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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ollie goes over the top, December 20, 2004
Sergio Sollima's 1975 crime thriller "Revolver," also known by its U.S. title "Blood in the Streets," stars the immensely watchable Oliver Reed and Italian low budget film veteran Fabio Testi. "Revolver" is an entry in the somewhat obscure Italian crime drama genre. Just as many Italian directors--including the likes of Lucio Fulci and Umberto Lenzi--threw their hats into the cannibal and zombie genres, they jumped equally fast at the opportunity to make a movie about cops on the edge moving in a corrupt world filled with conspiracies, car chases and crashes, and bloody shootouts. Fulci's "Contraband," in some respects, falls under this rubric. Lenzi made a bunch of these potboilers, including "Violent Protection" and "Tough Cop," among others. I can't wait to see more of these films, but it appears the DVD revolution has been slow to recognize these low budget epics. It's surprising in a way that most of the gore drenched Italian flicks receive special edition treatment from companies like Anchor Bay and Blue Underground while these gritty urban thrillers lie dissolving in a vault somewhere. Until the day I see a boxed set of these movies sitting on a store shelf, I shall have to watch the few I can get my hands on. And that translates into Sollima's "Revolver."
It's a good movie albeit slightly confusing as the action progresses. Sollima starts us out with the assassination of a high-level oil executive and a seemingly unrelated bank robbery that results in the death of Milo Ruiz's (Fabio Testi) partner. Ruiz heads off to prison for his crimes, a prison run by none other than Vito Cipriani (Oliver Reed), a no nonsense, profane former cop who is an even tougher warden. We learn what a tough guy Vito is when an inmate threatens to kill himself with a knife. While the prison staff cowers in fear outside the room, Cipriani wraps his coat around his arm and strolls right in to confront the criminal. Sadly, he talks the guy out of the knife without beating him to a bloody pulp. Vito's home life is a bit less tempestuous thanks to the calming influence of his pretty young wife Anna (Agostina Belli). But wouldn't you know it? The movie is just starting when someone phones Vito and announces that he kidnapped Anna. If Cipriani wants his wife back, he has to release Milo Ruiz from jail with no questions asked. This Vito does in a rather convoluted way, but he's right outside the prison in his car when Ruiz comes bouncing down the street. The warden essentially kidnaps his charge, figuring that he'll find out where his wife is if he keeps Milo in sight.
The two don't like each other at first. Cipriani doesn't believe Ruiz when he says he has no idea why someone would stage a kidnapping to spring lowly old him from the stir. Milo disapproves of Vito's foul language and tendency to mete out a beating whenever he feels like it, usually to Milo. But something happens as the facts behind Anna Cipriani's abduction come to the fore: Milo Ruiz begins to admire Vito's determination to find his wife, and he soon pledges to do whatever is necessary to track down the men responsible. What follows are several dangerous situations, including a daring attempt to cross the border into France, a shootout in the street that leaves several people dead, and the duplicity of Ruiz's musician friend Al Niko (Daniel Beretta). As Milo and Vito come closer and closer to the men responsible for taking Anna away, the plot becomes even more byzantine. We learn about some huge government conspiracy linking the assassination of the oil minister and Ruiz's robbery, and we also learn that these guys will stop at nothing to protect their interests. They eventually present Vito Cipriani with a painful ultimatum that will free his wife if he performs an assassination of his own. The warden's final choice is a real surprise and definitely something different than what we usually see in a Hollywood film.
One thing I disliked about "Revolver" was the convoluted plot. Every ten minutes or so I kept having to ask myself exactly what was going on. The whole story seemed unnecessarily complex considering how easy it would have been for the conspirators to simply knock off Milo Ruiz in his jail cell. All we hear about in the latter part of the film is how powerful and wide ranging this cabal is, how governments and police agencies are members, yet we should believe that they can't pay a lowly inmate to hit someone? A further problem with the film involves the bloodlessness of the whole affair. A couple of quick shootouts and some beatings are always fun, but why the filmmakers stopped at a couple when they could have put in a dozen or more is beyond me. Fortunately, both lead actors do a good job with their roles. Especially Reed, who stomps through each scene like an angry 400-pound gorilla. He pummels people, he threatens people, and he swears at people every chance he gets. Throw in an interesting prog rock score by Ennio Morricone, and "Revolver" is a nice way to spend a couple of hours.
Supplements on the disc include two trailers for the film, radio spots, an easter egg, stills, cast biographies, and two interviews with Sollima and Testi. Both director and actor spend an inordinate amount of time describing the interesting experience of working with Oliver Reed, an actor known for his rages and his alcoholism. Testi claims that Reed once ate broken light bulbs during a drunken binge, and Sollima claims he shot all of the actor's scenes in the morning before drink turned him into a raging bully. Give "Revolver" a shot if anything above sounds remotely interesting to you.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A nice change of pace, December 27, 2002
I've never seen a movie quite like Revolver. The best descriptor I can muster is "spaghetti thriller". It's a seventies crime drama with a bit of Dirty Harry, a helping of Reservoir Dogs, a few drops of eau de western, a scoop of melodrama, and a dash of political commentary. Though it oscillates between boredom and epic, Revolver delivers the kind of entertainment that today's movies can only parody. If you buy into the characters, you'll be treated to a satisfying drama. If modern sensibilities prevent that, you can at least enjoy the campier aspects and delight in the commanding score.I may be cynical, but sometimes I look at my DVD collection and see 50 copies of the same movie. Explosions, love interest, conservative "twist" ending, cut! Revolver may be just as derivative of 1970's flicks as the explosion fests of the 21st century are today, but for some reason it was refreshing to watch. I can't see anyone lavishing "rabid fanboy" praise on it, but Revolver was enjoyable, moving at times, and had two great performances. If you thirst for a change of pace, but want to retain the comfortable action standbys of guns and violence, Revolver may be right up your alley. The fantastic extras don't hurt either.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
A misfire, December 11, 2006
Revolver aka Blood in the Streets aka In the Name of Love is a disappointingly bland and overlong Sergio Sollima cop thriller with a miscast Oliver Reed complete with bad American accent (despite playing an Italian prison warden!) and Fabio Testi only marginally less wooden and ineffectual than usual caught up in a political assassination and kidnapping. Nothing out of the ordinary with some absurd plotting (a politician faced with death threats walking casually through the Place Vendome just so he can get killed, a ludicrous jailbreak from a prison with only rotten wood over the shower windows), the last reel is fairly good when the politics briefly kicks in and the movie refuses to go for the soft and easy ending, but it's outstayed its welcome by then.
A decent extras package includes a featurette with Testi and Sollima plus trailer and stills gallery, although the 1.85:1 transfer is grainy in places.
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