The Cop (Un Conde) is a French- Italian crime film from 1970 directed by Yves Boisset. This film is known for some scenes of both extreme violence and themes of police corruption that had to be cut or re-shot for the film to be released in France.
The violent story is about a various crime lords and drug dealers who are protected by corrupt police officials and politicians. Inspector Favenin (Michel Bouquet, Malpertuis), an honest officer who has just returned to duty after having problems with, decides to take the law into his own hands after his partner, Inspector Barnero (Bernard Fresson, The Tenant) is killed in cold blood. He uses the same methods as the criminals to get his revenge, whether it’s beatings or torture, which makes Favenin no better than the gangsters he is chasing. The police, led by the Chief of Police (screen legend Alolfo Celli, Thunderball, Operation Kid Brother, Diabolik) even stay out of Favenin’s way until he threatens to go to the media. Because the police have blood on their hands and are just as corrupt as the drug dealers, they need to prevent Favenin from telling the media that the police have been cooperating with criminals! The inspector must battle his own colleagues to put an end to all the criminal drug-dealing activities.
I hadn’t seen The Cop before, and after reading about it, I really wanted to see this movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this controversial crime thriller. The film had more violent scenes than I had imagined, and the film had more gore thrown into the mix. The acting by the cast was professional and well-done. The lack of music in the film to me added more atmosphere and suspense and tension than if there was a musical soundtrack.
Kino Lorber has released The Cop on Blu-ray sporting a new 4K master. The film does benefit from the 4K scan as it adds a lot more depth and texture to the image, bringing it new life! The video quality for this release is outstanding. Colors and black levels that might appear murky on a DVD or lesser presentation are not present here! The colors for this release are bold and rich. Based on the clothing the actors wear, and various scenery shows that colors do seem to be on the cooler side of the color palette. Black levels are also more than adequate, showing much shadow delineation. Much of the film is in the evening, and you can clearly see the activities taking place during those moments. I saw no damages to the print, outside of a few speckles here and there.
The French DTS-MA 2.0 track for this Blu-ray is also excellent with dialogue, background sounds and action scenes such as gun shots and fistfights coming in perfectly clear and balanced. Only the action scenes tended to be a little more aggressive. No hissing, drop-offs or crackling sounds were detected. English subtitles are available for this release.
Kino’s Blu-ray for The Cop has a commentary track by Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell, and Nathaniel Thompson. They discuss The Cop in full detail, and often compare it to other films such as French Connection II and Death Wish. They also focus on and discuss members of The Cop’s cast and crew.
Trailers for the release include Un Flic, The Cop (Un Conde), Max and the Junkmen, The Laughing Policeman and Sweeney.
If you haven’t seen The Cop, this is an easy pick-up, especially if you are into crime thrillers. For those who have seen it, this Kino Blu-ray is worth owning for both the superior audio and video quality and commentary track! Recommended!
The Cop (Un Conde)
Director- Yves Boisett
Cast- Michel Bouquet, Francoise Fabian, Adolfo Celli
Country of Origin- France, Italy
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –9/25/2022