米兰九 口径

Fernando Di Leo's
M  ilan o Calibro 9 is an out-and-out masterpiec
e  of  Italian Crime c inema and, in my opinion, on
e 
of the most as

tonishing crim e stories ever told. The first fi lm in Di Leo's excellent 'Milieu
' tr ilogy, Milano Cali bro 9 
was foll owed by La Mala Ordina (aka. Manhunt, also 1972) and the brilliant Il Boss  (1973). The t
hree films a
re not connec ted
 sto
ry-wise, but all three are excell ent, and highly realistic po
rtrayals  of org
anized crim e. As far as
I am con cerned Manhunt is (  allthou
gh excellent)  slig htly inferior to this one a
nd Il 
 Bo ss which both  stand out as absolut e all-time highlights of crime 
cinema. Milano Calibro 9 is  t
he best of them all,
 a film that i
s  astonishi ng in  all asp ec ts, be it the ing enious plot that,

apart from a comp elling s tor y and clever  twists
, includes social cri
ticism, the perfor 
mances, the g ritty at mosphere and susp ens
e o r the brilliant score. I  can hardly fin
d the r
ig ht w  ords to express my admiration
 fo
r this  masterpiece 
which eas ily ranks am o ng th e gre atest Gangster f lick
s ever broug ht to

screen.　　
Gastone Mos chin stars as Ugo  Piazza, a tough a nd elliptical ex-convict wh o  h as just
 been released
 from pr 
ison. Immediately after his rele
ase,
Ugo is app
 roached by members of the Milan mob lead by the iras cible ga
ngster 
R  
occo (Mario Ador  f) , as th ey suspec t him t o be  responsible for the disappearance of a large sum o
 f
 money belongin g to their boss, an  Ameri
can (Lionel Stander) who controls the orga

ni zed crime in Milan...　　Milano Calibro 9 is a film th
at delivers an astonishingly realistic moo  d  of t he under
world li
ke hardl y another.

The intriguing sto ryline
 goes in ha
nd with in terestin

g cha
racters, ra
w atmosph ere
, sus pense and brea thtaking
action, social cri ti
cism and brutal vi   olence. The film is simp
ly stunning f ro  m the be  ginning to the end,
 which
is ev en intensified  by t
h e brill ia nt score, a colla
boration of the famous compose r Lu
is Enríquez Bacalov an
d the Italian Pro
 gressive Rock band Osa
nna. Ugo Piazza must be o n e of the mos t charismatic gangster  ch ara cters ever in cinema, and Gasto ne Mosc hin w as the p refect c hoi
ce for the role.  Moschin deliv ers a 
brillia
nt performance, an d the 
rest of th e cast is also great. Mario Adorf is irascible like 
a ra
bid do
g as t he fe rociou
s ga ngster Rocco, 
a role 
t 
hat 
fits him like

a  glo ve. The great Lionel  Stander  fits pe rfectly in his role  o f the American Mafia Don.　 　The tw   o cop characters in the film are played by two of the g
reate
st regulars of Italia n genre-ci nema, Lu i
 gi Pistilli and Frank Wolff (who committed suicide before  the film was released). The r
av ishi
ng Ba
 rbara B
o  uchet is asto nishing and inc redibly sexy in the role of U go Piazza's str 
ipper girlf
riend. Bouchet is b
oth  a stunn ing bea uty and a n excellent a
ctres s and thi
s is doubtles sly
on e
of her most memorable r
oles.  This  is also a  political film and d irector Di Leo embe  dded a lot of 
social cr i tic
ism ab
out 
topics like c orruption. Thi s film sim ply has everyt 
hing  one ca n possibl y desire in cinema. Films like Milano Calibro 9 are the reason why I love cin ema. This is an absolu te maste rpiece i

n

al l regards and, wit
hout e 
xaggeration, on e of the greatest Crime flicks ever made! The ing enious opening


sce ne alone is more  mem orable   than most films get in two  h ours.