Review of Street Law

Carlo (Franco Nero) is taken hostage during a robbery, beaten up and finally released. He's got the impression that the police are not trying hard enough to catch the criminals, so he takes the law into his own hands ("I am tired of being a docile good citizen"). Carlo becomes not a cool super hero all of a sudden such as Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris or Clint Eastwood oftentimes. He makes stupid mistakes, for example asking too directly for underworld connections or being discovered when tailing suspects - it's learning by doing, so to speak. Furthermore, Carlo is not an entirely sympathetic character, since he slaps his girlfriend in the face, leaves her without much regret (very unlikely if she looks like Barbara Bach, but anyway) and doesn't even have a good answer for her question: "Do you really think the way of bringing law and order is becoming an outlaw?" But when he informs the police about some gun trade, the criminals receive a warning immediately, and Carlo feels confirmed in his belief the men who are officially in charge cannot be trusted. This message and the gratuitous violence caused inevitably negative reviews from the left wing critics, but in the end, people want to see a fast moving action movie, and that certainly is delivered by Enzo Castellari. I don't suppose many in the audience feel tempted to get a shotgun and try for themselves to hunt killers. Cynical - yes, dangerous - no. Movie is fantasy, also about our dark sides.

I had the opportunity to visit the locations at Genoa where "Il cittadino si ribella" was shot, and it's quite amazing how much they could shoot on the main road along the sea - if that is blocked by a film team, the whole inner city is cut off as you hardly can drive on the narrow streets around. So they must have made those car chases in the middle of an unsuspecting public - bet you need nerves of steel, driving a car in Italy.