Milano Calibro 9 (released internationally as Caliber 9) is a 1972 Italian neo-noir film directed by Fernando Di Leo.
Ugo Piazza (Gastone Moschin) is a small-time Milan hoodlum fresh out of jailed, harangued by both the police and his ex-partners-in-crime. Everyone is convinced that he ripped off $300,000note from his employers, despite his adamant denial. And everyone, his girlfriend Nelly (Barbara Bouchet); his former partner-in-crime Rocco (Mario Adorf); his old friend Chino (Philippe Leroy), and even the police, want to know where he hid it.
It is part of the poliziotteschi subgenre of violent crime thrillers popularized in Italy in the late 1960s and '70s, inspired by Hollywood films like The French Connection, Dirty Harry, and Death Wish. Director Fernando Di Leo made a string of these films, forming a Thematic Series called "The Milieu Trilogy."
The funky jazz-rock score was composed by Luis Bacalov (of Django infamy) and performed by prog trio Osanna.
Milano Calibro 9 provides examples of:
- The '70s: The setting is then-contemporary Milan, at the time one of the most high-crime cities in Italy.
- Anti-Hero: Ugo Piazza is a cold, calculating criminal whose Long Game sees him manipulate his former partners into killing each other so he can reap the rewards. Then again, they're also criminals.
- Anyone Can Die: By the time the credits roll, Rocco and the Police Commissioner are the only major characters still alive.
- Ax-Crazy: Rocco Musco is very enthusiastic about hurting/killing people, whether or not they deserve it.
- Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: The Commissioner is a borderline fascist hamstrung by bureaucracy from catching the real criminals, and his second-in-command is a reformist liberal who's nonetheless bogged down by the same corrupt system. They only manage to catch the bad guys after everyone's finished double-crossing/killing each other.
- The Don: Don Vincenzo, Ugo's old boss. Subverted in that he's pretty much just a Don In-Name-Only, a blind old man who's lost all but one of his capos, steamrolled by the likes of Rocco and The Americano.
- Downer Ending: Ugo is betrayed by Nelly and killed, Chino and Don Vincenzo are dead, Nelly is (probably) dead, and Rocco is going to prison for a very long time.
- Dub Name Change: In the English dub, Vice-Commissioner Mercuri is renamed "Fonzino", and The Americano becomes "The Mikado".
- Femme Fatale: Ugo's go-go dancer girlfriend Nelly Bordon.
- Film Noir: Of the "neo" variety.
- Inherent in the System: The Vice-Commissioner blames the corrupt socio-economic and justice systems for the rise in crime, and the police's inability to go after the real crooks. His boss disagrees.
- I Own This Town: The Americano is an ultra-wealthy money launderer who has Milan under his thumb, and the police are helpless to stop him. It takes a pissed-off, old school mafioso like Chino to finally take him down.
- Long Game: Overlaps with Batman Gambit. Ugo's scheme sees him going to prison for several years, play both of his former gangs (which are direct rivals) against each other, all while keeping the police off his back by convincing them he's reformed.
