Street Law
Street Law is a 1974 film from Italy, directed by Enzo G. Castellari, running 105 minutes. reelscum files it under poliziotteschi and vigilante.
- Year
- 1974 · 1970s films
- Country
- Italy
- Runtime
- 105 min
- Director
- Enzo G. Castellari
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (44/100)
- Also known as
- The Citizen Rebels · Street Law · Vigilante II · Revenge
Defined in the glossary: Poliziotteschi, Vigilante
Castellari's Death Wish. An ordinary engineer, brutalised and ignored, arms himself.
Enzo Castellari's Italian answer to Death Wish, in which a mild engineer is beaten and humiliated during a robbery, gets no help from the police, and decides to take on the criminal underworld himself. Franco Nero plays the everyman pushed past endurance, and the film shares the vigilante cycle's reactionary anger.
Castellari stages the action with his usual flair, and Nero brings more vulnerability than the American vigilante films allowed. It is a key crossover between the poliziottesco and the vigilante picture, and one of the more thoughtful examples of either.
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Written about
- Poliziotteschi: the Italian cop film, 1973 to 1980
A moustache, a Magnum, and total contempt for the courts.
On these lists
- Poliziotteschi starter pack
Italian cops who close cases by ignoring the courts and the paperwork. Start at the top, before the moustaches blur together.
Filed alongside
High Crime
Castellari's breakout in the genre, and Franco Nero furious for ninety minutes.
Almost Human
Tomas Milian as a repellent psychopath. Deeply unpleasant, very good.
The Big Racket
Castellari's best. The car-rolling-down-the-hill shot is famous for a reason.
Rome Armed to the Teeth
Maurizio Merli punches Rome for 100 minutes. Politics: incoherent.
Shoot First, Die Later
Di Leo's dirty-cop picture, and the rot goes all the way home.
Vigilante
Lustig doing it straight. Robert Forster deserves better and knows it.
Switchblade Sisters
Jack Hill doing Othello with teenage gangs. Much smarter than it needs to be.
The Italian Connection
Mario Adorf on foot versus a car. Best chase in Italian cinema.
Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man
Two cops who are clearly the villains. Ruggero Deodato, before the jungle.
The Boss
Di Leo's most cynical crime film. A mob enforcer navigates a Mafia war where everyone is corrupt.
Revolver
Di Leo's saddest. Oliver Reed, and a Morricone theme that hurts.
Across 110th Street
Grim, well acted, and the best film in the cycle by some distance.