The Heroin Busters Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

The Heroin Busters Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 11, 2022

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Rogue Cops and Racketeers: Two Crime Thrillers from Enzo G. Castellari.

To anyone who may be understandably concerned about the state of affairs in the world today, what with disease, political division, rampant crime, out of control drug running and/or addiction and all sorts of other miseries seemingly an unavoidable part of an equally almost unavoidably pessimistic and maybe even near apocalyptic emotional response to things, take heart: the Italians have "been there, done that", at least in part, several times over the course of their long and often fractious history, and they are still around to tell the tale. For those wanting some potent examples of just how bad things can get from just a relatively few years ago, one need look no further than the genre which has become known as Poliziotteschi, "police related dramas" that proliferated throughout Italy particularly in the seventies. Now the two films Arrow has aggregated in this new collection may admittedly not have "disease" per se, at least if one doesn't count moral turpitude as an ailment, there are near epic amounts of just about everything else in that litany listed in the first sentence above. Both of the films in this set were the handiwork of Enzo G. Castellari, and they both traffic at least in part in what was one of Castellari's calling cards, graphic violence within a context of some of the breakdown in law and order in the Italy of the seventies. Both films (which share star Fabio Testi) in this set are making their high definition debuts and as usual Arrow has assembled an impressive slate of supplements along with some nice packaging.

If Fabio Testi's character of Nico Palmieri in The Big Racket wasn't exactly a model of proper police procedure, he at least dressed relatively normally. The same can't be said for the eponymous character of Fabio that Testi portrays in The Heroin Busters, as even commentators Adrian J. Smith and David Flint jokingly mention at one point, since Fabio is adorned in denim and some very impressive suede boots. The unusual clothing may be meant to provide an instant visual glyph that Fabio is definitely not an orthodox policeman, and in fact it turns out he's working (largely) undercover to try to bring a notorious international drug cartel dealing in the titular substance to justice.

If The Big Racket featured Vincent Gardenia in a nod to being able to market the film globally (or at least in the United States), The Heroin Busters offers David Hemmings as an Interpol agent named Mike Hamilton, who is one of the few people who knows about Fabio's undercover work, and who in fact ushers him into a dangerous "inside" assignment at a prison. The plot dynamics here aren't especially innovative, but the film has an undeniable visceral intensity, if also perhaps an equally undeniable hint of hyperbole and outright goofiness (Hamilton has a tendency to erupt in flashes of umbrage at the drop of a veritable Apollo space mission cap, and for an explanation of that reference I'd point you again to Fabio's apparel, as seen in the first screenshot accompanying this review).

The Heroin Busters Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Heroin Busters is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet aggregates the two releases offered in this package together in their page devoted to the restorations, with the following information:

The Big Racket / Il grande racket and The Heroin Busters / La via della droga are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with Italian and English mono audio. Scanning and restoration work was completed at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna and color grading was completed at R3Store Studios, London. The original 35mm camera negatives were scanned in 2K resolution.

The mono Italian and English language tracks were remastered from the optical sound negatives. The audio synch will appear slightly loose against the picture, due to the fact that the dialogue was recorded entirely in post production, as per the production standards of the period. Additional sound mastering was completed by leroy Moore, The Engine House Media Services.

All original materials used in this restoration were made available from Intramovies.

There is some noticeable damage as this presentation gets underway, which may momentarily concern videophiles, but after some almost strobing effects with flashes of brightness and depleted contrast as a result, the transfer "calms down" and arrives at a generally consistent level of excellence. The sometimes gritty environments are well represented with some especially impressive fine detail levels in close-ups (see screenshot 5 for one example). I found the color timing of this release to be a little more "natural" looking than The Big Racket, without what I perceived to be the kind of reddish-pink tones of that presentation. Here, flesh tones look a bit more in the "normal" range, and primaries in particular resonate extremely well. As with The Big Racket, there can be some brief interstitial moments where things become noticeably more roughhewn, but they're relatively short lived.

The Heroin Busters Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Heroin Busters features both the Italian and English language versions, with both soundtracks delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio Mono. Kind of interestingly (and I always wonder about these licensing and/or authoring decisions), it is not possible to toggle between the tracks as you watch, and using the Pop Up Menu to "Select Version" to change the language actually starts the movie over in whatever language is chosen. That prevented me from my "side by side" comparison of toggling between tracks to assess things like amplitude and mix, but I'll say that as with The Big Racket my general impression is that the Italian track is arguably a bit hotter and more full bodied. That may be especially noticeable with regard to the fantastic score by Goblin, which really resonates quite forcefully on both tracks, but to my ears more balanced on the Italian track. Unlike the English language track on The Big Racket, where I frankly wasn't sure whether or not Vincent Gardenia was dubbed, it's unmistakably David Hemmings' real voice on the English language track on this disc. Dialogue, effects and score are offered with no problems. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Heroin Busters Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Italian Version and English Version are accessible via the Play Menu.


• Audio Commentary by Adrian J. Smith and David Flint


• Endless Pursuit (HD; 24:00) is a new interview with co-writer and director Enzo G. Castellari. Subtitled in English.


• Drug Squad (HD; 16:03) is a new interview with star Fabio Testi. Subtitled in English.


• The Drug Dealer (HD; 21:05) is a new interview with actor Massimo Vanni. Subtitled in English.


• How They Killed Italian Cinema (HD; 20:12) is a new interview with editor Gianfranco Amicucci. Subtitled in English.


• A Cop on the Set (HD; 23:51) is a new interview with retired poliziotto and criminologist Nicola Longo. Subtitled in English.


• The Eardrum Busters (HD; 38:40) is this disc's featurette with Lovely Jon, this time looking over the career of Goblin.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:45)


• Image Galleries

  Posters (HD)

  
  

  Italian Pressbook (HD)

  
  

  German Lobby Cards (HD)

  
  

  German Pressbook (HD)

  
  

  Spanish Lobby Cards (HD)

The Heroin Busters Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While the drug use shown in this film might seem to provide a potent opportunity to develop sympathy for at least one particular character, this is an oddly cold film that derives most of its energy from its relentless pace and those flashes of temper tantrums by Mike Hamilton. Arrow provides a release with some generally solid technical merits and another nice array of enjoyable supplements, for those who may be considering making a purchase.