With a clear influence from William Friedkin’s classic The French Connection (1971), Enzo G. Castellari directs this irregular but very enjoyable poliziottesco with Franco Nero on the lead as Commissioner Belli and (here one of the clear connections to The French Connection) Fernando Rey as an aging mob boss.

Precisely the acting department is one of the strong points of the movie, with the two aforementioned actors being definitely the ones stealing the show, the rest of the cast also provides very solid performances (special mention for Duilio Del Prete playing a very small but spot on role, as a rich and foolish playboy). But it is, in any case, Franco Nero the one to carry the movie and does so tremendously well.

Next to that we have some gruesome and brutal violence that really, every time that someone gets killed, they want to do it as exaggerated and over the top as possible making it highly fun and entertaining.

On the other hand, some of those editing decisions (both in visual cuts as well as with the sound/soundtrack choices) that mesh so well with the action, are carried on in many other moments of the film provoking some scenes and moments to just look either too cheesy or directly and utterly ridiculous.

One last weaker element of the film would be the choice in pace for telling the story. Not sure if it is a problem at the root, meaning the script, or in the choices in the direction but its speed goes from incredibly slow at the beginning, seeming that they really wanted to set the scene and getting us to get familiarized with all the characters (which are maybe a bit too many) to afterwards when it comes to actually evolve on the plot it is done way too quick reaching to an absurdly rushed ending.

So, in conclusion, a film with various questionable decisions in some technical areas but still, thanks to great performances and one actual top directorial/editing decision on how to approach the violence scenes, this picture ends up being fairly enjoyable to watch, even though if not a must in the genre.