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Excellent but underrated film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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!

I'm really starting to develop a love for these Italian cop flicks - and Street Law is hands down one of the best that I've seen! This entire genre owes itself to Don Siegel's classic Dirty Harry, but Street Law apparently takes most of it's influence from Michael Winner's "classic" Death Wish (I say apparently because I haven't seen Death Wish all the way through). The film focuses on crime in Italy, but unlike many Italian cop films; this one doesn't put crime in a 'cool' light, or focus on a police investigation; as our main character here is an engineer named Carlo Antonelli, a man who is beaten by a band of robbers one day while at the post office. The humiliation is too much for him, and he can't get these four men off his mind - and so revenge becomes his main priority. However, he quickly finds that finding out information in the criminal underbelly isn't easy as most people don't want to talk; so, via blackmail, he recruits a young criminal named Tommy to help him find the men who humiliated him and get his revenge - Italian crime flick style! Street Law was directed by Enzo G. Castellari, a man who also directed the big hits 'The Big Racket' and 'The Heroin Busters', so it's obvious that he knows his way around a crime thriller! This one features all the staples of the genre - car chases right from the off, as well as fistfights and shootouts and it's hardly dull for a second. This film also sets itself apart from similar films due to its atmosphere; which gritty, tense and has a very downtrodden sort of feel. The film features a starring role for seventies Italy's top hard man, Franco Nero. It's not your usual Nero performance, however. I'm more used to seeing him calm, cool and collected in Spaghetti westerns and Giallo - but here he gives a frenzied, frightened performance; yet he still fits it well, as you can really believe that this man has been dragged into a bad situation against his will. Giancarlo Prete is his co-star and does well, while the film also features Barbara Bach - but the former Bond girl hardly has any screen time at all! Apparently, the ending borrows heavily from Death Wish, but I don't care as it's highly entertaining and provides the perfect climax for a tale like this. Street Law is HIGHLY recommended to all fans of Italian cinema!

Between the mid-1950s and mid-80s, Italian cinema was replete with imitations of big Hollywood box-office successes and this one here is not just a surprisingly decent DEATH WISH (1974; released a mere three months earlier!) clone but one of the better poliziotteschi I've watched so far. Besides, it is the second of ten collaborations between star Franco Nero and director Castellari - of which I've caught up with 3 and will soon also get to THE SHARK HUNTER (1979) and KEOMA (1976)! Aren't you all envious? After an overly intense opening 15 minutes (which occasionally gives rise to some unintentional hilarity) in which we witness everyman Nero being repeatedly victimized by a band of vicious criminals, he decides to take the matter into his own hands, defying the careless (and quite possibly complicit) police force and tracking down his oppressors for one final showdown. Through the course of the film, Nero forms an uneasy alliance with a professional thief (Giancarlo Prete) who pays for his treason with his life, alienates his girlfriend (a pre-Mrs. Ringo Starr Barbara Bach - incredibly, she kept starring in Italian potboilers even after becoming a Bond Girl in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME [1977]) and coerces the Italian underworld into a manhunt within its own ranks a' la Fritz Lang's M (1931)! The score by frequent Castellari collaborators, Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, is an effective one, except when relying on an almost unintelligible song warbled in broken English...which is all the more ironic when one knows that Hollywood musicals often suffered the ignominy of having their classic songs dubbed into Italian when screened on TV! On the other hand, I cannot imagine that a film like this (with its frequent use of Italian swear words and dialect) would be as enjoyable in English which, unfortunately, is how it is presented on the Blue Underground DVD. Luckily, I watched it on my VHS copy recorded recently off Italian TV but, of course, I'm missing the Enzo G. Castellari Audio Commentary...

After being taken as a hostage and beaten by three vicious bank robbers, an "average guy" (Franco Nero) becomes outraged by the refusal of the police to take drastic action and decides to go on a personal war against the underworld. The script of this slick-looking, violent tale is standard crime-movie stuff, but director Castellari manages to put in some stylish shots and to stage a gripping final shootout. It's almost as if you're watching a spaghetti crime thriller. (**)