The Heroin Busters

Italy | 1977 Directed by Enzo G. Castellari Starring Fabio Testi David Hemmings Sherry Buchanan Color | 93 Minutes | Not Rated Format: DVD (R0 - NTSC) Blue Underground

Music from the film La Via Della Droga MP3 format - 3.9 MB

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		Review by Brian Lindsey

5     6   10 = Highest Rating   SNEAK PREVIEW | DVD Release Date: April 25, 2006

Whether he was working in the milieu of the spaghetti western, war, the poliziotteschi or post-apocalyptic sci-fi, Italian director Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma) always excelled at staging action scenes. His films may have suffered from other deficiencies — weak or ridiculous scripts, poor special effects, lack of funding — but when it came to action set-pieces and exciting stunt work he rarely fell short. On April 25th Blue Underground unleashes three Castellari titles on DVD, all of them gritty, violent crime dramas from the 1970s. First up: 1977's The Heroin Busters, known in Italy as La Via Della Droga ("The Street of Drugs").     Revolver's Fabio Testi plays — of all things — "Fabio", an Italian police officer specializing in anti-narcotics operations. Seconded to Interpol, the international crime fighting agency, he's working deep undercover tracing a heroin pipeline that stretches from Hong Kong to Rome. Only his Interpol boss, hard-nosed British detective Mike Hamilton (David Hemmings), knows Fabio's true identity. After a precisely-planned sting at a Rome hotel goes awry, allowing a sizable quantity of smack to slip through their grasp, Hamilton has Fabio arrested and thrown in detention with a well-connected junkie/dealer named Girro (Wolfango Soldati, looking a lot like late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain). Winning Girro's trust, Fabio arranges for their escape; he uses the addict to make contact with higher-ups in the organization. But his cover is eventually blown, so the pipeline's enforcer in Rome, Mr. Gianni (Joshua Sinclair, AKA John Loffredo), dispatches thugs to rub him out. As Fabio scrambles for his life with killers in hot pursuit, Hamilton races frantically to locate him... Until then, the cocky narc will have to rely on his own wits and skills for survival.     A pretty straightforward plot, true, but one wouldn't know it from opening ten minutes. Set to Goblin's guitar-driven main title theme and whipsawing with confusing rapidity between Hong Kong, Cartegena, New York and Amsterdam, these dialog-free scenes are intended to establish the key geographic points in the pipeline — but are more than likely to just prove disorienting. It isn't until about a quarter-hour in that things start making some modicum of sense. (Castellari, who often takes small roles in his movies, can be seen as the cap-wearing guy in the Amsterdam footage.) The script drags out the 'revelation' that Fabio is an undercover cop despite the fact it's pretty obvious from the outset; any potential for character development is set aside as the story wanders off on relatively unimportant tangents, chiefly the quest of Girro and his actress/prostitute girlfriend (Zombie Holocaust's Sherry Buchanan) for their next fix and the strong-arm tactics used by Gianni's henchmen to collect money. (I suppose such scenes are the 'message' portion of the film, intended to hammer home just how degrading the life of a junkie can get — at one point we see a guy licking spilled heroin off of a toilet seat. And to cram in some completely gratuitous nudity, Buchanan has a sex session with 'lipstick lesbian' Patrizia Webley in order to raise some quick cash.) We learn absolutely nothing about Fabio, what motivates him to be a narc, or his relationship with his boss/friend Hamilton. As for the latter, we know that Hemmings' character is a Brit, cusses a lot and chews on twigs in lieu of smoking cigarettes. That's it.     Heroin Busters doesn't really spring to life until the final half hour, which is nothing but a prolonged chase sequence — starting on foot, progressing to motorcycles and finally going airborne as Fabio turns the tables and becomes the hunter instead of the hunted. Here Castellari is on his surest footing, demonstrating his knack for making otherwise ordinary, run-of-the-mill action set-pieces exciting and involving. Some surprisingly effective miniatures — something you don't often see in his films — elevate the plane vs. plane climax, which also features some daredevil stunt flying using real aircraft. Despite their thinly written parts, Testi makes for a likable, laid-back tough guy (although the very ‘70s outfit he wears throughout the film is rather gay-looking by today's standards; he could be the 'Euro drug dealer' member of the Village People) while Hemmings (Deep Red) seems to be enjoying himself playing a hard-boiled cop — he even gets to join in on the mayhem, punching out a suspect and capping a few thugs with a pistol.     It may take too long to get going, but the appealing leads and action-packed third act, not to mention a cool Goblin score, should make Heroin Busters an agreeable time-waster for Euro-Cult collectors.

Realistically, the most one can hope for when it comes to European cult flicks on North American DVD is seeing the movie uncut, in its proper aspect ratio. Along with a tiny handful of other companies, Blue Underground has led the way in bringing such films to our shores in the best condition possible, often with nifty extras to compliment the film. In the case of Heroin Busters we get a sharp, splendid-looking anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) transfer taken from a dirt/damage-free print; the digital Mono audio track is clean and clear. (Only the English dub is offered, but the film was shot with the actors mouthing their lines in English anyway; Hemmings provided his own voice in post-sync.) A commentary track with Castellari, recorded in 2004 and moderated by BU's David Gregory, has the amiable director (who speaks English fairly well) sharing a general overview of his ‘70s crime oeuvre and numerous details of Heroin Busters' production in particular. The original theatrical trailer — which spoils too many of the film's best stunts — is also included. 3/28/06

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