The Children of Violent Rome

Yours truly is an avid seeker of Italian cult cinema of the 60s - 80s era, and specifically giallo or poliziotesschi films. I'm always ecstatic when stumbling upon something new and completely unknown, but should also realize by now that all the worthwhile classics have been (re-)discovered already! There's usually a good reason why the others don't emerge from their eternal obscurity status, although the case of "The Children of Violent Rome" is a difficult one. I really wanted it to be great, and it almost is, thanks to a handful of terrifically elaborated elements, but in the end it's just too boring and talkative to be a cult favorite. Simply put, what this production desperately needed was the unorthodox touch of a true Poliziotesschi director, like Umberto Lenzi or Fernando di Leo. The relatively unknown writer/director Renato Savino has a fascinating story to share, but he lacked a Lenzi to stir it up with explicit violence and raw action.

The topics and tone featuring in "The Children of Violent Rome" are bleak and nihilistic enough, don't worry about that. The plot focuses on a group of spoiled and extremely bored high-society adolescents who are gathering in a lair decorated with Swastikas and immense posters of Adolf Hitler. Here they plan their upcoming crimes that usually involve petty theft, rioting and rape. Lots and lots of rapes, in fact! The most remarkable strongpoint of the film is undoubtedly the efficient casting. These youthful thugs come across as genuinely menacing, even though they often have baby-faces or an overall nerdy look. It's also disturbing that they are such fanatic neo-Nazis, because they certainly don't resemble your typical skinhead or aggressive loser. There are a couple of very powerful sequences, notably taking place in Nazi clubhouse, but "The Children of Violent Rome" is sadly too slow-paced and missing out on excitement. There exist similarly themed movies that have a much higher entertainment value, like "Violence for Kicks", "Naked Massacre" and "Young, Violent, Dangerous"

This extremely obscure Italian production tells the story of a modern day neo-Nazi youth gang that meets in a place decorated with swasticas and a poster of the "Führer". The members of this gang are all bored teenagers from rich families. One of the gang prefers playing pin pall to getting a girlfriend, because playing pin ball literally gets him off. The leader of the gang indulges in violent sexual fantasies, which ultimately leads to rape and murder. This inspires a teen gang from the streets, whose members are poor kids from the ghetto.

The story is quite interesting, especially the aspect of the impact the neo-Nazi gang has on the street gang in the end, although the gangs as such have nothing in common. Unfortunately, the film becomes extremely slow paced after a good first 20 minutes, and it never really returns to a faster pace. The interesting cast, unknown faces even for connoisseurs of obscure Italian films of the Seventies, does a good job throughout, which makes it even more sad that the movie as a whole is merely a disappointment. All in all, "I Ragazzi Della Roma Violenta" is a movie that could have been far better than it eventually turned out to be.

However, it's remarkable that the film precedes some of Larry Clark's issues in his films "Kids" and "Bully" for about two decades.

This is one strange piece of exploitation, which is probably why it is so obscure. We have a gang of over privileged teens, led by one extremely over privileged sociopath named Marco, who's father is a completely amoral industrialist who seems to get off on his son's nihilistic behavior. This baby faced gang leader, Marco, rules his crew in a clubhouse decorated with WWII Nazi flags and photos of Hitler. Obsessed with far right politics, Marco seems to hate everyone who is different from him. He also hates women, and I lost count of how many females get raped and beaten in this twisted exploitation gem. This one is pretty twisted, but it never fails to fascinate. Has a similar tone to "Clockwork Orange," as the kids are committing acts of violence just for the thrill of it. They go from one victim to the next, never showing a thread of remorse. The cast is very good looking, and there is no shortage of nudity and sex throughout. This is actually an interesting study of how one person can control and earn respect from his peers, simply by being vicious. Obviously this film isn't for all tastes, but for exploit connoisseurs, and fans of the Italian 'Poliziatti' genre, "I ragazzi della Roma violente" is worth tracking down.