Caliber 9
Caliber 9
| 15 February 1972 (USA)
Caliber 9 Trailers

Just out of prison, ex-con Ugo Piazza meets his former employer, a psychopathic gangster Rocco who enjoys sick violence and torture. Both the gangsters and the police believe Ugo has hidden $300,000 that should have gone to an American drug syndicate boss.

Reviews
Nonureva Really Surprised!
Brightlyme i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.
SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted
Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
bensonmum2 Incredible! I haven't watched many 70s Euro-Crime films in a while, but I can't remember any being quite this good. Caliber 9 is just amazing. Almost everything about the movie is perfect. The plot is simple enough - recently released from prison, Ugo Piazza is approached by his old employers, led by the Americano, about $300,000 in cash he may have stolen and hidden. Without any other prospect, he agrees to go to work for the gang with hopes of throwing off the old suspicions. I'm seriously not going to go into any more detail - I'd hate to ruin any of the plot twists and turns for anyone who might be reading this.Director Fernando Di Leo expertly oversees one of the more interesting films I've seen recently. The movie moves at a fantastic pace with action, interesting dialogue, and intrigue around every corner. The violence is plentiful, but not overdone (a complaint I've had in the past about some Euro-Crime films). The acting is far superior to what you'd expect in a movie of this type. Mario Adorf, Philippe Leroy, Lionel Stander, and Barbara Bouchet give some of the best performances I've ever seen from them. But, the real standout is Gastone Moschin. His steely-eyed Ugo Piazza is one of the best characters ever. The understated way Moschin plays Piazza is brilliant. Finally, I've already referred to the plot, but it is so well written, it deserves another mention. There's not a wasted scene. The final couple twists brought a real smile to my face. They're so unexpected that I was totally caught off-guard. Bravo!Overall, Caliber 9 is a real winner. It's the kind of movie I love discovering and the reason I sit through some total garbage just hoping I'll stumble on something like this. I wish I was a real writer and could better express my feelings toward Caliber 9. I'm not, so I'll end this the way I started - incredible!
tomgillespie2002 Fernando Di Leo was a well-respected director who near-perfected the poliziotteschi genre during the 1970's, taking a genre spear-headed by the likes of Italian film-makers Umberto Lenzi and Carlo Lizzani and delivering tough-as-nails stories about brutish men in a brutish world. Milano Calibro 9, or simply Caliber 9, is one of Di Leo's most highly-regarded works, kicking off his Milieu trilogy (followed by Manhunt and concluded by The Boss) for which he is now best remembered for. And the film is terrific - inspiring future directors such as John Woo and Quentin Tarantino, Milano Calibro 9 begins with an explosion of violence that serves as a warning of what is to come.After a heist that saw a wad of money go missing and the criminals behind it either dead or behind bars, shadowy mafia boss The Americano (Lionel Stander) is left fuming, turning his city upside down in search for his cash. Career criminal Ugo (Gastone Moschin), one of the participants in the robbery, is released from prison and is immediately reprimanded by his psychotic former boss Rocco (Mario Adorf), who fingers Ugo as the culprit. Denying any involvement and trying to go straight, Ugo finds himself pulled back into the criminal world he thought he had left behind by the mafia and the police, the latter trying to pressure him into turning informer. Hooking up with his friend Chino (Philippe Leroy) and girlfriend Nelly (the gorgeous Barbara Bouchet), Ugo plans to turn the tables on his former gang while he still has a fraction of leverage.The film is not without it's problems - occasionally the narrative sags when the action is away from the city's violent underworld, and the sporadic political discussions between the veteran Commissioner (Frank Wolff) and his left-wing underling seem relevant but out of place - but Milano Caliber 9's quality lies within its tone and exhilarating brutality. The opening sees the manic Rocco beat up suspects, tie them together in a cave and blow them up with dynamite. Although the film doesn't maintain the excitement of this early scene, it truly comes alive when the characters - an ensemble of odd-looking barbarians - threaten each other with words, fists, knives or guns. Moschin proves to be a stoic anti-hero, but Adorf steals the show as the arrogant loud-mouth Rocco, resembling Super Mario in a tailored suit and a neater moustache. The twists and turns keep coming right until the end, and left me wanting to see more from a film-maker who has, up to now, completely evaded me.
Darkling_Zeist After viewing Castellari's 'High Crime' and Di Leo's 'Milano Calibro 9′ my life-long obsession with Italian crime cinema began in earnest; and a more suitable baptismal font from which to anoint oneself with euro crime's original sin would be hard to find, as 'Milano Calibro 9' remains one of the towering achievements of Di Leo's woefully undocumented career. From the bravura opening montage; where Di Leo creates a tense, dynamic pulse of underworld chicanery, driven to a tumultuous climax by the dense, throbbing, almost baroque jazz funk of, Luis Bacalov (arguably his finest score). And from then on Di Leo is unerring in his fierce vision of violent double dealings and unflinching vengeance, with nary a skipped beat for the film's duration, a rollicking, breathless yarn gloriously undiluted by soft-bellied tangents, or vapid self indulgence. The gangster milieu simply doesn't get any better than this; as much as I dig on Melville's studied, glacial cool, Di Leo's swarthy mise en scene has balls the size of prize winning pumpkins. Some may find all these myriad of hyperbolic blogs dedicated to a Italian crime cinema a trifle perplexing then, oh yes! They discover 'Milano Calibro 9', and in one brutal pole axing knee to the oily conkers it's all over; one can never return to the anodyne world of mainstream cinema without a considerable degree of incredulity. Forget Hubbard, quantum mechanics or Castaneda, this film WILL change your life.
JasparLamarCrabb Fernando Di Leo's mobster movie is kept buoyed by a ferocious performance by Gastone Moschin and some of Di Leo's very best direction. Moschin, who would find lasting infamy as the dreaded "Fanucci" in THE GODFATHER PART II, plays a recent parolee suspected of ripping off mobster Lionel Stander. He's hounded by psychotic Mario Adorf and ruthless police commissioner Frank Wolff. Di Leo's directs the proceedings with a lot of flair and the movie moves at a very quick clip. Moschin has great chemistry with Barbara Bouchet (as his go go dancing girlfriend) and the entire cast is first rate. Adorf is a standout as the unrelenting Rocco, a mafia foot soldier who NEVER gives up his principles. The excellent music score is by Luis Enriqez Bacalov. A riveting thriller from beginning to end. Echoes of this film can be seen in the likes of RESERVIOR DOGS & THE DEPARTED (note the breath-taking ending).
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