Customer Reviews

The Last Round

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4 star:		(1)
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This movie is a truly awakening introduction to mafia life, as well as a human study of love, power and revenge. Though the music seems a bit overdone in the beginning, and not as grabbing as it could be to do credit to the rest of the movie. Luc Merenda is completely believable as the head of the Manzetti clan, truly outshining his supposed rival, the head of the Belmondo family.

Carlos Monzon is also surprisingly believable as the leading character, considering he was first and foremost a boxer (who retired undefeated). His character is touching and sympathetic.

All scenes are done with a reminiscent attention to detail, and even the violent rape scenes are done tastefully enough to show the horrid reality of rape without being overly crude or pornographic.

This is a heavy film to watch, but the gritty feeling left with you after immersing yourself in a corrupt and dangerous world is not beaten by the satisfaction of watching a truly great movie.

Although pretty much forgotten, The Last Round aka Il Conto é Chiuso is a good example of a familiar story made fresh by the quality of its execution, as a stranger drifts into a decaying Italian industrial looking to settle an old score. But this violent modern-day (well, 1976) poliziotteschi is closer to Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest than the first two films it inspired, Yojimbo and Fistful of Dollars, set in its own Italian Poisonville divided between two rival gangs that he soon sets against each other. Surprisingly, despite being directed by the sometimes more adequate than inspired Stelvio Massi, it's shot with striking visual imagination and remarkably fluid camerawork from Franco Delli Colli. The two leads are impressive too, with Luc Merenda a wonderfully effective villain and undefeated middleweight champion boxer and offscreen wife-beater and murderer Carlos Monzon a surprisingly effective leading man in the mould of a young Charles Bronson.

NoShame's R1 DVD of this impressive little sleeper boasts an exceptionally good transfer aside from a couple of minor glitches on two shots, as well as one of the more surreal DVD extras of recent years - a 35-minute tour of Merenda's Paris antique shop! Also included are the Italian and American trailers, dubbed English and subtitled Italian soundtracks, poster and still gallery, booklet and a 47-minute CD of cover versions of cues from other Italian exploitation movies.