Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man

This one really pushes the envelope on "ends justify the means" police tactics, even compared to the other Italian cop-thrillers I've seen. The two protagonists are cops who belong to an "anti-gang" squad...that means, in this case, that they actually act like gangsters. They're nihilistic, sexist a-holes. They like blowing things up for fun. They shoot criminals BEFORE they commit crimes. A gangster wants them out of the picture and has one of their colleagues shot; from there on, they actively engage in gang warfare. That's the plot.

The dialog is not at all clever. The premise is set up lazily and has no authenticity to it. The musical score is light-weight, typical 70's cop-thriller fare.

It's consistently entertaining, however. Whether laughing out loud or gasping in shock, I was never bored. There's plenty of eye-popping violence on a level with "Violent Naples" to satisfy fans in that department. The ending is very abrupt, surprising, and cool; it gives the whole rest of the movie a darker tone.

I definitely recommend it to fans of violent, Italian cop-thrillers from the 1970's, or any violent cop-thrillers from the 1970's, or good, trashy movies in general.

This is an interesting Italian crime thriller from notorious "Cannibal Holocaust" director Ruggiero Deodato in that it takes the usual fascist and sexist tendencies of the genre and exaggerates them to the point of ironic parody.

Ray Lovelock and Mark Porel play two rogue motorcycle cops who are more like criminals with badges. They endanger the public, they beat, torture, and shoot suspects, and the avail themselves of any woman they come across. But there is also a definite homosexual subtext between the two characters. Both are played by pretty-boy actors. They ride around on the same motorbike. At and one point, they have what is pretty close to three-way sex with the slutty sister of a gangster they are pursuing. The sister is played by "Fabiana Flavia", who is actually Sofia Dionisio, the younger, bustier sister of Silvia Dionisio, who was Deodato's wife at the time (So, yes, Deodato films a fairly graphic double sex scene with his own sister-in-law!). Silvia Dionisio also has a smaller part as a secretary, but it's a plum part for an actress in one of these macho films, first because she gets to keep her clothes on, and second, because she gets to banter with these two sexist pigs as they shamelessly hit on her (and her "liberated" character definitely gives as good as she gets).

There are some very disturbing moments of violence in this film, equaled only in the genre by Lucio Fulci's notorious "Contraband', Andrea Bianchi's "Cry of a Prostitute",and the grindhouse classic "Rico" (aka "Cauldron of Death"). These films generally vary greatly from intelligent noirish and morally ambiguous fare, where a lone cop or sympathetic criminal is forced to survive in an urban jungle, to trite, right-wing fantasies where a straight-arrow cop takes on mustache-twirling bad guys while his lilly-livered liberal superiors fume. This movie takes the latter path generally, but it exaggerates the vigilante cops so much it becomes a kind of reducto ad absurdum. It's not a great film perhaps, but it is certainly worth watching, especially if you are a fan of the genre.

This is one of Deodato's earlier films. Deodato is best known as the director of the notorious film "Cannibal Holocaust". With a script by Di Leo and masterful direction by Deodato, you get a film that is violent, ruthless and exciting. One can easily see the influence on contemporary directors like Tarantino (a huge Di Leo fan). This film also has a lot in common with movies like Dirty Harry, where a cop uses extreme measures to deliver justice and always has his boss coming down on him for being too violent in doing so. Except in this film it is two guys who team up to clean the streets. The viewer will be surprised at the amount of violence in this film when considering the year it was made. If you can locate this film, its worth watching.

Ruggero made every cops fantasy here.

Ray Lovelock and Marc Porel (RIP and WAY too young) play a couple of plods on an elite part of the squad. And you know what THAT means.

They cruise around on motorcycles basically clipping anyone who even gives them a fishy eye. Catch a guy trying to steal a purse? Beat him senseless. Then shoot him. The man to man violence was over OTT.

Then there's the sex. Of course they get to bed many loose women. The kind of loose women that seem to be all over Rome in these kind of flicks. Although that's the big city. Tokyo? The same.

And the chief is one of those "I see nothing" types. Until he has no choice.

Chase scenes, shootings, fistfights, 70's waka-waka guitar and haircuts, it's there ad infinitum.

Porel died too soon. He was good looking enough where he could have had a real career. Lovelock was doing his usual.

Hard to find, but if you do, it's worth a gander.

This film is so manly I grew a third testicle just watching it! Here's a film where men are men, bad guys get a bullet between the eyes just for thinking about committing crime, and women are for shagging and doing the filing. Either director Deodato is taking the piss here, or this is the kind of Eurocrime film that definitely would be accused of being a bit fascist.

Marc Porel and Ray Lovelock are two young coppers who trust each other so much they share a flat, ride tandem on a motorbike, and make inappropriate sexual remarks to their bosses' secretary. They also love a bit of police brutality, as seen when they get involved in a motorbike chase at the start of the film (two robbers try and steal a purse from a woman who won't let it go, even though she's dragged along the road into a lamppost and has her face stomped). After a lengthy, exciting chase, they cause the robbers to crash, and Marc finishes one off by breaking his neck.

Their boss Adolfo Celi seems to put up with their antics, even if he doesn't agree with them. They are all after Mr Big, some guy called Pasquali, and have just set up a special squad in order to track him down, but when the guy who gets eaten by a ridiculous giant alien in the film Contamination gets gunned down, it gives our fellas an excuse to go and shag the bad guy's sister! These guys are so close that Ray Lovelock doesn't sloppy seconds after Marc Porel is finished! Nothing says masculine than not being bothered about stirring another man's custard.

I'm sure this must be some sort of parody but then it's hard to tell in Italian cinema. Every criminal who comes up against the two cops gets killed, including a gang just about to rob a bank (six executions on the streets before a crime's committed?) and remarkably sexist even for an Italian film, plus all the subtle hints that the two cops might be gay. The most telling scene is at the start when the robbers run over a guide dog and everyone just leaves the poor blind guy standing in the middle of the road.

Who knows? I enjoyed it anyway. Bruno Corazzari gets his eyeball poked out too.