After being framed for a crime he didn't commit, being a mob boss, and narrowly avoiding being murdered in prison, I'm unsure why Antonio Sabato thought his wife had died naturally.
Antonio is a 'man of honour' who also runs a legitimate haulage business. When he gets out, he seemingly wants to just get on with life, and blames a certain capo for his predicament while swearing loyalty to another. This proves to be hard as cop Silvano Tranquilli is on his case to spill the beans on Mob life, and it looks like Antonio has just got out of time to stop other gangs taking over his business. This results in a fight where his best mate is capped by the mob and dumped outside of his house. I forgot to mention this film was set in Palermo, and now realise that I probably didn't even need to mention that.
Florinda Balkan is his mate's widow and starts putting the moves on Antonio right away (that's showing good coping skills there Florinda), and while at his mates funeral, someone bumps off a turncoat and Antonio finds he's not the only guy with beef against the Mafia. Looks like a little gang of rebels are forming around him, which is good because Antonio has just found out his wife didn't die in a car crash...
Sabato is quite good here as the raging mobster out for blood while being unable to break his code of honour. Constantly harassed by the cops, harassed by the mob to stop annoying them, and nagged by Florinda to forget it all and leave, Sabato rages against everything and wants vengeance in a world where it's not the best idea to stir up the Mafia. In fact, Sabato is so stubborn the film is ten minutes longer because of it.
I'll be honest, you've seen this plot a good few times, probably. It's well executed however, with the car chases and the machine guns, and the double crosses and such like. I enjoyed it even though it took me three days to watch it because I had to pause the things about six thousand times due to the wife and kids constantly interrupting me. I hate Christmas. Why don't they buy their own presents and leave me to go crazy watching Italian films?
