89
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100VarietyVarietyBalkan probably gives her best performance to date to create a woman tormented by instability, sexual drive and psycho demons -- disjointedly portrayed in the script.
- 100Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearA paranoid police procedural, a perverse parable about the corrupting elements of power, and a candidate for the greatest predated Patriot Act movie ever, Elio Petri's stunning thriller makes no attempt to hide the culprit behind the film's grisly murder.
- 90Village VoiceVillage VoicePetri's visually flamboyant film turns into a heady mix of Marx, Freud, Wilhelm Reich, and Brecht, with a bit of Dashiell Hammett thrown into the blender.
- 90L.A. WeeklyElla TaylorL.A. WeeklyElla TaylorThe movie survives beautifully both as an elegant thriller and as a study of the twisted infantilism that shapes the fanatic heart.
- 90Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranA provocative political thriller that is as troubling today as when it came out in 1970. Maybe more so.
- 90The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneThe film may have dated as a cautionary left-wing tale, yet it has stayed fresh as a study in the minutiae of power. [1 Oct. 2012, p.85]
- 90The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyAlthough Mr. Petri quite consciously makes movies about ideas, he has, in his "Investigation," made a movie in which the ideas, and the man who seethes with them, have the shock and impact of the most fundamental kind of melodrama.
- 80TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineA piercing satire of Italian investigative techniques, and an interesting meditation on the relationship between class and guilt.
- 80The DissolveKeith PhippsThe DissolveKeith PhippsAs specific as the film is to Italy at the turn of the turbulent 1970s, it’s also a film about how power first corrupts, then makes mad those who possess it.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertLike all good directors who make films about their own obsessions, Petri transmits an obsessive feeling in the film itself. "Investigation of a Citizen" is stylistically disconnected, but it works because it is absolutely fascinated with the nature of the inspector.