La Mafia fait la loi

Damiano Damiani was simply fantastic at making these detective films with social criticism that delved into the mafia-influenced conditions of Italian society in the 1960s and 70s. This film doesn't exactly win you over in the opening half hour and you get a bit lost in the jumble of names, but it gets better and better as the runtime goes on. It's brilliantly directed (it flows by like water), it's critically apt, and the final scene with the potentates on the balcony somehow aptly concludes that the fight with the mafia is futile and perhaps even lost beforehand. Claudia is as beautiful as ever, Franco Nero is boyishly charismatic even at his young age, and Lee J. Cobb accurately captures the character of Don Mariano, whom everyone fears and holds in awe.... there, in Sicily, with its own laws and social hierarchy. (18/04/2016)