Lt. Domenico Malacarne (Luc Merenda, Torso) is not the saintly officer of the law he appears to be. Although he’s technically on the side of all that is good, he doesn’t exactly play by the book to enforce it. And there’s plenty to enforce, given his department’s new hard-line policy against gangland violence, but how much the lieutenant adheres to it is another story.

From Eurocrime specialist Fernando Di Leo, Shoot First… Die Later clearly drew influence from William Friedkin’s The French Connection, one of the films repsonsible for igniting the Italians’ new approach to police pictures. Here, Di Leo approaches the material with a mix of noir and pulp that reaches for the ring of gritty realism while also reveling in the fact that it’s still a piece of crowd-pleasing cinema.

He mostly succeeds, much of it due to Merenda’s magnetic presence and the major subplot, examining the torn allegiance Lt. Malacarne’s father (Salvo Randone, My Dear Killer), also on the force, comes to feel toward his son. Sticking out is the use of a pet-toting resident as comic relief, primarily because his arc ends with a huge tonal shift (not to mention an act that would get PETA all riled).

On the plus side, bookending Shoot First are expert car chases. The first runs a breathtaking six minutes, partially through tiny Italian alleys, and is one of the all-time greats. If more people saw the film, they’d been inclined to agree. —Rod Lott

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