Can a police officer commit murder and remain untouchable by his own system?
In short: In Elio Petri’s 1970 masterpiece, a high-ranking inspector kills his mistress and deliberately leaves behind a trail of evidence. His goal is not to escape, but to prove that his authority is so absolute that the law is powerless to punish him, even when he begs for arrest.
The protagonist, known as Il Dottore, is a recently promoted inspector whose extreme power has curdled into a dangerous neurosis. After murdering his mistress, he actively manipulates the subsequent investigation, steering his subordinates toward other suspects. He wants to demonstrate that his status places him beyond the reach of the very justice system he represents. The film serves as a biting, black-humored satire on corruption and the authoritarian nature of high office.
The narrative takes a surreal turn when an anarchist witness, Antonio Pace, refuses to testify against the inspector. Pace views the inspector’s crime as the ultimate proof of the inherent criminality of power, famously remarking that a criminal leading the state's repression is a perfect arrangement. The inspector’s desperate attempts to confess are repeatedly thwarted by his own colleagues, who refuse to believe that a man of his standing could ever be guilty of such a base act.
Released in 1970, the film earned universal acclaim, including an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Critics praised it as a relentless political parable that exposed how institutions protect their own. Despite its success, attempts to remake the film in the 1980s and 1990s—involving figures like Paul Schrader, Sidney Lumet, and Jodie Foster—never moved beyond the development stage, leaving the original work as a singular, chilling interrogation of impunity.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
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