Poliziottesco: Lead, Blood & Asphalt

Between the early 1970s and the end of the decade, Italian cinema transformed its cities into battlefields: sirens in the night, impossible chases, desperate criminals, and police officers ready to bend the law to stop them.
This list collects the essential films of the poliziottesco, the most ferocious and cynical urban crime genre ever produced in Italy, where the line between justice and revenge becomes increasingly blurred.
From Milan Caliber 9 to Rome at Gunpoint, passing through the criminal chaos of Milan Hates: The Police Cannot Shoot, these films depict a tense, dirty, and incredibly cinematic Italy.
A small universe made of skidding Alfa Romeos, sharp gunshots, and characters that seem to have stepped straight from the darkest pages of 1970s news.