The Boss (1973)

Original title: Il Boss

Director: Fernando Di Leo

Writers: Peter McCurtin, Fernando Di Leo

Composer: Luis Bacalov

Starring: Henry Silva, Richard Conte, Gianni Garko, Antonia Santilli, Corrado Gaipa, Marino Mase, Howard Ross, Claudio Nicastro, Gianni Musy, Mario Pisu, Vittorio Caprioli, Pier Paolo Capponi

More info: IMDb

Plot: A bomb attack in a cinema in Palermo kills all the fellows of Attardi's clan a part from Cocchi. He immediately understands that the author of the bomb attack is Daniello from Don Corrasco's clan. Cocchi is determined to revenge. His actions, including the Corrasco's daughter kidnap, in a Palermo in which also the police is corrupted, will soon destroy the old equilibrium giving the way to an escalation of violence that won't save anyone. If Cocchi will survive to the mafia war he will be the new boss for sure.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

A dozen years ago I saw this for the first time and I didn't think much of it.  I recall it bored the piss out of me.  Now that I've seen it again I'm appreciating more of it.  Yeah, it's still a slow picture with A LOT of talking and a little action (the opposite of what you normally get in a Mafia picture, right?) but it's also a more mature film for Di Leo.  It's grounded in reality and if there's room for humor, it's dark.  There's no comic relief in this one.  Henry Silva kicks ass and looks great doing it.  It's one of his finer performances.  The story isn't all that complicated but there are a lot of double crosses that make for an interesting watch.  As I said, it's a talky flick that drags a little because of it but when there killing to be done, it's very violent and all kinds of fun.  The ending is great and a title card tells us it's to be continued but I can't find anything that follows this up. Someone suggested it's Di Leo's way of saying this type of thing goes on and on.  That sounds reasonable enough.  It's too bad there wasn't a direct sequel.  The Raro Blu-ray (from the Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection volume 1 set) looks marvelous.  It comes with a 20+ minute featurette with interviews from the cast and crew that provide a good deal of insight to the picture.