Milano calibro 9

Fernando Di Leo's masterpiece and the best-written film in the whole cycle. An ex-con walks out of prison and straight into the suspicion of both his old gang and the police, all of whom think he hid a missing payoff. Gastone Moschin plays him almost silent, coiled, giving nothing away.

Di Leo takes the American crime film and adds an actual political argument, staged as a running debate between two cops about whether crime is individual sin or economic inevitability. The prog band Osanna's score drives it. The ending is perfect and brutal.

The one poliziottesco to watch if you watch only one.