The premise of this film is unbelievably brilliant: a police chief kills his mistress and tries to see if he will ever be suspected by his own officers. It examines the potential ability of abuse of power that all people in a higher echelon of authority possess. Not that all people would do anything like this, the film explores the ethics of if they did, then what would happen? This doesn’t extend to solely the one officer, it extends to the entire police department. The plot feels very resonant of films that came before it, such as Z or ROPE, however Z is the vasty superior film in regards to cover ups and abuses of power. Still, this has a lot to say with its commentary. Gian Maria Volonté gives such a passionate performance. There a moments where he has no emotion at all, like a truly numb sociopath, and then there are times where he goes so big that it becomes so stereotypically Italian. There were moments where he reminded me of Heath Ledger’s Joker in regards to his role as an agent of chaos. My favorite scene involved his character having a tin worker buy the blue ties and then confessing to him that he is the murder in order to see how far he can push and still get away with it. By the time he emotionally can’t take it anymore, which I honestly didn’t expect to happen, the police cover everything up because their institution cannot be flawed or be at fault. It is more important to uphold the reputation of the police than seek justice, which is an issue we see time and again in the modern age. This also is perfectly juxtaposed by the discussion of graffiti of revolutionaries such as Chairman Mao as well as the subplot involving the leftist radicals. This is probably the strangest Ennio Morricone’s score I’ve ever heard. There are weird springy noises peppered throughout, which almost makes it feel like circus music (although one is perfectly timed while he is having sex/murdering Augusta). Additionally it sounds like he is using a calypso (there’s probably no way he is, it’s most likely a mandolin, but it sounds like it). The cinematography is also great. My only real concern is that it felt like there was a lot of fat on this film and Elio Petri could have easily cut 20 minutes out.