Across 110th Street 4K 1972

Perhaps no more realistic police movies than those made in Hollywood in the 1970s have appeared there before or since that era.

Inspired by the huge success of “The French Connection”, whose popularity was ensured, first of all, not by the plot (although exciting), but by the entourage, extremely realistic manner of shooting, truthful depiction of the urban “bottom”, in general - the harsh reality, many directors also risked in their genre films to show unflattering pictures of American life in the 1970-ies

Such films as Across 110th Street, The Hijacking of Pelham 1-2-3, The Laughing Policeman, Seven Years Old and Up and a number of others are almost as pessimistic and gloomy in tone as the classic American dramas of the period.

In “Across 110th Street” there is no happy ending, almost no attractive characters - the Negro mafia looks even meaner than the Italian, the cops are corrupt and venal, and the efforts of honest loners can hardly lead to something positive and break the vicious system.

The gangsters who die one after another on 110th Street (the border between Harlem and Central Park - the favorite recreation place of New Yorkers), though they try to justify their crimes by poverty, injustice of life and social structure of society, do not cause any sympathy either - because they shot people without any thought.

If we add to this the brutal and by today's standards scenes of murder and torture, then Barry Shear's modestly budgeted movie is still almost a giant compared to the slew of modern criminal-themed productions.