The Counsellor
There is a rule: you can’t split from the family, not ever, but after serving two years in prison in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that is exactly what Thomas Accardo wishes to do, the godson of Don Antonio Magaddino of the San Francisco mafia who has raised him as his own son since Thomas’ father was murdered in a night of violence twenty years before, now wishing a quieter life with girlfriend Laura Murchison.
A rift developing between Don Antonio and his ambitious associate Vincent Garofalo over the handing of William Lucchesi, a long-serving member of the family whose growing instability had led to him being a liability, having been refused his own territory Garofalo sees this dispensation given to Thomas as another slight, siding with the Spezzano family in a turf war of ambushes and bloody excess.
Success always opening doors, with the American duo of Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo hitting it big with The Godfather in 1972, telling an Italian-American story, it was only right that the Italians should also have their shot at examining the same premise of power, loyalty, corruption and violent enforcement, The Counsellor (Il consigliori, also known as Counselor at Crime) directed by Alberto De Martini of The Antichrist and Blazing Magnum, later known more infamously for The Pumaman.
The Italian title specifically carrying connotations of a lawyer aligned with the mafia, Run, Man, Run’s Tomas Milian is Thomas and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three’s Martin Balsam is Don Antonio while Laura is played gently by The House by the Cemetery‘s Dagmar Lassander, the only major speaking role for a woman in the film who is neither a prostitute, a madame or a seven year old child killed as collateral damage in the vendetta prompted by Garofalo (Nightmare City‘s Francisco Rabal).
The first two thirds of the film shot in America, the pacing is methodical and repetitive, men in ugly suits sitting in rooms glaring at each other punctuated by hits on the streets, in hotel rooms, in arenas, construction sites and damp parking lots, Thomas with fibreglass hair and little personality and the script credited to four writers offering little flair even as the car chase emulates What’s Up Doc?, improving in its final act as the battle shifts to Don Antonio’s home territory of Sicily, though too little too late.
Joining StudioCanal’s Cult Classics range, their new edition of The Counsellor is supported both English and Italian dialogue options, an enthusiastic but unfocused introduction by Jean-Baptiste Thoret looking at the genre, its antecedents, influences and the stars of the film, a commentary from filmmaker Steve Mitchell and historian Troy Howarth and a brief but informative video essay by Will Webb contrasting the “traditional” themes of loyalty represented by Don Antonio and the more violent “modern” tactics of Garofalo.
The Counsellor will be released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on Monday 20th July by StudioCanal
