Verdict
Summary
A solid film for fans of the genre, The New Godfathers hit all the right targets.
Plot:
A cop and a smuggler team up to stop heroin from being sold on the streets of the USA.
Review:
A big shipment of heroin is set to pass through the ports of Italy before making its way to the United States, and an undercover cop named Radevic (Gianni Garko) sways the state department to let him try out an idea he has: To try to convince Italian smugglers to help them out in exchange for turning a blind eye to their illegal smuggling operation of cigarettes for awhile. Radevic manages to befriend and make an alliance with the top boss of the street smugglers for cigarettes, a man with honor named Don Francesco (Mario Merola), who has connections to the bigger smuggling syndicate, which is run by a swarthy bastard named Don Michele, who has no honor (played by Antonio Sabato), and when Don Michele frames Radevic for the murder of Don Francesco’s smugglers at sea, it becomes clear (eventually) to Don Francesco that Don Michele is actually behind the heroin shipment, which is meant to open the doors to getting him big honors with the mafia in the United States. Don Francesco and Radevic team up and follow Don Michele to New York, where they make a big scene at a mafia wedding (look for future Italian starlet Sabrina Siani as the beautiful young bride) and chase Don Michele to a warehouse in a helicopter for a final showdown.
Satisfyingly robust for an Italian poliziotteschi thriller with a wildly out of control ending that doesn’t really make sense, but who cares? Director Alfonso Brescia’s take on this material is to make the most out of a simple plot and run with it, but something I found interesting is that instead of making the cop the real protagonist, he made the dumpy, middle-aged smuggler the hero, which was very unconventional, but a pleasant surprise. A solid film for fans of the genre, The New Godfathers hit all the right targets.
Raro Video brings The New Godfathers to Blu-ray in a satisfying high definition transfer, and it comes with the alternate U.S. version, plus a video chat with a film historian.
