After viewing Castellari's 'High Crime' and Di Leo's 'Milano Calibro 9′ my life-long obsession with Italian crime cinema began in earnest; and a more suitable baptismal font from which to anoint oneself with euro crime's original sin would be hard to find, as 'Milano Calibro 9' remains one of the towering achievements of Di Leo's woefully undocumented career. From the bravura opening montage; where Di Leo creates a tense, dynamic pulse of underworld chicanery, driven to a tumultuous climax by the dense, throbbing, almost baroque jazz funk of, Luis Bacalov (arguably his finest score). And from then on Di Leo is unerring in his fierce vision of violent double dealings and unflinching vengeance, with nary a skipped beat for the film's duration, a rollicking, breathless yarn gloriously undiluted by soft-bellied tangents, or vapid self indulgence. The gangster milieu simply doesn't get any better than this; as much as I dig on Melville's studied, glacial cool, Di Leo's swarthy mise en scene has balls the size of prize winning pumpkins. Some may find all these myriad of hyperbolic blogs dedicated to a Italian crime cinema a trifle perplexing then, oh yes! They discover 'Milano Calibro 9', and in one brutal pole axing knee to the oily conkers it's all over; one can never return to the anodyne world of mainstream cinema without a considerable degree of incredulity. Forget Hubbard, quantum mechanics or Castaneda, this film WILL change your life.

Like The Italian Connection, this Fernando Di Leo film features Mario Adorf. It also features Barbara Bouchet (Gangs of New York), who left the States in the 70s to do Italian films. She jumped from Police films, to giallo, to erotica. Always a pleasure to watch.This is a typical double cross film with a missing $300,000. Who took the money? Who will end up with the money? Who will double cross whom? The police just sit back and let the mafia, led by the Americano (Lionel Stander) tear each other apart.Lots of fights, a big shootout, and some fine performances by Adorf, and Gastone Moschin

While I'm a huge Quentin Tarantino fan, it wasn't him the one who introduced me to the Italian filmmaker Fernando Di Leo. That would have been the usual, however this time my introduction came thanks to the twitter page of film critic Harry Knowles. He referred to some Fernando Di Leo movies as "awesome Italian Mafia movies that make the mob out to be the piece of s*** they are". I was immediately interested and later on I found out that Tarantino was a huge fan of Di Leo (and that John Woo too). So when I finally got from ebay the new Blu-Ray set of the "Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection" (with four of his films: MILANO CALIBRO 9, LA MALA ORDINA, IL BOSS and I PADRONI DELLA CITTÀ), it was just f****** great. After watching the pre-credit part of MILANO CALIBRO 9 (first film of the set) I was thinking something like "this is exactly how you start a crime film!" It blew my mind actually, and it definitely gives you a taste of how these bastards do things: is all about order and caution until something goes wrong… then is all about being the boss and merciless violence. Plus, it gives you what is pretty much an unforgettable score; great stuff and I don't think I'm going too far if I say that it is one of my favorite opening sequences ever. MILANO CALIBRO 9 bring us the story of Ugo Piazza (I'm pretty sure this name will stay with you just like it stayed with me), a criminal who just got out of prison after a four-year sentence (that was reduced to three years due to his good behavior). This film is like a giallo, with mystery all the time and an unknown red-dressed man who happens to follow the movements of our main character; is having the question "did Piazza stole or not $300,000 from a very powerful crime boss (known as "the American")?" instead of the classic giallo question of "who is the murderer?" We have some really memorable characters. Take for instance the conclusion of the film (don't worry, I'm not going to spoil you the whole thing): sometimes in movies those big plot twists simply don't work. Here we don't have that case but I really don't think the ending would have been as great as it without the -just awesome- involvement of the character Rocco (played by the German actor Mario Adorf - Rocco sort of looks like the Eli Wallach from the THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY days!). You just have to love this Rocco guy, even when he is like the most unlikeable and annoying bastard around. Even some of the minor "mafiosos" deliver memorable and fun material (like that one who helps an old man to solve a crossword puzzle). And well, Barbara Bouchet is simply a delight. While Di Leo's film didn't fully explore them, it did have some interesting thoughts on the Mafia, the illegal drug trade and even the police system. I found many similarities with the great and realistic show THE WIRE; in both we have the flaws of the police system exposed (and incompetent chiefs too), the thing of drug dealers investing their earnings in the building of apartment blocks (that thing is only mentioned here by the character Don Vincenzo, a blind old man who once was a respected crime boss) and the overall interest of some police officers to not only go after the "mafiosos" but also after the people with the dirty money. Based in all of this, maybe I should say this film is ahead of its time… but really who knows? Actually I will just say this: it's just a f****** great film! *Watched it on 7 April, 2012

No less than Quentin Tarantino referred to "Milano Calibro .9" as the absolute greatest Italian film-noir ever made, and who the hell are we to question that statement? This truly is one of the most grippingly fascinating and shockingly straightforward crime portraits ever filmed and I wouldn't hesitate for one second to call it a genuine masterpiece of cult cinema. "Milano Calibro .9" is the first installment of Ferando Di Leo's trilogy, followed by the equally mesmerizing "Manhunt" and "The Boss". The stories and characters of these films are unrelated, but together they represent the gifted director's personal and highly criticizing visions of organized crime in Italy during the early 70's. Perhaps even more remarkable than the excessive display of nihilistic violence in these movies, is Di Leo's devotion to point out the incompetence of Italy's government and law-system during that era. The country itself is to blame for all the powerful crime networks and the relentless mafia organizations it spawned, and the director will make damn sure this message is communicated clearly. But naturally, even without all the political involvement, "Milano Calibro .9" is a phenomenal film, with non-stop suspense, rough action, realistic character drawings and head-spinning dialogs. The intro alone is fantastic, as more action and brutal violence occurs in ten minutes than most Hollywood movies have to offer throughout the entire playtime. I hate to give away too much about the convoluted plot, but I can assure it contains all the necessary ingredients: treason, vengeance among criminals, strip bars, executions, corrupt coppers and the ongoing search for a stolen loot of $ 300.000! The atmosphere in this film is continuously gritty and ominous, because literally no one can be trusted and any character risks to get shot in the back at any given moment. Di Leo brilliantly uses Milan as the location for all the mayhem, and the city inexplicably plays one of the most important roles in the story, because it forms the home of the economic crisis, high level of delinquency and police forces reluctant to alter their methods of crime-fighting. The cast is awesome, with Gaston Moschin in an unconventional but masterful lead role. Mario Adorf impresses as the sardonic and relentless second-in-command and Barbara Bouchet takes every man's breath away with her sexy appearance and ravishing beauty. The sensual dance sequence she performs is only one of thousand reasons to watch "Milano Calibro .9", but it's undeniably the most convincing one.