Umberto Lenzi’s GANG WAR IN MILAN / MILANO ROVENTE is neither as visually exciting as the Enzo G. Castellari Poliziotteschis; nor as socially conscious and emotionally affecting as the Damiano Damianis. It is, however, exciting pulp; beautifully plotted, crudely characterised, efficient, accessible, with lots of sex and gore. It’s about a Sicilian immigrant, Salvatore Cangemi (Antonio Sabàto) who’s taken over the sex industry in Milan. A French gangster intrudes to try to sell heroin through Cangemi’s prostitution ring. A gang war ensues and an American gangster is brought in to help.
I enjoyed it all thoroughly until a moment where Cangemi and his thugs catch the French men in bed with a woman who turns out to be a man which makes clear the characters’ (and the film’s?) hierarchies of disgust: Murderers, pimps, drug dealers can all look down on women, who all look down on gays, and a trans is abouts as low as you can get. It’s a scene that made me wonder about the extent of my own internalised misogyny. Why was it only at that point that the film became a problem for me? Are we only troubled by those things that touch close to home? Can a film with these levels of misogyny and homophobia be enjoyable – can one separate them from other elements of the film? –…and which ones and to whom?
José Arroyo
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