Mit reinen Händen

From a strictly professional standpoint, this is the best movie ever made by Sergiu Nicolaescu. It's done with a pretty good narrative feeling, a clever insight in shooting the action scenes, and even a certain sense of building the characters - who, although as sketchy and shallow as in most of the Nicolaescu movies, were able yet to seduce the young and naive audience of the early seventies.

The big problem remains the typical one for that epoch: political hypocrisy. The so-called "hero", a communist veteran who is appointed a police commissioner (Mihai Roman, played by Ilarion Ciobanu), is positively angelic: intelligent, wise, honest, resourceful, generous, kind and good-hearted. Of course, he MUST confront his old tormentor, commissioner Stefan Patulea (Alexandru Dobrescu), who beat the crap out of him years ago, when he was just a poor innocent subversive agent, nicely and heroically conspiring to deliver his motherland to the soviets - and now, of course, Patulea MUST be still an asshole, bent to get rid of the valiant communist (who, koochy-koo, doesn't have the least suspicion!) Fortunately, the one to save the day is the courageous, manly, gritty, trigger-quick, silver-armor knight Tudor Miclovan (Sergiu Nicolaescu), about whom the communist leader Nicolae (Emanoil Petrut) explicitly states: "He says he's apolitical, but in truth he's one of ours..." This kind of tricks were used in those years to coat the toxic pills of communist ideology in the sweet couch of thrills and adventure. Definitely, it's Nicolaescu main asset - to always be both with the devil, and with the candle (as an old Romanian saying goes...)

Look at the two actors and compare them in pictures and movie scenes: different generations of actors, totally different cultures at the time, but Ilarion shares the same coolness factor with Harrison.

Romania really had some amazing actors. And a huge thanks to them for keeping us free, on the inside during the dark times.

Oh my God, baby, Sergiu is just doing some marvelous **** again in this movie, just like in all others. His dialogues are sharp and to the point, his mind is troubled and obsessed, and his bullets are prompt and to the head. He is a master.

only an exercise to present , in regime limits, a honest thriller. cops - good and bad, the perfect police officer, few communist references, game with regime as proof of independence, shootings, feelings, action and slices from Romanian society in las years of WW II. nothing new. but it remains almost seductive. for the generations for who Nicolaescu films was perfect drug. for the kids of today as alternative to video games. for the nostalgia of old men who remembers their youth. and for a vision about national past not really pink but almost idyllic. it is a good film. more good today, after death of Sergiu Nicolaescu because emotions -circle for his ash - are perfect key to discover the nice parts for each movie directed by him. in fact, it is only testimony. about a time. and about an image of past, not very correct - Oastea Domnului was a respectable Eastern Orthodox organization as minor argument.

This movie is the best combination between a police and a political movie, with two good heroes, one a political activist and the other a policeman by education. Both of them want to stop the crime in the city, even that their methods are at the start completely different. As they came to know each other they unite and together form the most powerful team against the criminal gangs. It is a classic of Sergiu Nicolaescu.