The Big Racket

This movie really whoops.

When it comes to Euro Crime films The Big Racket comes at top of the game. Of course what can you expect from the great Euro Crime director Enzo G. Castellari and the ever likeable Fabio Testi. Testi plays a rough police officer that is getting sick and tired of the gang protection racket going on in a small Italian town. Gangs are using violence and destruction to get small business owners to pay. When Testi goes beyond the law to put the Racketeers away, he gets fired and then turns vigilante. This is a violent, gritty film full of fantastic camera work and colorful anti-hero like characters. Testi here comes off looking like a true bad***. The uncut version provided here by Blue-Underground Entertainment does contain some harsh scences such as two brutal rape sequences so be forwarned. Coming from a seasoned Euro Crime fan.....you can't get much better than this. There's enough tough guy posturing, cool camera shots and action to make any fan of Italian cinema happy.

THE BIG RACKET, written and directed by Enzo G. Castellari, and starting Fabio Testi, is a movie that deals with an important theme - corruption, protection rackets, gun violence, murders, thug behavior, chaos running loose in the streets. It also deals with an aspect that is often taboo in society, which is the frustration that often is felt by merchant, when they feel they're getting the short end of the stick as taxpayers, or when they are robbed, etc. Those are very ugly aspects that people prefer to forget, and not deal with. In this picture, released 1977/78, the recurring soundtrack too, underlines the ugliness of those aspects. A crude, metal guitar riff is looped over and over, reminiscent of Black Sabbath or Tony Iommi, to get the audience to feel the "on the edge of insanity" mental landscape of the police officer, played by Testi, who is pulled from the case, first, and then removed from his job, secondly, as a consequence of the existing laws on the books of justice not fitting the needs of the real world, that people rely on, to live their lives in peace, and prosperity, and that he feels compelled to solve. Many will be turned off, by this "taboo" of retaliation against gangsterism in the form of vigilantism, that the police officer carries out, as socially unacceptable conduct, morally reprehensible violence, even when carried out with the most honest, pure of intentions, such as retaliating against a rape, murder, looting, etc. Others, will be disappointed by the lack of belief in the principles of Christianity or their own religion, that underline forgiveness, comprehension, patience, and allowing time for anarchists to "see the light" and redeem themselves in the eyes of a Supreme Being. Some, will not see anything beyond the 2 dimensional, video-game aspect of the movie, such as in your favorite shoot 'em up XBOX or Playstation release. Whichever perspective of the viewer, it cannot be denied that the images are crystal clear on the DVD, (very sharp transfer), the audio and dialog in English (dubbed over Italian) is professional, and well spoken, the thrill and suspense is maintained over 90 minutes. The acting, is also not shabby at all. The weakness of this movie, obviously, is the only average sophistication of the plot, that some may label that of a "B Movie" coupled with the disbelief that viewers surely will feel, in witnessing so many gun battles between the gangs and the Italian police, in such a limited period of time, taking many dozens of casualties on each side, over 90 mins. Clearly, if the problem was of such an extent, a one-man-show would be out of the picture, and even in the late 70's, a SWAT team, armored tank, and perhaps even the military would have been called in to deal with the chaos.

Enzo G. Castellari's The Big Racket one-ups it's rivals by shooting its obligatory car somersaulting down a hill sequence from the inside of the car, with a visibly uncomfortable Fabio Testi obviously thanking God he remembered to fasten his seatbelt with every turn. Despite his protestations that "I'm a different kind of cop," Testi's hero is a predictably close Italian relative of Harry Callahan in a plot that ends up like a cross between The Magnificent Seven and Death Wish as he recruits the victims and criminal rivals of a ruthless protection racket carving up Rome to take the law into their own hands in an engagingly OTT factory floor shootout finale. Thankfully Testi seems to have loosened up a bit from his ramrod straight block of wood earlier performances, though the dubbing may have something to do with that. It's not exactly demanding stuff, and there's laziness to spare, not least with a jailbreak that happens offscreen and is never explained presumably for no better reason than no-one being able to think of a convincing one, but within its limited ambitions it gets the job done, and there's a likeable turn from this films contractually obligatory American co-star Vincent Gardenia However, there are some real double standards in the American dubbing script: murder, rape and bloody mayhem, no problem, but no naughty words whatever you do. Thus our "dumb basket" hero is warned that if he doesn't cool it, he'll be "in deep diddly." In fact, whoever wrote the dubbing script is obviously having the time of his life, inserting the word "diddly" into as many scenes as many times as possible ("If I'm gonna be in deep diddly, I'd like to know what I'm in deep diddly for!"). Maybe it was a drunken dare after drinking too much Crodino - and boy, did the Crodino boys get their product placement money's worth in this one, with their posters and logos appearing in so many of the exterior and the restaurant scenes that you're just amazed they didn't slap a banner on the side of the Coliseum as well just to cover all the bases!

Anche se il protagonista e' un poliziotto,come sempre "sospeso",questo film fa parte dei cosi detti "vigilante movies" dove un cittadino fa giustizia da se.Severamente questi film sono criticati come fasisti e privi d'importanza ma alcuni sono soppravissuti nel tempo come il recentemente rifatto DEATH WISH.Qui si puo' solo ridere dell'improbabile Racket che si forma contro gli ugualmente improbabili malavitosi:uno e' campione olympionico di tiro con la moglie stuprata e uccisa!Anche se si gioca sul serio,niente nel film puo' considerarsi tale e cosi i fan del genere possono divertirsi senza ripensamenti.Il film e' veloce,teso e spettacolare:un tipico "Castellari" e tra i suoi piu' riusciti!Per molti critici Pulp viene incluso nella ventina dei migliori Poliziotteschi e modestamente ve lo consiglio pure io basta saper riderci sopra.Come sempre i lavori di Castellari devono essere cercati all'estero e la versione Francese e' ottima con l'audio in Italiano.

polar années 70, cinéma italien; bien joué ; l'histoire est captivante et à rebondissements; pour ceux qui aiment le cinéma de qualité;n'hésitez pas

Just for once, the publicity blurb on the sleeve lives up to its promise. This film is a masterpiece of its kind. Fast moving, well acted, albeit with distinctly dodgy dubbing on occasion. Bullets fly and bodies tumble in two set piece examples of high octane action, although it is curious that some people seem to drop after being hit by what looks suspiciously like a paintball!! But that's all part of the fun of this kind of movie. And that's just what it is, a fun action flick and well worth watching

”ビッグ・バイオレンス”です。ムック本”怖い映画”でカークラッシュの見せ方の最終形と紹介されているこの映画。本当にそのシーン、CGで撮ったとしか思えませんがCGではやはりこの無茶苦茶な迫力は出ないだろうなぁというとんでもないもの。(実際に役者とカメラを車に放り込んだまま崖から落としたらしい） これだけでなく全編がバイオレンスの金太郎飴状態になっております。こんなパワフルな映画はこの当時のイタリア映画でしかありえないでしょう。言語が英語吹替で字幕も何もないのは残念ですが、パッケージにもリージョン１と書いてありますが何故かリージョンフリーでした。私はサードパーティーから送料込みで１５００円程度でゲット！最高です。

2 ans après avoir réalisé le très bon "il cittadino si ribella" (avec Franco Nero), Enzo Castellari revient au polar avec ce "il grande racket" pour le moins "corsé". Si on ajoute l'emblématique "la polizia incrimina, la legge assolve" de 1973, il est clair que ce réalisateur excellait dans le polar. Soutenu par une BO "sous acide" de frères De Angelis, un casting bis de haute volée d'où émergent Fabio Testi, Renzo Palmer ou encore Orso Maria Guerini, Big Racket réussit parfaitement son pari : accrocher le spectateur à son siège même 40 ans plus tard (sur un thème qui sera toujours d'actualité....) en accumulant des séquences cultes. Certes comme nombre de Poliziotteschi, le message "vigilante" peut avoir du mal à passer. Moins fin sur l'analyse politico-sociale que "il cittadino si ribbela", cet opus ne mérite toutefois pas sa réputation d'oeuvre "fascisante" et comme Franco Nero dans "il cittadino...", Testi le "gentil" finit par tomber lui aussi dans cette violence gratuite (et inutile) qui laisse un goût amer au final. Comme lui dira Joshua Sinclair à un moment "maintenant que tu es un assassin comme nous, on peut discuter..." En conclusion, un film culte bien plus intelligent qu'on ne pourrait le croire, porté par une réalisation nerveuse et originale qui démontre l'incontestable savoir-faire de ces faiseurs transalpins. Merci Artus !