Kick-ass gritty tale of the bad guys versus the bad guys here as Joe Dallesandro gets a huge chip on his shoulder with the mob in Naples. He's just a New York hustler peddling tobacco and collecting protection money when out of the blue he gets a kicking and thrown out of the gang for making too much noise.
Joe heads for Rome, rather handily getting a lift from Stefania Casini (and hooking up with her in the process). Joe finds a contact in Rome and gets another job from a sinister gay man to rip off a business deal, steal a briefcase, then bring it back. He also offers to give Joe one up the crapper for extra incentive. Nothing turns out right as the briefcase contains a load of heroin belonging to that gang in Naples, and Joe's been double crossed by that gay fella!
It's shortly after the Mob kill Joe's best friend that Joe decides the gloves are off, and he begins getting revenge by stabbing the guy that double crossed him first (in rather a realistic manner). America might be the land of opportunity, but Italy's the land where those capable of the most violence triumph over all, and Joe's headed for Naples with his new gang of boxers, bare-chested bikers who seem to have fallen into a time warp from an eighties Italian post-apocalypse film, and a sullen sharpshooter.
The first thing you'll notice is that Joe Dallasendro isn't the best actor in the world. He can scowl real good though, and he's playing an arrogant tough nut to boot, so we can forgive for the lack of Gielguid-esque soliloquies. Director Squitieri makes everything seem much more grubby and dusty as usual, which lends a bit more realism to the proceedings, and it's the same with the violence. No fancy stuff here, although there's plenty of the red stuff.
When I think about it, most of the emotion comes from Stefania Casini as the tearful girlfriend who watches her man drift further and further away due to his obsession with revenge, so it's worth watching for that too.
Between this and Order To Kill I'm seeing a distinct change in the fashions, cars and music of this genre, from the brown-suited Dirty Harry rip-offs of two years ago we now have thin white t-shirts, afros, sports cars and hard rock on the soundtrack. Nice.
