Within the Italian Crime genre were the Vigilante
films. This was a natural cross-over from the Westerns in which men looking
for revenge was a common motif. In modern times though this was more complicated
because of the rules of society and the presence of the official law. Unlike
in the Westerns when revenge was a given, even honorable, it was now considered
a breach of the rules. Leave it up to the police. But when the police don’t
do their job, what does one do. Walk away? Forget? Or take it upon yourself
to carry out justice.
This film from Enzo G. Castellari tries to answer that question but not in
a simplistic manner. Revenge is hard. Killing someone is hard. Killing three
people even harder. Most of us other than in our imagination are not really
capable of carrying out violent revenge. The protagonist in this wants vengeance
badly – is obsessed with it – but there are societal structures impeding
him – a girlfriend, the police, the law and most of all fear. Fear of being
caught, fear of being killed, fear of not being able to kill. First though
you have to find them.
Before and during the opening credits Castellari paints a picture of Italy
in chaos with a montage of assassinations, kidnappings and street crimes.
A gang of three vicious thugs rob a bank, beat up people and take a hostage.
The hostage is Carlo, a business man who was depositing money. They take
him with them (in a fine car chase with the police), beat him up and leave
him alive. Carlo is played by Franco Nero and our expectations are already
thrown off. This is Franco Nero, the hero of many Westerns and we keep waiting
for him to take them on and beat them senseless. That is what Nero does but
not here. He does nothing. Just takes the beating and afterwards feels humiliated.
His girlfriend (Barbara Bach in a disappointingly small and dull role) tells
him to get over it and that he should be thankful to be alive. The police
make him feel small. It boils up within him. He needs to absolve himself.
He needs to kill them. But how?
Meticulously, Castellari follows in Carlo’s footsteps as he first has to
find out who they are and how to get to them. One dead end after another.
What becomes clear is that this is no hero – fear constantly plays out in
his eyes – he runs from danger, can't fight a lick. Finally, he puts together
a clever plan to find them but it goes horribly wrong and keeps going wrong.
He is a terrible vigilante as most of us would be. The three men he is up
against have no moral borders. He does. As with Nero, the entire film goes
against expectations – for a vigilante film there is very little action -
it is a long stretch from his being held hostage to finally finding them.
That is somewhat frustrating for a viewer who might be expecting something
along the lines of Death Wish but this turns out to be more a psychological
look at a man who has to shed his civilized skin in order to kill. It is
an intriguing course for Castellari to take - much easier to have your protagonist
became an efficient and ruthless killer - more cinematic for sure - here
he really tries to put himself in the shoes of how a normal man would do
this. Most of us wouldn't of course. Couldn't.
