The Boss
The Boss is a 1973 film from Italy, directed by Fernando Di Leo, running 112 minutes. reelscum files it under poliziotteschi.
- Year
- 1973 · 1970s films
- Country
- Italy
- Runtime
- 112 min
- Director
- Fernando Di Leo
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (41/100)
- Also known as
- Wipeout!
Defined in the glossary: Poliziotteschi
Di Leo's most cynical crime film. A mob enforcer navigates a Mafia war where everyone is corrupt.
The bleak final part of Fernando Di Leo's Milieu trilogy, following a stone-faced Mafia enforcer through a Palermo gang war triggered when he wipes out a rival clan in a cinema with a grenade launcher. Everyone, the mob, the police, the politicians, is corrupt, and the film has no illusions about any of them.
Henry Silva is superb as the impassive killer, and Di Leo directs the double-crosses with cold precision. It is the most nihilistic of his crime films, and one of the sharpest indictments of institutional corruption the cycle produced.
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Written about
- Poliziotteschi: the Italian cop film, 1973 to 1980
A moustache, a Magnum, and total contempt for the courts.
Filed alongside
The Italian Connection
Mario Adorf on foot versus a car. Best chase in Italian cinema.
Revolver
Di Leo's saddest. Oliver Reed, and a Morricone theme that hurts.
Street Law
Castellari's Death Wish. An ordinary engineer, brutalised and ignored, arms himself.
The Big Racket
Castellari's best. The car-rolling-down-the-hill shot is famous for a reason.
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.
Shoot First, Die Later
Di Leo's dirty-cop picture, and the rot goes all the way home.
Rome Armed to the Teeth
Maurizio Merli punches Rome for 100 minutes. Politics: incoherent.
Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man
Two cops who are clearly the villains. Ruggero Deodato, before the jungle.
Milano calibro 9
Di Leo's masterpiece. Cold, fast, well written.
Violent Naples
Merli takes his no-mercy cop routine to Naples. Fast, brutal, and politically incoherent as ever.
The Violent Professionals
Martino sends Luc Merenda undercover and off the leash. Prime cop-on-a-rampage stuff.