User Reviews

I recently picked up the DVD which sure as heck looked a thousand times better than my cruddy old foreign videotape. While this film is not nearly as boring as I'd remembered, it's still one of the lesser crime films (despite 3 or 4 awesome moments like when they shoot a guy just minding his own business reading the paper).

The total lack of suspense, immediacy, or likable characters ruins it... there is virtually no plot and not enough random crime to keep it interesting. The film relies too heavily on the nonexistent charisma of its two leads, who both look good but don't really say or do much except act cocky and shoot people.

Usually I really like Ubaldo Continiello's work, but his music here is a real letdown and virtually missing-in-action except for the theme song (sung by Ray Lovelock)... which is one of the worst songs ever! It's almost comically bad! Pay attention during the opening credits of the shot where Lovelock is riding with Porel on a motorcycle - watch how Lovelock is trying to get his face on camera, but Porel keeps blocking the way - Lovelock gradually becomes visibly angrier and angrier. It's completely hilarious.

Highlights of the film, typical of any Deodato movie, are the well-directed and inspired moments of violence and sleaze. Nothing near the level of his cannibal masterpieces, but still pretty heavy for the genre. Such scenes include a savage beating of a woman overly protective of her purse, a hit-man getting smushed between two cars, and an amusing bit where several bank robbers are killed one-by-one by the "heroes" before they even commit their crime. Also unique is the heroes' brazenly irresponsible attitude toward gun safety (such as when they target practice in the quarry) and totally politically incorrect womanizing. The ironic atmosphere and dark humor helps a little, but not enough.

Within this genre, you're much better off with Castellari and Lenzi's numerous offerings. Fulci's CONTRABAND is similarly dull and unengaging but much more violent and mean-spirited, and an overall better way for fans of this stuff to spend their time and money.

"Uomini Si Nasce Poliziotti Si Muore" ("Live Like A Cop, Die Like a Man") of 1976 comes from two of the most brilliant minds in Italian Exploitation/Cult-Cinema. Written by Fernando Di Leo, whose brilliant Milieu-Trilogy ("Milano Calibro 9" of 1972, "La Mala Ordina" of 1972, and "Il Boss" of 1973) ranges among the greatest achievements crime-cinema has ever brought forth, and directed by Ruggero Deodato, whose gruesome 1980 masterpiece "Cannibal Holocaust" is one of the grittiest, most controversial and most brilliant Exploitation films of all-time, this film raises high expectation with Italian crime fans. These high expectations make it even more disappointing that this film is actually one of the least entertaining Poliziotteschi out there. In spite of a well-known cast - Ray Lovelock ("Almost Human", "Violent Rome", "Autopsy", "Living Dead at Manchester Morgue",...) and Marc Porel ("Don't Torture A Duckling", "Seven Notes in Black") in the leads, Adolfo Celi ("Diabolik", "Thunderball") and Marino Masé ("The Red Queen Kills 7 Times", "Il Boss") in supporting roles and the sexy sisters Silvia and Sofia Dionisio in the female support - this flick has little to offer.

Porel and Lovelock play Fred and Tony, two special forces policemen whose unorthodox methods include executing criminals on the spot and blowing up cars and illegal casinos... I am a huge fan of the 'unorthodox cop' premise and the politically incorrect messages of Italian 70s Poliziotteschi in general. Cops like those played by Henry Silva in Umberto Lenzi's masterpiece "Milano Odia: La Polizia Non Può Sparare" ("Almost Human", 1974), or Maurizio Merli (in any of his Police flicks) would relentlessly bend the law and treat criminals brutally, but at least the sadistic thugs in these films had it coming. Murdering wounded criminals for stealing handbags, as Fred and Tony do here, seems a little extreme, even for unorthodox Poliziotteschi standards. Generally, the two protagonists are total dirtbags whose deeds are actually a lot worse than those of the criminals they pursue. Besides that, they are cocky and annoying, and constantly crack painful jokes. Are we supposed to sympathize with these scumbags? The two sleazy and sadistic protagonists are actually what makes this worth watching, however, as it is astonishing how these guys can be portrayed as heroes. The film has several terrific action sequences, and is furthermore worth watching for several ultra-violent outbursts. However, the story is incoherent and uninteresting, and the lack of a truly evil villain makes the whole thing seem pointless. The score is very below par and unmemorable for genre-standards (usually, Italian 70s Crime flicks are known for their great scores). Overall, there's a lot better to watch in Italian Cime cinema, such as Di Leo's brilliant trilogy, any film by Umberto Lenzi (especially "Milano Odia..." and "Roma A Mano Armata"), any film by Damiano Damiani, or Enzo Castellari's "Il Grande Racket", just to mention a few highlights. "Uomini Si Nasce..." may be seen for its grit and violence, but can easily be skipped.

Alfredo (Porel) and Antonio (Lovelock) are cops and partners assigned the tough jobs in Rome. Their captain, known simply as "The Captain" (Celi) is caught in a bind: he knows about their reckless and violent ways, but he can't deny they get results. So he tolerates them, as does Norma (Dionisio), The Captain's secretary. So he designates the two men as a "special squad", which allows them pretty much free reign in Rome, which means not just legal rules, but perhaps even moral ones are broken. The rest of the movie is almost like a series of vignettes as they go to different crime scenes and solve the problem in their own inimitable no-mercy, no-prisoners, no-conscience, no-problem style. These situations range from a hostage showdown to an illegal gambling ring, and beyond. It all comes to a head as our two anti-heroes finally confront a crime boss named Pasquini (Salvatori) on his yacht. Will living this type of lifestyle finally catch up to Alfredo and Antonio? Find out today! Here we have noted director Ruggero Deodato's entry in the Poliziotteschi sweepstakes of the day. So you'd have to figure Mr. Cannibal Holocaust (1980) himself would turn in a particularly hard, violent, brutal and uncompromising entry. And you'd be right. There is certainly a strain of nihilism that runs through Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man, and it's not to everyone's taste. Especially since the tone of the movie and the actions of the characters are so alien and unfamiliar to American audiences of today. We're so unused to seeing behavior like this on screen, it's hard to know what to think. While no doubt an acquired taste, Deodato was simply reflecting what was going on in Italy at the time and, presumably, his rage about the conditions in society then, especially as it relates to crime.

Moral considerations aside, there's plenty for genre fans to enjoy here, such as the insane motorcycle setpiece at the beginning of the film (which provides a killer kickoff to all that we're about to see - letting viewers know this is no run of the mill crime drama), as well as other well-staged and well-shot violent moments. From the title on down, you know that you're in macho territory here. While it may be in dispute whether that's Deodato subtly mocking (Italian?) machismo, or he's legitimately going for it, the movie delivers the goods nonetheless, from start to finish. Ray Lovelock himself sings the Bob Dylan-like songs on the soundtrack, and the movie works on at least two levels: as a comment on the society of the time and the behavior of men, or simply as a violent actioner. It doesn't take much to read into the movie just a tad, and the fact that you never really root for and get totally behind Alfredo and Antonio is most likely not an accident. It's probably more an indicator that there may be more brewing beneath the surface.

Released on DVD by Raro, Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man may not be for everyone, but viewers will see a movie ahead of its time, and a Poliziotteschi that will make you think. We recommend it.

The plot has been explained well enough by the other reviewers. Porel and Lovelock are basically lower class James Bond homologues: pretty boy fashion plates who kill, screw and bully without regret, knowing they can do so because they're on the right side of the law. This leads to some entertaining sequences (the opening chase - in which they do not run over the guide dog, the villains do that, but they do zoom past the distraught blind man and just leave him to his fate, the quarry shootout, the prevention of the bank robbery, the hostage situation). But there's no real strength to the narrative, the heroes are astoundingly unlikeable and never taken wholly seriously. And they are incompetent at heart: the dud finale (which only works as a very ironic grace note) shows just how hopeless they really are at what they do. There's also the scene in which they interrogate the sister of the bad guy, and she voraciously forces them to have sex with her, leaving them totally exhausted. The violence is rough and cruel, yet the gore is lessened because the blood is of the thick red paint variety so beloved of early 1970's filmmakers. Also, one bad guy is shot through the head from behind and has a larger exit wound than usual (nothing too extreme though), but when he tumbles down there is no entry wound at the back of his head... Not a classic, not really enjoyable, but a movie with a few effective/cool scenes which would work well in a best of- compilation.

While he may be most famous for Cannibal Holocaust, a movie so controversial that he lost his license to make films and was arrested for the suspected murder of the film's cast, Ruggero Deodato is no one-trick pony.

After growing up nearby Rome's film studios and being friends with the son of director Roberto Rossellini, he worked his way up to being the assistant director on the film Django before helping Antonio Margheriti finish Hercules, Prisoner of Evil, a peplum that also has horror elements like a werewolf. He also directed the superhero film Phenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankhamen and Zenabel before taking time away to work in advertising.

He returned in 1976 for the film Waves of Pleasure and then made the film we'll be discussing today. Later Deodato films of interest include Jungle Holocaust (which stars future cannibal icons Ivan Rassimov and Me Me Lai), Concorde Affaire '79 (which has a veritable murderer's row of junk cinema stars in it, like James Franciscus, Mimsy Farmer, Joseph Cotten and Edmund Purdom), The House On the Edge of the Park (which rips off The Last House On the Left so much that it even has Davis Hess in it), the slasher Body Count and late in the game giallo like Phantom of Death and The Washing Machine.

But Deodato will forever be known for his cannibal excesses, so much so that he was in Hostel II as a cannibal character.

When Edgar Wright was writing Hot Fuzz, Quentin Tarantino played him this film and Walter Matthau's The Laughing Policeman for inspiration. On the commentary track for the movie, Tarantino says that it has "one of the greatest titles of all time, and it lives up to its name."

Screenwriter Fernando Di Leo was behind several of the most well-regarded spaghetti westerns, like A Fistful of Dollars and Johnny Yuma before moving into the poliziotteschi genre. His Milieu Trilogy, which he both wrote and directed, includes Caliber 9, Manhunt and The Boss.

This movie, however, is all about the Fred (Marc Porel, Don't Torture a Duckling) and Tony (Ray Lovelock, The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue), two members of the Special Squad. This secret arm of the Italian police seems to have complete impunity and grants their agents a license to kill.

Fred and Tony take full advantage of that. The film begins with them chasing purse snatchers - to be fair, the failed heist leads to them killing a woman directly in front of children waiting in line to meet Santa Claus - for nearly twelve minutes before impaling one and breaking the other's neck before the normal cops arrive. As people wait for them to be arrested, they just casually walk away and ride their motorcycle together. Yet for all the killing, shooting and wanton seduction of women these two will accomplish in the next 100 minutes, they really have no issue holding one another.

Keep in mind that Deodato shot this epic sequence with no permits whatsoever and you may see that he saw these two as kindred spirits.

Their boss is played by Adolfo Celi, who you'll probably recognize for playing Ralph Valmount, the villain in Mario Bava's Danger Diabolik. They pretty much drive him crazy for most of the film, with him opining that they're probably worse than the criminals that they go after.

Yes, this is probably the only cop movie you're ever going to see where the good guys wait for the bank robbers to start their job, then just walk up and shoot them with silenced handguns with no due process. And then they go off and do target practice, which is pretty much them shooting at one another and dodging the bullets.

Silvia Dionisio plays Norma, the tough secretary for their boss. The film pretty much sets its tone when they have their conversation with her before seeing him. You expect the Bond/Moneypenny type flirting until she tells them that men often talk a great game, but she can go twenty times in a night while they'll be sleeping after one orgasm. That's why she keeps flirting with both of them, because they may have to team up to satisfy her. It's disarming and shows that she's no shrinking violet. Also, if anyone in this movie was smart, it's Deodato, as he married Dionisio right around this time.

The boys' big assignment is to stop crime boss Pasquini, which they start by visiting one of his finest clubs and setting all of the patrons' cars on fire. He eventually comes after them, even slicing out the eye of one of their informants (and stepped on the eyeball, in a screen that Fulci must have been jealous he didn't direct) to get them mad. This scene was censored from how it originally was intended, but the intent is there. There's also a bonkers scene where the boys visit a relative of Pasquini and end up taking their turns with his needy niece.

Of course, everything works out for our heroes, thanks to their boss being a much better cop than both of them. But hey - they still get to blow up a boat.

If you ever watched a movie like Lethal Weapon or Cobra and thought, boy the captain is coming down pretty hard on this cop and he's just doing his job, you should check this out. These supercops make Dirty Harry look like a third grader with their near-limitless brutality.

Sadly, this was Ruggero Deodato's only poliziotteschi film. But really, where do you go from here? A sequel was in the planning stages, but ended up being canceled due to Marc Porel and Ray Lovelock not getting along.

This is one of the most entertaining films I've ever seen, a cops with guns movies that rivals the excesses that Hong Kong cinema would achieve a decade later. It really has no story, just hijinks, but you won't notice. You'll be too busy trying to get your jar off the ground, trust me. If it didn't come through in all these world, I love this movie.

LIVE LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN (Ruggero Deodato - Italy 1976).

Despite its almost cartoonish violence, Ruggero Deodato really kept pushing boundaries for extreme violence and sadism with this piece of nihilistic mayhem.

Alfredo (Marc Porel) and Antonio (Ray Lovelock) are two policemen belonging to a special anti-crime unit who are given carte-blanche in their actions against organized crime in Rome. Their working methods are of the "shoot first, ask questions later" kind, and their daily routines consists of killing just about everybody before they even committed the crime.

The film kicks off with an exciting motorbike chase during rush hour through the streets of Rome, during which a blind man's guide dog is casually run over by our two heroes. At the end of the chase, one of the badly hurt criminals is put out of his misery when Antonio snaps his neck before the other police officers arrive. During an inquiring visit to a villa on the edge of Rome where apparently the top bosses have gathered, they knock out some bodyguards, and - instead of arresting them - set the whole car park on fire, before going home to their shared apartment and smoke another packet of cigarettes. All this violence is delivered in such a casual tone, I can imagine this will offset most viewers. Personally, I don't see that much trouble since no person in the film is anything more than a cardboard character and the film never rises above the level of comic-book theatrics. And hey, what else can you expect from Italian crime thrillers? Generally, our two cop buddies lead the life every testosterone-driven man dreams off, which is setting cars on fire, shoot their guns and, between crime-fighting, chase women all day.

Alfredo and Antonio have a bit of an odd living situation. Apparently, they are such close buddies, they live together in the same apartment. They even share the same room and they also share the same motorcycle. In fact, they never seem to do anything on their own. The original story hinted at this hidden homosexual component between the two men, but in the film it's subdued, since Alfredo and Antonio's behaviour is all raging heterosexuality and they chase everything female that moves.

Also, the first thing that springs to mind when watching this is the TV-show "Starsky and Hutch." Two cops, one blonde, one black-haired roaming the streets, but the show hadn't aired yet in Italy at the time the film was being made. Even if it was pure coincidence, the resemblance is obvious, although Alfredo and Antonio's methods are admittedly a little more extreme than their American counterparts. In an interview Ray Lovelock mentions the resemblance, but he can only speculate if the two main characters were influenced by "Starsky and Hutch." So far, Deodato keeps his mouth shut about the issue.

And pay attention to the scenes where the men ride the motorcycle together. Marc Porel is driving while Ray Lovelock is sitting behind him and constantly looks from left to right in ridiculous fashion (Deodato's instructed this because the camera was in front of the two men and it was the only way Lovelock could be caught on camera). The story goes that Porel blocked Lovelock from the camera on purpose and that this little incident was the main reason the two actors didn't get along and the much awaited sequel was never made.

Camera Obscura --- 6/10

Whilst taking part in the ICM Horror Challenge,the poll for the best films of 1976 started. Planning to see Ruggero Deodato's late Giallo Phantom of Death (1988-also reviewed) in the run-up to Halloween,I realized that I could also see Deodato show in 1976 how to die like a man.

View on the film:

Barely pausing to catch breath after Ray Lovelock's insanely catchy song Maggie plays over the credits, directing auteur Ruggero Deodato & cinematographer Guglielmo Mancori run in to smash and grab spectacular Italian Crime action set-pieces. Illegally filmed on the streets of Rome,Deodato gives the chase sequences a visceral atmosphere,with rapid-fire whip-pans capturing the urgency of Fred and Tony to clear the scum off the street.

Living up to the macho name of the film,Deodato gives Tony and Fred's "investigating" skills an aggressive punch,where punishment is given out in ultra- stylised hits that pan across the faces of each busted criminal covered in a red glaze.

Driving spikes into the "loyal cop" of the Italian Crime genre,the screenplay by Fernando Di Leo/ Alberto Marras and Vincenzo Salviani take their tale into wonderfully quirky side-tracks,showing the closeness of Fred and Tony in threesome sex with suspects,the twisting of necks and running over of anyone who gets in their way,and the blowing up of a ship.

Exaggerating the toughest aspects of the genre, the writers give each encounter with the underworld an adventure mood,where the way Fred and Tony dish out swift justice becomes increasingly over the top.

Following orders from a rumbling Adolfo Celi as the captain, Ray Lovelock and Marc Porel both give fantastic performances as Fred and Tony. Tragically dying at just 34 from meningitis after a long battle with heroin, Marc Porel gives a burst of youthful energy as Fred,whose toughness with thugs Porel matches with moments of calm in his exchanges with his best friend.

Along with showing a very good singing voice,Ray Lovelock grinds a real grit into the film as the harsh,no nonsense Tony,who proves with Fred that no criminal can live like a cop,and die like a man.