''The Heroin Busters'' ( it, La via della droga) is a 1977

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

crime film directed by Enzo G. Castellari and starring

Fabio Testi Fabio Testi (born 2 August 1941) is an Italian actor. After growing up witnessing film work done around Lake Garda, Testi entered the sets of the film and began work as a stuntman and a double on set, where he worked as a stuntman on ''The Good, ...

, David Hemmings and Sherry Buchanan.

Production

''The Heroin Busters'' was director Enzo G. Castellari's last crime film of the 1970s. The film was shot in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

, Cartagena,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

and New York. The score of the film was provided by the Italian

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

group

Goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monstrous creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearances depending on ...

who had just written their score for Dario Argento's film '' Suspiria''.Curti, 2013. p. 221 The score is composed of funk,

psychedelia Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic ...

, and

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Cast

Release

''The Heroin Busters'' was released in Italy on August 13, 1977. It was distributed by

Titanus Titanus is an Italian film production company, founded in 1904 by Gustavo Lombardo (1885–1951). The company's headquarters are located at 28 Via Sommacampagna, Rome and its studios on the Via Tiburtina, 13 km from the centre of Rome. Lom ...

and grossed 1,308,550,110

Italian lira The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually ...

. Roberto Curti, author of ''Italian Crime Filmography, 1968-1980'' described the box office gross as performing "moderately well", but not as well as expected. It was released on DVD by

Blue Underground Blue Underground is an American company specializing in releasing authoritative editions of cult and exploitation movies on Blu-ray Disc and DVD. It was originally formed as a shell company to oversee 'making of' documentaries during founder ...

on April 25, 2006.

Reception

Among modern reviews, AllMovie gave the film three stars out of five, referring to it as "a stylish and fast-paced entry into the Italian crime genre that hits all the right marks for genre fans." as well as noting "The one real defect of ''La Via Della Droga'' is that it lacks a human story element to get the viewer emotionally involved but Castellari makes up for that oversight by keeping the story taut and fast-paced." Roberto Curti, author of ''Italian Crime Filmography, 1968-1980'', compared the film Casterllari's ''

The Big Racket ''The Big Racket'' ( it, Il grande racket) is a 1976 Italian '' poliziottesco'' film directed by Enzo G. Castellari. Fabio Testi stars as a police inspector who takes on a gang of hoodlums who terrorise an Italian city by extorting cash from lo ...

'', stating that unlike that film "the result is a cold, technically impeccable yet overindulgent formalist exercise in style" that contained a "comic book-style script, populated by dull characters"

Notes

References

External links

* 1977 films 1970s Italian-language films 1977 crime films Poliziotteschi films Films scored by Goblin (band) Films directed by Enzo G. Castellari Films shot in Rome Films shot in New York (state) Films shot in Amsterdam Films shot in Hong Kong 1970s Italian films {{1970s-crime-film-stub