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Italy
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1977
Directed
by Enzo G. Castellari
Starring
Fabio Testi
David Hemmings
Sherry Buchanan
Color |
93 Minutes |
Not Rated
Format: DVD (R0 - NTSC)
Blue Underground
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Music
from the film
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La
Via Della Droga
MP3 format - 3.9 MB
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SNEAK
PREVIEW
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DVD Release Date: April
25, 2006 |
Whether
he was working in the milieu of the spaghetti western, war,
the poliziotteschi or post-apocalyptic sci-fi, Italian
director Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma)
always excelled at staging action scenes. His films may have
suffered from other deficiencies — weak or ridiculous scripts,
poor special effects, lack of funding — but when it came to
action set-pieces and exciting stunt work he rarely fell short.
On April 25th Blue Underground unleashes three Castellari titles
on DVD, all of them gritty, violent crime dramas from the 1970s.
First up: 1977's The Heroin Busters,
known in Italy as La Via Della Droga ("The Street
of Drugs").
Revolver's
Fabio Testi plays —
of all things —
"Fabio", an Italian police officer specializing in
anti-narcotics operations. Seconded to Interpol, the international
crime fighting agency, he's working deep undercover tracing
a heroin pipeline that stretches from Hong Kong to Rome. Only
his Interpol boss, hard-nosed British detective Mike Hamilton
(David Hemmings), knows Fabio's true identity. After a precisely-planned
sting at a Rome hotel goes awry, allowing a sizable quantity
of smack to slip through their grasp, Hamilton has Fabio arrested
and thrown in detention with a well-connected junkie/dealer
named Girro (Wolfango Soldati, looking a lot like late Nirvana
frontman Kurt Cobain). Winning Girro's trust, Fabio arranges
for their escape; he uses the addict to make contact with higher-ups
in the organization. But his cover is eventually blown, so the
pipeline's enforcer in Rome, Mr. Gianni (Joshua Sinclair, AKA
John Loffredo), dispatches thugs to rub him out. As Fabio scrambles
for his life with killers in hot pursuit, Hamilton races frantically
to locate him... Until then, the cocky narc will have to rely
on his own wits and skills for survival.
A pretty straightforward
plot, true, but one wouldn't know it from opening ten minutes.
Set to Goblin's guitar-driven main title theme and whipsawing
with confusing rapidity between Hong Kong, Cartegena, New York
and Amsterdam, these dialog-free scenes are intended to establish
the key geographic points in the pipeline — but are more than
likely to just prove disorienting. It isn't until about a quarter-hour
in that things start making some modicum of sense. (Castellari,
who often takes small roles in his movies, can be seen as the
cap-wearing guy in the Amsterdam footage.) The script drags
out the 'revelation' that Fabio is an undercover cop despite
the fact it's pretty obvious from the outset; any potential
for character development is set aside as the story wanders
off on relatively unimportant tangents, chiefly the quest of
Girro and his actress/prostitute girlfriend (Zombie
Holocaust's Sherry Buchanan) for their next fix and the
strong-arm tactics used by Gianni's henchmen to collect money.
(I suppose such scenes are the 'message' portion of the film,
intended to hammer home just how degrading the life of a junkie
can get —
at one point we see a guy licking spilled heroin off of a toilet
seat. And to cram in some completely gratuitous nudity, Buchanan
has a sex session with 'lipstick lesbian' Patrizia Webley in
order to raise some quick cash.) We learn absolutely nothing
about Fabio, what motivates him to be a narc, or his relationship
with his boss/friend Hamilton. As for the latter, we know that
Hemmings' character is a Brit, cusses a lot and chews on twigs
in lieu of smoking cigarettes. That's it.
Heroin
Busters doesn't really
spring to life until the final half hour, which is nothing but
a prolonged chase sequence —
starting on foot, progressing to motorcycles and finally going
airborne as Fabio turns the tables and becomes the hunter instead
of the hunted. Here Castellari is on his surest footing, demonstrating
his knack for making otherwise ordinary, run-of-the-mill action
set-pieces exciting and involving. Some surprisingly effective
miniatures —
something you don't often see in his films —
elevate the plane vs. plane climax, which also features some
daredevil stunt flying using real aircraft. Despite their thinly
written parts, Testi makes for a likable, laid-back tough guy
(although the very ‘70s outfit he wears throughout the film
is rather gay-looking by today's standards; he could be the
'Euro drug dealer' member of the Village People) while Hemmings
(Deep Red) seems to
be enjoying himself playing a hard-boiled cop —
he even gets to join in on the mayhem, punching out a suspect
and capping a few thugs with a pistol.
It may take too long
to get going, but the appealing leads and action-packed third
act, not to mention a cool Goblin score, should make Heroin
Busters an agreeable time-waster for Euro-Cult collectors.
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| Realistically,
the most one can hope for when it comes to European cult flicks
on North American DVD is seeing the movie uncut, in its proper
aspect ratio. Along with a tiny handful of other companies, Blue
Underground has led the way in bringing such films to our shores
in the best condition possible, often with nifty extras to compliment
the film. In the case of Heroin Busters
we get a sharp, splendid-looking anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1)
transfer taken from a dirt/damage-free print; the digital Mono
audio track is clean and clear. (Only the English dub is offered,
but the film was shot with the actors mouthing their lines in
English anyway; Hemmings provided his own voice in post-sync.)
A commentary track with Castellari, recorded in 2004 and moderated
by BU's David Gregory, has the amiable director (who speaks English
fairly well) sharing a general overview of his ‘70s
crime oeuvre
and numerous details of Heroin Busters'
production in particular.
The original theatrical trailer —
which spoils too many of the film's best stunts —
is also included.
3/28/06 |
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