Rulers of the City: Limited Edition – Raro Video UK (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1976
Director: Fernando Di Leo
Writers: Fernando Di Leo, Peter Berling
Cast: Jack Palance, Al Cliver, Harry Baer, Gisela Hahn, Enzo Pulcrano, Carmelo Reale, Edmund Purdom, Vittorio Caprioli

Release Date: March 24th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 96 Minutes 2 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: 15 (UK)
Sound: LPCM Mono Italian, LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £14.99 (UK)

"Tony (Harry Baer, Fox and His Friends), a debt collector for a small-time Roman boss, dreams of making it big. He meets Rick (Al Cliver, Zombie Flesh Eaters) and decides to back him up in order to screw over an American gangster, called Scarface Manzari (Jack Palance, Batman), who monopolizes all the crime in the city. But Rick is driven by revenge on Manzari because he had treacherously killed his father after a robbery years earlier." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, “2020 4K restoration of the original negative."

Rulers of the City comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 33.4 GB

Feature: 29.7 GB

This is another solid upgrade from Raro Video UK when compared to their earlier 2012 Blu-ray release. Colors have never looked better; image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid.

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. Though both audio tracks sound clean, clear, and balanced, they are limited in range. That said, the Italian language track has a fuller sound compared to the English language track. 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 interview with Eurocrime authority Mike Malloy on the childhood revenge theme in poliziotteschi (13 minutes 6 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival featurette titled Violent City, featuring comments by director Fernando Di Leo, actor Al Cliver, editor Amedeo Giomini, and weapons expert Gilberto Galimberti (15 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo in Italian with non-removable English subtitles), reversible cover art, and a 12-page booklet (limited to 3000 copies) with cast & crew information, and an essay titled Running in Hell: Italian Crime Films and Fernando Di Leo’s Poetics written by Francesco Massaccesi.

Summary:

Fernando Di Leo directed Rulers of the City. He’s a filmmaker who is most known for his work in the Poliziotteschi genre. His notable films include To Be Twenty, Slaughter Hotel, and Caliber 9.

A debt collector joins forces with a man seeking revenge against a crime boss who rules the city.

When it comes to Poliziotteschi, Fernando Di Leo stands in a class all his own. Though there are films in this genre directed by other directors that are on par with his most celebrated Poliziotteschi, no other filmmaker influenced this genre more than he did. That said, even one of Fernando Di Leo’s lesser Poliziotteschi is superior to most of his contemporaries' films; case in point, Rulers of the City.

Though revenge is central to the story that unfolds in Rulers of the City, its narrative has two stories that intersect by the time the finale arrives. One of these stories revolves around a debt collector named Tony who wants the other guys he works with to respect him, and to prove his worth he takes on a dangerous job of collecting from a notorious crime boss nicknamed Scarface. The other story revolves around Rick, a man who works for Scarface. Rick is not your average criminal; he has ulterior motives for working with Scarface that are tied to the death of his father. These two characters' stories intersect, and they work together to bring down Scarface.

This cast is one of the weaker ones that Fernando Di Leo worked with; that said, the main draw is Jack Palance (The Mercenary) in the role of a crime boss named Manzari, aka Scarface. He is an actor known for delivering sinister and cold-hearted performances, and once again he delivers an exemplary performance. When it comes to the two leads, Harry Baer (Fox and His Friends) and Al Cliver (Zombie), who portray Tony and Rick, they both deliver one-note performances. Of these two performances, Al Cliver’s bland performance was especially disappointing.

Though Rulers of the City is not part of the Milieu Trilogy, content-wise, it bears many similarities to the three films that make up the Milieu Trilogy. Fernando Di Leo’s direction is solid, especially when it comes to action set pieces. The narrative opens and closes with its two best action sequences. Also, though there is a car chase, a staple of Poliziotteschi cinema, Rulers of the City does something different with a lengthy on-foot chase. The well-constructed narrative has an ample amount of tense moments, and it does a superb job building to a bloody shootout finale. Composer Luis Bacalov (Django), a frequent collaborator of Fernando Di Leo, delivers another excellent score that reinforces the mood. Ultimately, despite its shortcomings, Rulers of the City is a highly entertaining film, making it a must-see for fans of Poliziotteschi cinema.

Raro Video UK gives Rulers of the City its best home video release to date, recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer