Stunt Squad
Unlike the original title (literally “The Police are
Defeat”) this isn’t a "defeat" movie. But it’s a
movie with good moments and some interesting things and some moments
that doesn’t works. Weakness apart this is an interesting movie
that brings two changes.
The first is the direction and screenplay by Domenico Paolella (signed
the second with Dardano Sacchetti), an eclectic director of genre
cinema, who had never directed a poliziottesco. The second is that
surprisingly no one before 1977 had used Bologna as the center of the
violent Italian crime.
Is not new for the genre instead the presence of the always excellent Stelvio Cipriani who compose a good soundtrack.
Unfortunately, the dark side of this movie is the wrong choice of
actors. Let us say, they are all great actors, but they are working
with characters not in harmony with them.
The result is a film with an interesting history which could be much more trenchant.
Marcel Bozzuffi the French actor who plays Commissioner Griffi is the
first who isn’t in the right place. Well... we know what you're
saying, in "Roma l’altra faccia della violenza" we wrote that he
was perfect for the role. True, we confirm, but what changes is the
character. His Carli was a good commissioner, composed, with a tough
cop as shoulder. Griffi instead is built to be the stereotype of the
iron commissioner a mask that Bozzoffi hadn’t
The same can be said with the enemy number one of this story. A mad and
unscrupulous criminal named Valli, played by Vittorio Mezzogiorno,
another great artist, who died very young at fifty two years. He has
the face of the good and his character ends automatically in comparison
to another mad criminal of poliziottesco, the great Giulio Sacchi
played by Millian in “Milano Odia: La Polizia non può
sparare” which makes Valli like a simple eccentric.
The rest of the cast performs well as shoulder (apart from Riccardo
Salvino, another good face, who plays a tough cop) with Nello
Pazzafini, perfect for the role of pimp "Tunisino", a character well
structured that give to us some interesting metaphors.
Other strange things are for us that some impossible situations.
The Murder in the hospital, for example, a long sequence that you
already know how it ends. Or the training of the special police unit,
more similar to a circus than anything else, and then the rise of Valli.
The end very criticized by many opens to us to two possible
interpretations. It’s true it’s very paradoxical, but on
the other hand is a different ending and a little 'surprise. An ending
that subverts even the slight right wing ideas of the movie,
represented by the police who have to use the violence (almost as
criminals) to catch Valli the bad.
The fleeing Valli to be precise. Always dressed in a white jacket is
the swift person which the police hunting. He escapes often quite lucky
for one who in the end is only against all (even those of underworld)
and that in the end is nothing other than a man that asks to retailers
of Bologna protection money. Nothing so elaborate.
Must be recognized to him, however, an interesting evil aspect, because
those who oppose, he send fake specialists of the former Italian
telephone company to place explosives in telephones, that also killed
several innocents
The trail of blood moves Commissioner Griffi which create nucleus of
special cops, many of whom crack shot. Them, however, seem to prefer
spending time to shoot the targets or go around on a motorbike, rather
than hunt the bad. Griffi then gives to them the freedom to hunt in any
way Valli. And so there is another wave of violence, this time by the
police, who hunt him with luck shedding a lot of blood...
"In the name of unbridled violence. With little adherence to reality"
wrote a newspaper at the time about this film, even if the violence is
most present in other poliziotteschi and here we can see only in the
scene of the murder of the" Tunisino".
The rest is the classic bloodshed but not impressive. A film that is
pleasant and is the usually trip in the Italian crime, partly invented
at the time
