This, the first of many polizia outings to pair director Enzo G. Castellari and star Franco Nero, is much more of a layered and thoughtful film than I at first imagined. As well as providing the viewer with plenty of his hard-hitting violence and trademark slow-motion in the action sequences, Castellari also carefully creates a very dark, tragic story of crime and its various victims. In many ways this is more of a human drama than a crime thriller, with the action aspects largely being confined to the latter stages of the film. Before then we see the effects of crime on the mind of ruthless cop Belli, a man obsessed with cracking some of the biggest criminals in town. Unfortunately, Belli's flawed plan to destroy the entire drugs trade is what ultimately results in his downfall - through his words and actions he finds his old work buddies being cold-bloodedly slaughtered, then finally even his own family.
The no-frills direction works well for Castellari, who imbues his film with a cold realism throughout. The backdrops often contain ugly industrial buildings and dockyards, giving the movie a harsh mechanical and inhuman setting - appropriate in that most of the cast are inhuman monsters who think nothing of slaughtering rival men in the streets in return for large sums of money. Fittingly, the music from the De Angelis brothers is appropriately moody, packed with melancholy tunes of despair and foreboding.
Castellari displays plenty of the style he delivered throughout his career, from the slow-motion deaths to the exciting action sequences which invariably make the palms sweat. Beginning with a lengthy car chase through crowded streets and ending with a large-scale shoot-out between cops and criminals in a deserted dockyard, Castellari is at the top of his game with the action and the resulting sequences are slick and very well filmed. There are also some very shocking murders in the film, all captured artistically on camera despite the cruel subject matter; a small child is crushed under the wheels of a car, a man is ruthlessly hacked to pieces with metal hooks, and in the most shocking moment, a man is shot dead in the street outside his office. This latter moment is extremely well portrayed and so intense that it left me close to tears - an excellent piece of film-making rivalled by only a few of the great directors.
The film largely revolves around the character of Franco Nero and his increasingly frantic outbursts as he is foiled by criminal masterminds time and time again. Nero is unsurprisingly excellent in the role, proving once again his worth and the reason for his international success - he really feels for his character and puts himself into the scarf, overcoat, and shiny shoes, becoming the policeman and living his life. Nero's acting becomes better and better throughout, coping especially with all of the heavy emoting required by the second half of the movie; a wonderful performance from a wonderful man.
Imported star James Whitmore, meanwhile, is similarly excellent as weary fellow cop Scavino, whose top-secret file of the crime bosses leads to his shocking demise; Whitmore actually out-acts Nero at key moments, especially with his outburst in the secluded wood which is acting at its best. Full marks to Whitmore for creating such a well-rounded and likable character. The rest of the supporting cast also put in very good performances, with some really nasty thugs, really slimy kingpins and a fine humane turn from Fernando Rey. These factors and more combine to make THE MARSEILLES CONNECTION a winning example of the Italian polizia genre.
The no-frills direction works well for Castellari, who imbues his film with a cold realism throughout. The backdrops often contain ugly industrial buildings and dockyards, giving the movie a harsh mechanical and inhuman setting - appropriate in that most of the cast are inhuman monsters who think nothing of slaughtering rival men in the streets in return for large sums of money. Fittingly, the music from the De Angelis brothers is appropriately moody, packed with melancholy tunes of despair and foreboding.
Castellari displays plenty of the style he delivered throughout his career, from the slow-motion deaths to the exciting action sequences which invariably make the palms sweat. Beginning with a lengthy car chase through crowded streets and ending with a large-scale shoot-out between cops and criminals in a deserted dockyard, Castellari is at the top of his game with the action and the resulting sequences are slick and very well filmed. There are also some very shocking murders in the film, all captured artistically on camera despite the cruel subject matter; a small child is crushed under the wheels of a car, a man is ruthlessly hacked to pieces with metal hooks, and in the most shocking moment, a man is shot dead in the street outside his office. This latter moment is extremely well portrayed and so intense that it left me close to tears - an excellent piece of film-making rivalled by only a few of the great directors.
The film largely revolves around the character of Franco Nero and his increasingly frantic outbursts as he is foiled by criminal masterminds time and time again. Nero is unsurprisingly excellent in the role, proving once again his worth and the reason for his international success - he really feels for his character and puts himself into the scarf, overcoat, and shiny shoes, becoming the policeman and living his life. Nero's acting becomes better and better throughout, coping especially with all of the heavy emoting required by the second half of the movie; a wonderful performance from a wonderful man.
Imported star James Whitmore, meanwhile, is similarly excellent as weary fellow cop Scavino, whose top-secret file of the crime bosses leads to his shocking demise; Whitmore actually out-acts Nero at key moments, especially with his outburst in the secluded wood which is acting at its best. Full marks to Whitmore for creating such a well-rounded and likable character. The rest of the supporting cast also put in very good performances, with some really nasty thugs, really slimy kingpins and a fine humane turn from Fernando Rey. These factors and more combine to make THE MARSEILLES CONNECTION a winning example of the Italian polizia genre.