Revolver

Vito Cipriani is a deputy warden at an Italian prison. His wife is kidnapped and the kidnappers make one demand: release a prisoner named Milo Ruiz. Vito gets the man out but does not hand him over; he abducts him and keeps him, because that is the only guarantee his wife will not be killed. The two flee together to France, and as their pursuers multiply Vito realises this is not a simple ransom. Sergio Sollima's film comes from the political wing of 1970s European crime cinema. The narrative holds the two men in a forced partnership, and what is between them stops being a crime film and becomes a friendship, which is what makes the ending hurt. Oliver Reed plays Vito and Fabio Testi plays Milo. The Ennio Morricone piece Un amico is the film's best-known element, used years later by Quentin Tarantino at the close of Inglourious Basterds. Who it's for: Viewers who like European crime cinema, 1970s political thrillers, and Morricone scores. Who it's not for: The narrative slows in the middle and the conspiracy sections are tangled. The ending offers no hope.