Confessions of a Police Captain Blu-ray Review

Radiance Films

Blu-ray Release: April 21, 2026

Video: 1.85:1/1080p/Color

Audio: Italian and English LPCM 1.0 Mono

Subtitles: English, English SDH

Run Time: 104:12

Director: Damiano Damiani

Note: Sections of this review have been recycled from my review of Radiance Films’ Blu-ray release of The Day of the Owl (Italian: Il giorno della civetta; aka: Mafia, 1968).

In Palermo, Sicily, seasoned police captain Bonavia (Martin Balsam) orders the release of a criminally insane inmate, then watches him set out to assassinate a local construction magnate. When the plan backfires, Bonavia faces the scrutiny of young and idealistic district attorney Traini (Franco Nero). (From Radiance Films’ official synopsis)

Comic book artist, screenwriter, and documentarian Damiano Damiani made his feature film debut in 1960 with the true crime drama Lipstick (Italian: Il rossetto), followed by a series of beloved character dramas and the dreamy Gothic romance The Witch (Italian: La strega in amore; aka: Strange Obsession, 1966). His complicated left-wing politics informed Bullet for the General (Italian: El Chuncho, Quien Sabe?), which made its debut in January of 1967, fewer than two months before Sergio Sollima’s similarly-themed The Big Gundown (Italian: La Resa dei Conti), and kicked off a string of Italian westerns that used the Mexican Revolution as a framing device for modern political metaphors known as Zapata westerns (named for Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata).

But crime stories were always in Damiani’s blood, going back to the comics he made with the associated Group of Venice (Gruppo di Venezia), including Ace of Spades (Italian: Asso di Picche, 1945-49) about a Spirit-like vigilante fighting a criminal syndicate, the gangster serial Pat the Rock (Italian: Pat la Rocca, 1946), and the noir-themed Horgarth the Judge (Italian: Hogart il Giustiziere, publish date unknown, reprinted as Bogart the Judge in the ‘60s). And, of course, Lipstick was an early glimpse of what awaited Damiani on the silver screen.

The year after Bullet for the General, Damiani teamed with actor Franco Nero for The Day of the Owl (Italian: Il giorno della civetta; aka: Mafia, 1968), leading to three more politically-charged gangland poliziottescho pairings for the actor and director – Confessions of a Police Captain (Italian: Confessione di un commissario di polizia al procuratore della repubblica, 1971), The Case Is Closed, Forget It (Italian: L'istruttoria è chiusa: dimentichi, 1972) , and How to Kill a Judge (Italian: Perché si uccide un magistrato, 1974).

Poliziotteschi are remembered for their outrageously dangerous stunts, not-so-casual misogyny, fascist power fantasies, ultraviolence, and sleaze factor, but the genre had its prestige entries, too. For example, Elio Petri’s Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Italian: Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto, 1970) won the Best Foreign Film Oscar and Francesco Rosi’s Illustrious Corpses (Italian: Cadaveri eccellenti, 1976) won Best Film and Best Director at the David di Donatello Awards. Damiani himself established this tradition, when Day of the Owl won David di Donatellos for Best Production, Best Actress (Claudia Cardinale), Best Actor (Nero), and Best Direction. 

Confessions of a Police Captain is loosely based on actual events, specifically (and among other things) the film was inspired by supposedly sinister connections between mafioso Luciano Liggio and Sicilian General Attorney Pietro Scaglione, who himself was murdered only months after the film’s release, and the death of union activist Placido Rizzotto. Damiani & Salvatore Laurani’s co-screenwriter Fulvio Gicca Palli joked that the script was a “narrative transcript” of the Italian Parliament’s Antimafia Commission. Poliziotteschi often ripped stories from headlines (including Day of the Owl), but usually for the sake of sensationalism. Damiani certainly welcomes sensationalism, but is more interested in depicting the opaque reality of the justice system.

All of Damiani’s mafia films explore the connections between wealthy career criminals and the authorities meant to oppose them, and none express that connection more plainly than Confessions of a Police Captain. It clarifies the common theme without oversimplifying it and streamlines the ideology by embracing the language and mechanics of crowd-pleasing cop thrillers and Hollywood noir. While Day of the Owl is defined by its density and How to Kill a Judge by its surrealism, Confessions of a Police Captain is crisp, invigorating, and cool. The approach apparently worked, because Confessions of a Police Captain was a huge hit with audiences and critics. As such, it’s also a perfect place for a Damiani neophyte to start.

Nero had turned from working player to superstar following the release of Sergio Corbucci’s Django in 1966 and his poliziottescho popularity shifted into overdrive with the release of Enzo G. Castellari’s High Crime (Italian: La polizia incrimina la legge assolve, 1973) and Street Law (Italian: Il cittadino si ribella, 1974). He’s joined here by veterans whose careers were boosted when poliziotteschi eclipsed spaghetti westerns at the box office, including Luciano Catenacci, Giancarlo Prete, Adolfo Lastretti, Nello Pazzafini, Claudio Gora, along with giallo/Eurospy queen Marilù and Hollywood star Martin Balsam, who effortlessly steals the film.

Balsam hadn’t been exactly struggling in Hollywood, but he was usually a supporting player. Confessions of a Police Captain opened the door to a secondary career as the headliner on Italian productions during the ‘70s, including Mauro Bolognini’s Chronicle of a Homicide (Italian: Imputazione di omicidio per uno studente, 1972), Antonio Margheriti’s Death Rage (Italian: Con la rabbia agli occhi, 1976), Fernando Di Leo’s Blood and Diamonds (Italian: Diamanti sporchi di sangue, 1978), Marcello Aliprandi’s Smiling Maniacs (Italian: Corruzione al palazzo di giustizia, 1975), and Enzo G. Castellari’s Cry, Onion! (Italian: Cipolla Colt, 1975), the latter two of which reteamed him with Nero.

Bibliography

• Italian Crime Filmography, 1968-1980 by Roberto Curti (McFarland & Company, 2013) – Curti calls Confessions of a Police Captain “the true antecedent of the poliziottesco.” He also quotes interviews with the filmmakers taken from Alberto Pezzotta’s book Regia Damiano Damiani (​​Cinemazero, 2004).

Video

Stateside, Confessions of a Police Captain was released on 1.33:1 DVD via budget company Brentwood and, briefly, on anamorphic 2.35:1 disc by micro-studio Wild East Productions. It hit German Blu-ray from FilmArt in 2019, but, for some reason, Radiance was unable to include it with their US/Canada/UK Damiani-Nero collection, Cosa Nostra. That set featured only Day of the Owl, The Case is Closed, and How to Kill a Judge. 

Radiance doesn’t say much about the transfer in the disc’s booklet, other than it was taken from a 2K restoration (possibly the same one used for FilmArt’s release). As in the case of the studio’s other Damiani discs, there’s room for improvement in terms of texture, grain clarity, and the depth of the shadows, but, overall, the 2.35:1, 1080p image quality is clean and neatly reproduces Claudio Ragona’s gritty, overcast cinematography. The limited grey, blue, and green palette is consistent and the occasional red or yellow pop doesn’t bleed. There are a few wobbly wide-angle shots throughout, possibly due to print quality, but more likely a mistake made by the original filmmakers.

Audio

Confessions of a Police Captain is presented with English and Italian dub options, both in uncompressed LPCM 1.0 mono. As a reminder, these films were shot without sound, so all language options are dubbed, actors often didn’t dub themselves, and the international casts often spoke different languages on set. In this case, I recommend the English dub purely because Martin Balsam dubbed his own performance, though, unfortunately, Nero doesn’t dub himself. There’s a fair amount of environmental ambience and only minor hiss on some aspirated consonants.

The moody, rock guitar-infused score was provided by Riz Ortolani, in the first of many collaborations with Damiani, including The Assassin of Rome (Italian: Girolimoni, il mostro di Roma, 1972), How to Kill a Judge, and I Am Afraid (Italian: Io ho paura, 1977).

Extras

• Franco Nero on Confessions of a Police Captain (29:15, HD) – The actor discusses his career, various collaborations with Damiani, making Confessions of a Police Captain, and working with the cast & crew with special emphasis on Martin Balsam, who was brought on last minute after Damiani passed on Ben Gazzara.

• Michele Gammino on Confessions of a Police Captain (22:47, HD) – Gammino looks back on his career as an actor and dubber, getting his break with Damiani’s film, rehearsing English dialogue with Balsam, the Palermo location, and befriending Nero.

• Antonio Siciliano on Confessions of a Police Captain (26:49, HD) – The film’s editor talks about his other work, his professional relationship with Damiani, the challenge of editing to Balsam and Nero’s very different acting rhythms, changing the order of events from the screenplay, other technical aspects of the editing process, and alternate endings. 

• Lovely Jon on Riz Ortolani and Confessions of a Police Captain (31:00, in English) – The music historian explores Confessions of a Police Captain’s score and composer Ortolani’s larger career and style, including sound clips.

• Image gallery

The images on this page are taken from the BDs and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.