Gang War in Milan: Limited Edition – Raro Video UK (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1973
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Writers: Umberto Lenzi, Franco Enna
Cast: Antonio Sabato, Philippe Leroy, Carla Romanellii, Marissa Mell

Release Date: November 27th, 2023
Approximate running time: 100 Minutes 16 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: 18 (UK)
Sound: LPCM Mono Italian, LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £16.99 (UK)

"Antonio Sabato (Seven Blood Stained Orchids) stars as Salvatore “Toto” Cangemi a pimp with a large-scale prostitution operation in Milan. When his favoured hooker is found murdered in his club Toto and his gang hit the street looking for the culprit. French gangster Le Capitane (Philippe Leroy, Le trou) muscles his way in, looking to use Toto’s network to offload his drugs. Toto wants none of it but no one says no to Le Capitaine and a gang war escalates on the streets of Milan as each man refuses to back down." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, “High Definition digital transfer from the original camera negative".

Gang War in Milan comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 43.2 GB

Feature: 31.2 GB

Though this release and Raro’s 2014 release come from the same source, the result is transfers that are like night and day. This release’s transfer is a noticeable improvement over Raro’s 2014 release, which was a VC-1 video transfer. Colors look slightly more vibrant, black levels are stronger, and compression is superior. Another area where this new transfer is better is that it retains an organic look, whereas Raro’s 2014 release had some digital noise reduction.

Audio: 3.75/5 (LPCM Mono Italian), 3.5/5 (LPCM Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, an LPCM mono mix in Italian and an LPCM mono mix in English. The differences between the two audio mixes are minimal in terms of quality and range. Though both are limited in range, they are both more than satisfactory mixes that always present dialog clearly, everything sounds balanced, and the score sounds appropriately robust. Also, there are some mild instances of background noise which never become too intrusive. Included are removable English subtitles for the Italian language track and removable English SDH for the English language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include an image gallery (12 images -  press book/stills), an introduction by Mike Malloy (6 minutes 6 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), a video essay titled Lenzi Violenta by Troy Howarth, author of Make Them Die Slowly: The Kinetic Cinema of Umberto Lenzi (44 minutes 26 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with Andrew Nette, reversible cover art, and a 20-page booklet (limited to 3000 copies) with cast & crew information, an essay titled Milan’s Burning written by Roberto Curti, an essay titled The Eurocrime of Gang War in Milan: Lenzi’s first and Sabato’s Best written by Mike Malloy, and Umberto Lenzi Biography.

Summary:

Where Lucio Fucli is often remembered as' The Italian Godfather of Gore ’, one could easily argue that Umberto Lenzi is' The Italian Godfather of Sadism’. And though many of his contemporaries were known to push the boundaries when it came to sexually explicit and violent content, very few of his contemporaries approached violence with the sadistic enthusiasm that ran deep throughout Lenzi’s 1970’s and early 1980’s output. With this cycle of films reaching its apex with what is arguably his most violent film, Cannibal Ferox,

Also during this era, Umberto Lenzi primarily worked on two Giallo (Italian thrillers) and Poliziotteschi (Italian police procedurals). And though he has since become more recognized for his work in the latter, his output in the Poliziotteschi genre features some of this genre's best films, most notably films like Almost Human, Rome Armed to the Teeth, Violent Naples, From Corleone to Brooklyn, and Gang War in Milan.

Content-wise, where the majority of Italian crime films focus on the struggle between law enforcement and criminals, this is not the case with Gang War in Milan, which shifts the focus towards two rival criminal organizations and their impending power struggle. And the police serve as not much more than background fodder. Fortunately, for a film filled with unlikable characters, the result is a lot of fun to watch as they try to one-up each other.

From a visual standpoint, Umberto Lenzi’s direction is rock solid as he really finds his groove during the more brutal moments. And for a film that is filled with many moments of brutality, Gang War in Milan’s most shining moment in this regard is a torture scene that involves electrocution and genitals. Pacing is never an issue as everything moves along at a breakneck pace. Though Gang War in Milan is not as action-heavy as most Poliziotteschi films, when action does erupt, it is done with great precision. Also, the plot has a few weird twists that further spice up this well-made dish of exploitative cinema.

From a performance standpoint, Gang War in Milan focuses most of its attention on its two leading men, Antonio Sabato (Spasmo), the Milan crime boss, and Philippe Leroy (The Frightened Woman), in the role of a French gangster at odds with Sabato’s character. And though both of these actors more than fill the role of being a leading man, it is two lesser characters that ultimately leave the strongest impression. And these two performances are by Marissa Mell (Danger: Diabolik) in the role of this film’s femme fatale and Antonio Casagrande (Beatrice Cenci) in the role of Sabato’s right-hand man. His character also happens to be the one whose genitals get electrocuted. Ultimately, Umberto Lenzi's Gang War in Milan marks his first foray into the Poliziotteschi genre with an explosive film that is both entertaining and rife with exploitative elements.

Raro Video UK gives Gang War in Milan its best home video release to date, recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer