How to Kill a Judge (1974)

- Perché si uccide un magistrato
Maybe I should re-watch this one now that I know what to expect., 21 April 2006

Giacomo Solaris (Franco Nero) has just made a film about the hypocrisy in the judicial system focusing on one particular judge and his ties with the Mafia. As life often imitates art, the real life judge he used as a basis for his character is brutally murdered just as in his movie. Solaris begins to weave his way through a web of corrupt politicians, mobsters, and those with a grudge against the judge to find the killer.

My rating for How to Kill a Judge is probably not a very good indicator as to the quality of this film. It's not that How to Kill a Judge is all that bad or anything, it's just that I was hoping for a different movie. How to Kill a Judge is a fairly entertaining drama with interesting characters, good locations, and a nice twist at the end. Franco Nero is as solid as ever and his scenes with Francoise Fabian are the standout moments of the film. There's some real chemistry between the two. The simplicity of the ending was refreshing, especially after having watched Franco go through the complicated and tangled web to reach the finale.

But, as I said, this is not the movie I wanted. I was hoping for an over-the-top polizia thriller similar to something like Syndicate Sadists or Almost Human. Instead of an action packed cop film, How to Kill a Judge is so dialogue heavy that it often gets dull. And, it doesn't help anything that the movie goes off in several different directions without any real purpose. A tighter script and a little more action would have gone a long way to making How to Kill a Judge the movie I was looking for.

5/10