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Wake Up & Kill - this thrilling precursor to the Poliziotteschi genre tells the story of real-life ‘machine gun soloist’ Luciano Lutring and features of a raft of talent including director Carlo Lizzani (Requiescant), screenwriter Ugo Pirro (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion) and the iconic Ennio Morricone!

UK Release Date: 23rd November 2015
US Release Date: 24th November 2015
Region: A+B / 1+2

During the 1960s Luciano Lutring committed more than one hundred armed robberies in Italy and on the French Riviera. To the media he was the ‘machine gun soloist’, a name he’d earned as he kept his weapon in a violin case. To the public he was a Robin Hood figure, one who only targeted the wealthy, stealing more than 35 billion lire during his criminal career.

Wake Up and Kill was the logical extension of such fame. It became the first feature to commit Lutring’s story to celluloid, shooting having begun mere months after his eventual arrest. Capitalising on the breakthrough success of his performance in French television’s The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Robert Hoffmann is perfect as Lutring, bringing just the right amount of charisma and youthful exuberance to his first major big screen role.

Directed by Carlo Lizzani (Requiescant), scored by Ennio Morricone, penned by the future screenwriter of Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, and featuring that film’s star, Gian Maria Volonté, in a key supporting role, Wake Up and Kill’s true-crime thrills serve as an enthralling dry run for the poliziotteschi movies that would follow a few years later.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
•Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
•High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
•Optional English and Italian soundtracks presented in their original mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays)
•Newly-translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
•Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
•Theatrical trailer
•Limited Edition illustrated collector’s booklet containing new writing on the film by Roberto Curti, author of Italian Crime Filmography 1968-1980 and Italian Gothic Horror Films 1959-1969

A bit odd to see the description bigging up its connections to Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion as though it's this beloved much-seen classic.

Wow, so there's no on-disc extras AND the booklet is limited ?

A lengthy career-encompassing Robert Hoffmann interview was all set up, but he has recently had some health problems. It may still happen, but understandably we're not currently able to confirm its inclusion and have priced this release accordingly.

tenia wrote:Wow, so there's no on-disc extras AND the booklet is limited ?

Calm down! Usually, this would be worth a grumble, but this is a world first on DVD, let alone Blu-ray! Barebones English-friendly world firsts from here to eternity would be very welcome! It's not even widely available on the backchannels.

Ribs wrote:A bit odd to see the description bigging up its connections to Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion as though it's this beloved much-seen classic.

If you're into Italian cinema of this period and this sort of genre, that's exactly what Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is, no? It might not be well known to Johnny Arthouse who only buys Criterions from B&N, because it has only been released in NA recently, but it was massively cried out for for years and much beloved anyway.

Not to mention an original 2K restoration with two soundtrack options.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't wish to be a party pooper, I'm just not used to so few extras anymore on an Arrow release.

Can't help but notice that the limited edition booklet has been dropped from the shop listing. Or was it simply the case that it was never there?

Beaver.

For the record, we did try to bump the trailer up to HD, but it turned out to contain unique material - and a fair amount of it. Presumably it was cut before the final version of the main feature had been locked down.