here just didn't work for me. I really love vigilante movies and I had heard so many good things about this one but there was just a few minor problems I had with the picture and one big one that really turned me off. My biggest problem with this film is that the Nero character is just so downright stupid that I really fell off his band wagon and in fact I started to cheer for the bad guys! I mean, really, how many stupid things could a person keep doing without someone finally knocking him off? Obviously the character doesn't know what he's doing but after doing one silly thing after another I finally just gave up. Another minor problem I had with the picture is that at nearly 105-minutes long, there's way too much dry space where nothing is happening. A major editing job probably would have done wonders for the picture. I should add that the English dubbing didn't help matters either but this isn't the fault of the film. I found the performances to be among the good things in the picture. Nero is certainly believable as the simple man and you can also believe him when he's finally had enough. Giancarlo Prete nearly steals the film as the man who is forced to get Nero information and I also enjoyed Barbara Bach in her role as the girlfriend. The only thing that really keeps STREET LAW viewable are some of the hilariously bad moments including the opening credits sequence, which shows various crimes being committed. The highlight of the picture has to be the entire sequence in a junkyard where Nero is forced to outrun a car!

A bit different to the usual vigilante films, half expected something like Death Wish, the Exterminator or The Big Racket (Which are all great films by the way) and instead it's something a bit more realistic and well thought out. Maybe the action sequences should have been more evenly spread through the film though. What makes it different to the other films is the main character doesn't wipe out hundreds of punks, it is more a story of his calculated revenge and builds it's story up more steadily. Franco Nero plays the most haphazard, cack-handed vigilante ever but is great in the role, certainly more expressive than Robert Ginty in the Exterminator. Not that that's difficult mind. His character is obsessed with revenge and it is well portrayed. It is easy to sympathise with his character and it is engrossing watching him get his revenge. Nero does a lot of his own stunts too including some great stuff with him getting chased and knocked down by a Ford Mustang in slo mo. How he didn't get killed or crippled is incredible.Talking of cars poor Franco has to make do with an Austin Allegro through most of the film.Anyway to summarise a good solid well acted film, quite violent, great music score, very well staged action sequences and satisfying climax.Very much worth a watch.

This motion picture was release in the USA in February 1976 starring the beautiful Barbara Bach as Barbara, Franco Nero as Carlo Antonelli, and Giancarlo Prete as Tommy. The picture opens showing these three thugs riding around in Europe robbing people, beating them up, killing them and anything else they wanted to do. In addition, no one could stop them. One day Carol Antonelli goes into his bank to deposit some money when out of nowhere the three thugs that the law is looking for comes in and robs the place. To add insult to injury the three thugs take Carlo as there hostage. As thug are driving and trying to get away from the cops who are chasing them, they beat the hell out of Carlo. The thugs abandon the car and get into another leaving the bloody and battered Carlo alone. Enters Barbara Bach. Who is sitting in the room as Carlo tries to explain his story of his beating and robbery to the local police. Carlo doesn't like the treatment by the local authorities so he decides to take things into his own hands. Enters Giancarlo Prete. Tommy is a young man who tries to make a living by robbing nickel and dime places. Carlo takes pictures of Tommy robbing a store and frames him in to trying to find the three thugs that robbed him and beat him up. Now some of my own personal thoughts on this picture! I was really disappointed with this picture. I thought Franco Nero was a bad actor, because the role he played as the victim was horrendous. I thing that Pierce Bronson or Chuck Norris could have played this role a lot better. The reason that I bought this movie, Barbara Bach was in it. Her beautiful body and her acting was a total wasted in this picture. She had maybe four scenes and they were not very long either. Therefore based on the acting of Franco Nero, no leading woman and they wasted Barbara Bach beauty and talent I give this movie 2 weasel stars and that's being gentle