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Released by: Raro Video
Released on: May 28, 2013.
Director: Fernando Di Leo
Cast: Luc Merenda, Richard Conte, Delia Boccardo, Raymond Pellegrin, Salvo Randone
Year: 1974
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The Movie:
Although it was only ever released on VHS in Europe, Fernando Di Leo's 1974 cop thriller Shoot First, Die Later was widely bootlegged and offered up for sale by various grey market dealers and as such, it found a bit of a cult following. Now, almost forty years after it was made, Raro bring it to Blu-ray in its proper aspect ratio and with some good extras too.
They story introduces us to Lieutenant Dominic Malacarne (Luc Merenda), a hero cop who is secretly on the take, accepting money from gangsters for turning a blind eye to their bootleg cigarette operation. He's managed to keep this a secret for the most part, even from his aging father (Salvo Randone), a fellow policeman who couldn't be prouder of his son's accomplishments with a badge and a gun. After he meets a reporter named Sandra (Delia Boccardo) at a press conference, they hit it off and she's soon offering him her support as well.
Things get complicated when some of the gangsters Dominic is involved with want a favor from him. It seems that their involvement in the disappearance of a Swiss national has caused some controversy and they need to make a couple of things disappear, chief amongst them being a witness in the form of an eccentric old man and his cat. There's a piece of evidence in police custody that they'd also like, and they insist that Dominic retrieve it for them - the only problem is that his father is the one who holds it, and Dominic doesn't want to get his old man involved in this mess.
Di Leo sets a dark tone with this one right from the start, when a gang of mobsters come into a warehouse with machine guns blazing, blowing the kneecaps and shins off of a few competing thugs. From here, we meet Malacarne (even the characters last name has a dark slant to it), the corrupt cop nobody knows is on the take. Merenda is excellent in the lead, he plays the part so well that you can't quite bring yourself to hate Dominic, even if you know that you should. He's a complete bastard, willfully exploiting anyone he can to get ahead but Merenda brings enough charm to the part that you can understand why the beautiful Delia Boccardo's character would fall for him. There's depth here, well written characters in a twisting turning story that never sacrifices plot for action but which is never short on thrills.
The flashiest scene in the movie is a lengthy car chase in which Merenda and his partner give chase through some crowded city streets and down a series of narrow alleyways. Tightly edited and shot in a very claustrophobic manner, it's an exciting and violent scene. There's also a remarkably grim scene involving the old man and his cat that might make animal lovers a bit uncomfortable (though it doesn't appear that the poor thing was actually killed, thankfully). Politically speaking, Di Leo doesn't pull any punches here. The movie makes some bold statements about police corruption in the Italy of the day, showing how those with authority are able to take advantage of their place for personal gain. This one goes in some very unexpected directions before the end credits hit the screen, making it one of Di Leo's more interesting and layered crime pictures.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Raro presents Shoot First, Die Later on Blu-ray in VC-1 encoded 1.85.1 widescreen in full 1080p high definition. The transfer isn't always mind blowing in detail and texture but it sure is a nice step up from the grey market and bootleg releases that have made the rounds over the years - but this should theoretically go without saying. Some softness that appears to be inherent in the original photography comes through here and on top of that there does look to be some noise reduction applied in spots but it doesn't smear the image the way the worst offenders tend to. Some minor noise is visible at times, but colors look excellent throughout (or at least as good as they should, this is a fairly somber looking movie) and black levels are fairly strong. Some shots show what looks like natural grain and film like texture, others do not - all in all though, the movie looks pretty good here.
Audio options are provided in English and Italian, both mixes in LPCM 2.0 Mono, with optional subtitles (or more specifically, dubtitles - which puzzlingly rename Merenda's character Dominique!) available in English only. Both tracks sound pretty good here; there no problems with any serious hiss or distortion to note and the levels are properly balanced throughout. The score sounds good, there's some decent depth to the proceedings and for an older title, things sound fine.
Raro have included two new featurettes on this release, the twenty-four minute long Master Of The Game and the twenty-one minute The Second Round Of The Game. The two pieces cover similar ground and maybe could have been cut into one longer documentary piece but either way, there's some interesting stuff to be found here including some vintage interviews with the late Di Leo himself, input from Mirenda and thoughts from some of the people they worked with. The focus isn't just on this particular film but instead on Di Leo's work in the Italian crime film industry as a whole - between the two featurettes we get a pretty good feel for what makes his work unique and where some of his political leanings were going at the time he made these movies. Interesting stuff.
Aside from that we also get North American and Italian theatrical trailers, menus and chapter selection. The disc also includes a nice full color insert booklet of liner notes that offer up an essay on the picture and some nice details about the movie and the people who made it.
The Final Word:
Shoot First, Die Later is a great mix of action, suspense and drama - everything that you'd want out of a good seventies cop thriller and then some. It's well paced, well shot, and it features and impressive cast and some memorable set pieces in addition to a few unexpected twists. Raro's Blu-ray offers up this one on home video domestically for the first time in good shape and with a few cool extras too. Eurocrime enthusiasts already know they need this.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
