Il boss

The third and final film in Fernando Di Leo's excellent Millieu trilogy, "Il Boss" of 1973 is an absolute masterpiece that easily ranks among the most brilliant Mafia films ever brought to screen. Director Di Leo had created one of Crime Cinema's all-time highlights already with "Milano Calibro 9" in 1972, and while the succeeding "La Mala Ordina" (aka.) "Manhunt" from the same year was still excellent, but slightly inferior, "Il Boss" equals the brilliance of the first film. Unlike its two predecessors, which played in Milan, "Il Boss" takes place in Palermo, Sicily. The film which begins with a memorably brutal opening sequence already, delivers raw action and excessive violence as well as a very realistic insight into corruption and organized crime. The film is tough-minded and uncompromising from the very beginning, and the characters, all of which are brutal, immoral and violent differ not in their moral values, but just in their toughness. The stone- faced Henry Silva in the lead alone makes this film an absolute must-see for every lover of crime cinema. Silva makes the toughest and most charismatic Mafia hit-man ever to have appeared on screen in his leading role of Nick Lanzetta, and the doubtlessly greatest role ever played by Silva, generally one of the greatest actors in Italian crime cinema.

This film, which revolves around power struggles and a kidnapping within Sicily's organized crime, delivers tons of raw action and sadistic violence as well as fine portion of criticism of social circumstances and corruption. Apart from that, it also has a unique atmosphere and gives a stunning and immensely realistic portrayal of the power struggles within the mafia. "Il Boss" is a film of superb, ruthless characters, and equally superb performances. As mentioned above, Henry Silva is one of my favorite actors and he is absolutely brilliant in the leading role of Nick Lanzetta here. Lanzetta is arguably THE toughest Mafia-hit-man character in Cinema-history, and Silva is the perfect, no, the ONLY choice to play the role. Yes, this truly is a film that makes it hard not to talk in superlatives all the time. The other performances are entirely great too, be it Richard Conte as a Mafia Boss, Pier Paolo Capponi, or Spaghetti Western star Gianni Garko, who is excellent in the role of a sleazy corrupt police detective. The ravishing beauty Antonia Santilli is also superb in the female lead as a seductive mobster's daughter, for unknown reasons she sadly didn't appear in too many other films. The brilliant score by Luis Enríquez Bacalov contributes a lot to the film ingenious atmosphere and general mood. Brutal, Tough-Minded and absolutely brilliant "Il Boss" is a personal favorite of mine that easily ranks among the greatest Mafia-flicks ever made! I could go on praising this film for a long time, but I will just finish my review with a recommendation: Watch this film as soon as you can! This is Italian genre-cinema at its finest, and an absolute must see for every lover of Cult-cinema!

This movie shows it like it is. In this movie Ferdinando di Leo was brave enough to use real unofficial incidents that were happening at the time,he even used some real names, or changed some by changing only a letter from the name, After this movie came, Ferdinando became paraniod that someone was going to "take care of him" for the content of this movie but nothing happend. This movie is great because, Di Leo doesn't make out the characters to be charismatic role models, but the cold blood assassins they really are. I give this movie 2 thumbs up. Plus and the end of the movie it sais to be continued, but not because theirs going to be a sequel, but becuase he just did a piece of mafia history, and the mafia continues, no good endings or bad endings, just a piece of history.

I agree with the only other individual who has commented on this movie, it's a real 'mafia-action' classic from the early seventies and is gritty, well plotted and acted and has a very high body-count !

Our hero (or rather anti-hero), is a hit-man for the mafia, who proves his worth by rubbing-out half of a rival gang, whilst they were enjoying a private screening of some Scandinavian porn, launching grenades from the projection room- into the auditorium.......

I don't want to give away too-much but this film has enough twists and turns -double and treble crosses to keep any fan of the genre glued to the screen.

Also has a great score by Luis E. Bacalov - the main theme comes in times of action and thunders by like an express train carrying an angry Keith Moon, backed with fuzz-guitar, then flips into frantic jazz piano (has to be heard to be appreciated).

Has to be seen too !

I saw this for the first time recently aft reading a glowing review by Coventry n the other factor which pulled me into seeing this is Silva.

They say that this one is the final part of Fernando Di Leo's "Milieu Trilogy" also including Caliber 9 (1972) and The Italian Connection (1972).

I haven't seen the other two but this one ends with a note stating to be continued.

But a sequel was never made.

Silva is very convincing in the role of that of a ruthless hitman who doesn't hesitate to ill treat a hot nymphomaniac n is obsessed with photos of women with big juggs.

The opening scene of the theatre is very brutal n some of the shoot outs are pretty violent.

The only three things which bothers me, how the character of Silva slipped out of the shack?

What was the conversation towards the end just before when the movie ends with a note to be continued.

The movie has lots of unwanted chit chats.

The first Fernando Di Leo film I've seen, and I heard it was one of his lesser films. But wow, if this is true than I can't wait to see the rest because I am impressed. Firstly it opens with a bloody, explosive scene borrowed from by Quentin Tarantino in "Inglorious Bastards," which makes Quentin's version a tad lamer. After that it doesn't lose its momentum, and were given an hour and a half of cool violence by an Italian hitman with a killer soundtrack playing in the background. The lady love in this film, a nympho, the daughter of the "Don" was also nice to look at. Overall an original film with decent characters and little dull moments. A good poliziotteschi.