Season for Assassins Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Season for Assassins Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 31, 2016

Marcello Andrei's "Season for Assassins" a.k.a. "Il tempo degli assassini" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of German label Subkultur Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailers for the film; grindhouse version of the film; promotional materials; and more. The release also arrives with a 32-page illustrated booklet with writings on the film. In Italian or German, with optional English, German, and German SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The leader

The main attraction here is the handsome Joe Dallesandro (Je Taime Moi Non Plus) who plays the angry leader of a gang of thugs residing somewhere on the outskirts of Rome. These are young men, most of them total amateurs, who come from very poor families that can barely make ends meet. They have police records and are closely monitored by the authorities.

The men follow Pierro Giaranaldi because they admire the fact that he has the balls to challenge the system. They know that without him they would be crushed by it just like their parents, brothers and sisters have been. But Pierro isn’t a rebel and does not care much about the future -- his or that of his men. He simply likes the cheap thrills their work offers and the respect he has earned on the streets.

When one of his thugs is seriously injured by the police and later on dies in the hospital, Pierro decides to do a big job and then disappear for a while. But his plan does not work as intended and all hell breaks loose.

The camera loves Dallesandro -- and it is easy to understand why -- but Season for Assassins was clearly not the right project for the cult actor. The main reason why is the simple fact that the script does not offer even partially decent material for him to impress. Indeed, the majority of the time his gangster actually looks like a loopy model that has consumed a large amount of speed and adopted a new personality. So the “new guy” constantly does some truly awful things to enhance his macho image and in the process get an even bigger rush of excitement. The whole thing, however, looks and feels like a gimmick because the script basically places the gangster in a couple of violent altercations and then leaves it to him to figure out a way to make them look meaningful.

Then there is that utterly ridiculous sequence in which the idiot invites his buddies to rape his new girlfriend after she tells him that she is pregnant and intends to keep the baby. If this was an attempt to add a heavy dose of social realism to the film -- and it sure looks like it was -- then it is no doubt one of the biggest fumbles done in a genre film that wants to be taken seriously. It is absolutely awful and it can make sense only in a truly dull exploitation dreck like Nico Mastorakis’ Island of Death.

The chase sequences look rather decent, but it immediately becomes clear that they were shot with a very small budget. There are different cuts that awkwardly put together and a couple of times it is easy to see random people watching the action unfold.

There are two surprisingly good cameos that should be mentioned. The beautiful Magali Noel (Fellini Satyricon, The Death of Mario Ricci) plays the gangster’s poor wife who must go back on the streets and work as a prostitute so that she can take care of their seriously ill son. Rossano Brazzi (The Adventurers, The Barefoot Contessa) is Father Eugenio, quite possibly the only man in the neighborhood who understands that the chaos on the streets is fueled by poverty and hypocrisy.

Season for Assassins Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.83:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 108pp transfer, Marcello Andrei's Season for Assassins arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Subkultur Entertainment.

The film has been fully remastered and looks wonderful in high-definition. Clarity is consistently pleasing. Fluidity is also very good, though it is worth mentioning that some minor fluctuations can be spotted because a few of the action sequences have a raw documentary appearance. There are no traces of compromising degraining or sharpening adjustments. Even when one projects the film, the grain holds up really well and as a result depth is almost always impressive. Colors are stable and healthy. Color balance is also very good -- the primaries are solid and there is a nice range of natural nuances. Overall image stability is excellent. Lastly, there are a couple of tiny blemish marks, but debris, scratches, cuts, stains, and other age-related imperfections have been fully removed. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Season for Assassins Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0, German DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0, and German (Optical audio) DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0. Optional English, German, and German SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

It is easy to tell that good work has been done on the Italian track -- depth is very pleasing, balance is excellent, and there are no age-related imperfections. As it is the case with most Italian genre films from the 1970s some overdubbing has been done, but fluidity does not suffer. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or digital distortions to report.

Season for Assassins Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers - a gallery of original VHS grindhouse trailers. In German, not subtitled in English. (14 min).

• Season for Assassins/Grindhouse Version - presented here is an original grindhouse version of Season for Assassins. As expected, the video quality is quite rough. In German, without optional subtitles. (89 min).

• Trailers for Season for Assassins -
  
  1. Trailer I - original German trailer. In German, not subtitled. (4 min).
  2. Trailer II - original German trailer. In German, not subtitled. (4 min).
  3. Trailer III - restored original Italian trailer. In Italian, not subtitled. (4 min).

• Bildergalerie - an excellent collection of original promotional materials (posters, lobby cards, stills, etc.) for Season for Assassins. (3 min).

• Booklet -32-page illustrated booklet with writings on the film in German and reproductions of original promotional materials.

• Stamp - a tiny collectible stamp placed in a tiny envelope.

Season for Assassins Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My feeling is that Marcello Andrei's Season for Assassins will be appreciated only by hardcore fans of Joe Dallesandro. He does look great in it, but the film is rather disappointing. A year after Season for Assassins Joe Dallesandro appeared in Serge Gainsbourg's Je Taime Moi Non Plus and this is actually one of the great cult films of the 1970s, but it is not yet out on Blu-ray. Subkultur Entertainment's presentation of Season for Assassins is hugely impressive, but this is hardly surprising as they have proven that they are every bit as good as Camera Obscura when it comes to restoration and preservation of cult and classic European films.