Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the ’70s (2012) (DVD Review)
Directed By: Mike Malloy
Starring: Franco Nero, John Saxon, Henry Silva
Rated: UR/Region: 1/Widescreen/Number of disc: 1
Available from Cinema Epoch
Eurocrime! is a documentary concerning the violent Italian poliziotteschi cinematic movement of the 70s which, at first glance, seems like just a bunch of cheap rip offs of American crime films like Dirty Harry or The Godfather. But on closer inspection, these films were really addressing distinctly Italian issues like the Sicilian Mafia and red terrorism.
Cinema Epoch has unleashed great releases to DVD and this is one I’d toss up there in that group. Here we learn the history of the Eurocrime genre and along the way we learn a lot more that we didn’t know about a lot of other things outside the genre! We learn of the mob’s involvement in this side of the business, we learn what started what, and you even hear some other classic stories as told by the likes of Franco Nero and other greats. For the two hours you spend being education on the Eurocrime genre you are never bored with what you get and it really is a whole heck of a lot of fun. I also enjoy the journey we take learning about other Italian “knock-off” films that came before the crime genre got a ton of movies made.
From High Crimes and everything in between we learn a little or a lot about pretty much every film in the genre you could imagine. One of the cool things about something like this is even if you haven’t heard of something before hand, a movie like this introduces you to it so you can go and seek it out after. Italian Gangster/Cop movies were all the rage in the 1970s and it is a part of history that I am very happy to see be shed some light on by way of a documentary like this. It is well researched and very informative. You may have to be a fan of cult cinema to info it, but if you are you will certainly love this one here!
- Tom Milian Interview
- Deleted Scene
- Trailer
