Poliziotteschi

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Maurizio Merli on the DVD cover for Napoli violenta (1976)

Poliziotteschi is a nickname for a sub-genre of crime and action film that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and became popular in the 1970s. Poliziotteschi films are also known as:

poliziesco,
poliziottesco,
polizia,
Italo-crime,
Euro-crime or simply
Italian crime films.

Although the genre began already in the 1960s, it was highly influenced by American rough-edged police thrillers of the early 1970s. These include Dirty Harry, The French Connection and Serpico. Poliziotteschi films became very popular in the mid-70s after the downfall of spaghetti western. The genre lost its mainstream popularity in the late 1970s as comedy and horror films started topping the Italian box office. Poliziotteschi films are today less well-known than the more popular Italian "genre films" such as gialli, spaghetti westerns and horror films, but are still published by DVD companies specializing in cult films.

The genre was kickstarted into action in 1972 by La Polizia Ringrazia (="With the thanks of the Police") a movie starring Enrico Maria Salerno as tough-as-nails police inspector Bertone who wades through crime and filth feeling increasingly harder to have the culprits duly punished and Mariangela Melato as a progressist investigative reporter with which he shares a relationship made of mostly mutual inconfessed attraction. The movie was directed by Steno (=Stefano Vanzina) and immediately spawned a legion of variations, imitiations, copies and rip-offs.

Italian social and political climate of the time contributed to make the movies' echo even bigger; after the rapid growth and economic expansion of the 60s, the 70s started with a recession fostered by the 1973 oil blockade, the cities turned gloomier and more insecure, episodes of diffused micro-criminality did much to shake the public sense of safety and political terrorism both of neo-fascist origin (often backed by "rogue" elements of the secret services and the CIA) and of leftist-revolutionary inspiration featured heavily on the media.

Recurring elements in poliziotteschi films include graphic and brutal violence, car chases, vigilantism, heists, gun fights and corruption up to the highest level.