No mobsters here. No bank robberies either. Just three working Joes, working day in, day out. Joe works in a science lab, staring at rats and working on computers. His wife is a career woman who's always at work (and not averse to forwarding her career by giving her boss a chewy!). His mate lives with several billion family members who won't shut up. The third guy can't get a minute's peace due to his house falling to bits and his neighbours arguing. It's enough to drive them all mad.
Which it does! These three, led by Joe, start acting out against society in every way possible. They start off by starting a football riot where dozens are injured and one person dies. The case is given to perpetually tired looking cop Enrico Salerno, who initially encouters, but does not suspect, Joe while attending computer lessons at the lab Joe works at (the computer-based dialogue here is hilarious by the way). Enrico is down on his luck as he was demoted after ramming some bad guy in his car, so he's playing things a bit softly this time round...at least at first.
I've said it before - Joe Dallesandro can't really emote, but he's good as an angry psychopath. His trio become the scourge of society as the add murder to their list of crimes, at first stabbing a truck driver during a road rage incident, then killing a pimp and a hooker. They also kill a member of high society by impaling her on the fork of a fork lift truck, using an effect so good I can't figure how they did it.
This film plays out like some kind of Italian Clockwork Orange with kind of similar themes. If I was a man who thought about stuff I'd say that this whole film is a commentary on man's inability to successfully channel his aggression in everyday mundane tasks and even the acceptable societal outlets for such feelings (football being the glaring example here). It evokes the 'violent male ape' hypothesis that violence is inherent in humans and that these violent tendencies are as natural as love, affection and hunger.
I'm not a thinking man however so I'll just say that Sal Borghese looked real goofy when we first see him.
