The Boss

I agree with the only other individual who has commented on this movie, it's a real 'mafia-action' classic from the early seventies and is gritty, well plotted and acted and has a very high body-count !

Our hero (or rather anti-hero), is a hit-man for the mafia, who proves his worth by rubbing-out half of a rival gang, whilst they were enjoying a private screening of some Scandinavian porn, launching grenades from the projection room- into the auditorium.......

I don't want to give away too-much but this film has enough twists and turns -double and treble crosses to keep any fan of the genre glued to the screen.

Also has a great score by Luis E. Bacalov - the main theme comes in times of action and thunders by like an express train carrying an angry Keith Moon, backed with fuzz-guitar, then flips into frantic jazz piano (has to be heard to be appreciated).

Has to be seen too !

The indelibly iconic, 'Il Boss' remains a sinuous, stiletto-sharp, heroically hard-boiled Mafiosi-noir from famed poliziotteschi stylist, Fernando Di Leo. Starring the notably stern, Stoic to the point of terminal rigidity, Henry Silva, delivering yet another coolly charismatic performance as the vicious,ice-veined terror-thug, Nick Lanzetta, with fading Hollywood matinee idol, Richard Conte lending his swarthy, old world gravitas to the meaty role of octogenarian Sicilian king pin, Don Carrasco. All this uniquely explosive, stylishly rendered retribution is excitingly catalysed by another funky, uber infectious score by long-time, Di Leo collaborator, maestro Luis Enriquez Bacalov. 'Il Boss' thunderously remains an absolutely essential, mongoose mean Spaghetti shoot 'em up, and thankfully, Di Leo flinches not a jot from the requisite Mafiosi movie mantra of seriously squib-happy ultra violence! If you have yet to be dazzled by any of maestro, Fernando Di Leo's strikingly stylish, meticulously crafted gangster epics, one should manifestly start here, as the Neolithically nasty, Nick Lanzetta is one of the most mesmerically Machiavellian, blithely blood thirsty hit man to have ever blazed a ballistically bellicose swathe across the Silva screen!

The opening scene from The Boss shows what the 70's Italian crime film was all about. A mafia hit-man wipes out most of a rival family when he fires a grenade launcher at them from the projection booth while they sit back and watch Danish porn. In other words, the genre was about serious action, violence and a distinct lack of subtlety. This opening action duly sets into motion a violent mob war and we are off.

Fernando Di Leo shows here once again, that when it comes to poliziotteschi he was the undoubted master. The Boss is the third in an excellent loose trilogy about Italian organised crime. Milan Calibre 9 and The Italian Connection are the other two entries. This one is more specifically about the Mafia and its machinations. As such it's set in the Mafia homeland of Palermo, Sicily. I like how the poliziotteschi films are so city specific. This gives them all distinctive atmospheres; the city is almost a separate character. But in this flick there is no doubt Henry Silva is the star of the show. He plays the hit-man Nick Lanzetta and shows precisely why he is considered an Italian crime genre great. His stone-faced, monosyllabic approach is perfect for this ruthless character. Lanzetta is certainly one of the hardest screen gangsters ever. The movie basically depicts his rise through the ranks of the Mafia. He, like all the other characters is out for himself alone and he is pretty ruthless in getting to the top. There are no good characters in this film, no matter which side of the law they are on everyone is immoral to at least some degree. I think the Italians are so good at this kind of movie because they seemed to think nothing of populating entire movies with shady characters. It's not just the crime films that do this but a lot of the gialli take the same approach. It works especially well in these noir style flicks though, as they usually are making statements about corruption in the Italian authorities as well as looking at the crime gangs. The Boss does detail some of the inner workings of the Mafia too. But more than anything, this is a film that is so very enjoyable because it is loaded with lots of stylish violent action.

This movie shows it like it is. In this movie Ferdinando di Leo was brave enough to use real unofficial incidents that were happening at the time,he even used some real names, or changed some by changing only a letter from the name, After this movie came, Ferdinando became paraniod that someone was going to "take care of him" for the content of this movie but nothing happend. This movie is great because, Di Leo doesn't make out the characters to be charismatic role models, but the cold blood assassins they really are. I give this movie 2 thumbs up. Plus and the end of the movie it sais to be continued, but not because theirs going to be a sequel, but becuase he just did a piece of mafia history, and the mafia continues, no good endings or bad endings, just a piece of history.

One of his best films from Fernando Di Leo, violent and thrilling, sometimes thought of as the, 'King of the B's', and those were certainly considered the best of the poliziesco films. Known as writer and director early on of one of the best scripted spaghetti western and later for directing these splendid thrillers. Although he made a couple of sexy ones, Asylum Erotica (1971) with Rosalba Neri and Klaus Kinski and really liked, To Be Twenty (1978) with Gloria Guida and Ray Lovelock. But he is really known for these splendid action-packed poliziesco. This is the third of his trilogy, first with Caliber 9 (1972) and The Italian Connection (1972) even if these are thought of as better than this one this is still great and especially has a wonderful turn by Henry Silva. This is the one with the amazing killing in the porno cinema at the beginning and although there is a number of great actors like Richard Conte and the poor girl, who had to be kidnapped, is Antonia Santilli, had been in theatre and as a model and appeared in Playmen, an Italian adult magazine. She does a real performance in this, nude most of the time (a copy of the magazine in the film?) and has a sad ending, although I have to say that such a lot of people die in this one.