Film: Revolver
Running time: 111 mins
Director: Sergio Sollima
Starring: Oliver Reed, Fabio Testi, Paola Pitagora, Agostina Belli, Frédéric de Pasquale
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Country: Italy/France/West Germany
Region 1 release.
A labyrinth of gritty intrigue, Sergio Sollima’s Euro crime opus Revolver is an often beguiling synergy of tough-guy tropes. Italian genre star Fabio Testi is paired with British icon Oliver Reed in this pessimistic ‘70s thriller which imbues the form with a characteristically Italian élan. Loyalties are tested and torn out on the mean streets, where the last and loudest word is a silenced bullet – but will our heroes live long enough to find out why?
An elegiac prologue sees thief Milo (Italian hunk Testi) tenderly burying his mortally wounded accomplice, as Ennio Morricone’s lugubrious title theme heralds the dawn. Anticipation of a doomed underworld bromance is punctured by the next scene, however, which ditches sentiment for calculating brutality. A politician is brutally slain in a choreographed daylight hit; a genre shift that dumps us on the shadowy, blood-stained boulevards of the political thriller. The last part of this head-scratching triptych unfolds when Oliver Reed’s bad-ass prison governor, Vito, returns home to find his wife missing – and a mysterious voice on the end of the phone demanding the release of Milo (now ensconced in Vito’s gaol) – or else.
Reluctantly going rogue, cop springs criminal, intent on apprehending the blackmailers. But events spiral out of control in a way neither man could have foreseen – and they must forge an uneasy alliance to untangle a murderous conspiracy which threatens to devour them both . . .
An oblique and unusual entry in the early-70s Italian poliziotteschi (crime thriller) cycle, Revolver (1973) is an intriguing melange of classic crime motifs, enlivened by some good ol’ fashioned buddy/baddy bonding, and a malign helter-skelter of plot twists. Whilst it lacks the relentless action and explosive denouement many fans may demand, this stylish, thoughtful work crafts empathetic characters and culminates in a resonant payoff far more effective than the dispatch Godfather: roll credits approach typified by much of the competition. And! It also includes a cameo role by an Italian pop icon wielding surely the most outrageously virile moniker in cop movie history: Daniel Beretta!
Oliver Reed’s alternately anguished/brutal performance here recalls a similar role in the superb and little heralded British thriller Sitting Target. A bullish, imposing physical presence and quasi-fascistic approach to law enforcement (and his frequent threats to “rip your f**kin’ guts out!”) are tempered by moments of pained introversion and – in a harrowing climax – moral turbulence, as Ollie’s true creed is revealed. There’s certainly a lot more going on here than a gratuitous Dirty Harry facsimile, though Reed’s interrogation techniques seem to frequently result in his charges “falling down the stairs.” Sollima competently moulds (or should that be restrains?) this exuberant lead performance, pulling off a dexterous balancing act which ensures the relationship between his two stars remains at the core of the movie – even when the complexities of the plot become near baffling.
Sollima’s rich script explores reversals of status between his leads, a classic theme which bears similarities to his earlier spaghetti westerns, which use mis-matched doubles to explore the complexities of human ‘nature’. In The Big Gundown and Face To Face, the anticipated moral polarities of ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ are undermined. Here, the criminal gains tragic nobility, whilst our hero is ultimately rendered impotent through chilling pragmatism. Reed is even lobbed into jail at one point; his raving accusations blithely dismissed by the authorities. At the outset of the film, Reed coldly subdues a ‘crazy’ inmate, and it’s a frighteningly effective parallel – ‘sanity’ is clearly arbitrated by those in power. And who’s to watch those watchmen?
Us. But are you going to stand up and be counted? Revolver scathingly depicts murder as a tool of authority, a bureaucratic adjustment: a blameless act of self-defence. As a cog in the almighty System, it’s this profound realisation – the crumbling edifice he’s shoring up is a murderous sham – that gives Vito’s character another degree of pathos, as his hubristic righteousness implodes. It’s where he ultimately stands – in what is revealed as practically a neo-fascist state – that precipitates the ultimate moral dilemma of the film, and also provides an unexpectedly sombre slant to proceedings
Morricone’s sumptuous score also deserves plaudits. Married to image, it proves irresistibly moving. The mournful central theme potently amplifies the downbeat mood, and other incidentals deftly shift in tone and style to counterpoint action and intrigue. Where necessary, the sonic aesthetics get innovatively down and dirty, unleashing discordant, oscillating eddies of music concrete and lacerating riffs of fuzz guitar. Revolver offers excellent examples of the composer’s dynamic scoring of (to paraphrase the title of a fine compilation) crime with dissonance.
The film does include a few forgivable inconsistencies, however. Reed’s peculiar dub is perhaps the most glaring. Voicing the role with an American accent that seems dramatically inexplicable: this seems motivated purely by commercial considerations. Another glaring incongruity is the actual weapon brandished by Vito throughout the movie. A stylish silhouette of this is prominent in the trailer, and it’s, well, a magazine loaded piece: certainly not the firearm one might expect, given context. What gives? Did someone consider ‘pistol’ to be a less enticingly exploitative title? Well, this relates to a key line of dialogue in the film; one which candidly underlines its savage expose of realpolitik: “Society has many ways of protecting itself. Red tape…prison bars…and the revolver.”
Low expectations of cops, robbers and a de rigeur chase scene with Fiats were rewardingly surpassed by this spaghetti flavoured shoot ‘em up. In its good ol’ fashioned emphasis on human drama, coupled with bracingly gloomy cynicism, Revolver is an ambitious and gripping film that ultimately transcends the clichés of its genre. If you enjoy stylish, intriguing fare such as The Conformist and Investigation Of A Citizen Under Suspicion, but prefer a little more pulp in your fiction, you’ll dig this! DJO
