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“What are we coming to when they let common criminals
join the police?” Ruggero Deodato will perhaps forever be inextricably
linked to his notorious grand guignol video nasty Cannibal Holocaust,
but the famous Italian director tried his hands at numerous genres. He dabbled
in gialli with the likes of The Washing Machine, for instance, albeit in
the 1990s long after the movement's heyday in the 1970s. Indeed, three genres
ruled supreme at the Italian box office – the aforementioned gialli (bloody
murder mysteries), sex comedies, and crime films (generally referred to
as poliziotteschi), and it is in this latter category that Deodato produced
one of his finest films. Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man (what a
fantastic title!) is an ultra-charged poliziottescho that knows no bounds
of shame, as tough-as-nails coppers take on the dangerous world of crime...
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screenshots…
“We play to your masculine conceit, make you feel like
supermen, then you invite us to a meal with a hundred courses and you're
through after the appetiser.” 1970s Italy was hip with cutting edge
style while the cinema of the time was breaking boundaries and taboos as
rapaciously as it could manage, but there was also great divide in the country
between the cities and countryside, the North and South of the nation, and of
course, there was violent crime – sometimes for traditional motives, sometimes
for political reasons. Perhaps most infamously of all, the Red Brigade
dominated local headlines at a time when America was facing the Weather
Underground and Britain was taking on the I.R.A., and that's without even
mentioning the Red Army in Japan, the Baader-Meinhof group in Germany, and
countless other instances of revolutionaries aggressively demanding change on a
global scale – and all the while terrorism was spreading like a disease.
Suffice it to say, it was a rough time, and Italy experienced its fair share of
troubles as the criminal elements of its society filled newspapers and
television reports with heists, kidnappings, and murder.
Eventually, enough was enough, and the Italian police force
had to fight fire with fire and, naturally, far be it from the Italian film
industry to ignore current trends to make some fast cash. While the police were
generally portrayed in Italian cinema as being mistrusted by the youth,
disinterested/inept in their work, or replaced entirely by an amateur sleuth (sometimes
all three), the 'Euro crime' movement – heavily inspired by the mainstream
success of American films like Dirty Harry and The French Connection
– painted a very different picture. In the case of Deodato's Live Like A
Cop, Die Like A Man, the police were as nasty as the criminals they
pursued.
“What a sport you are. One of us gets it first by my
rules – I'm against threesomes.” Fred (Marc Porel, Don't Torture
A Duckling) and Tony (Ray Lovelock, Oasis of Fear, The
Living Dead At Manchester Morgue) are two criminally-minded rogues
assigned to 'special squad', a clandestine group of undercover cops who roam
the streets hunting for bad guys – and boy, do they pack a mean punch. Opening
with a thrilling, bravura motorcycle chase through city streets – that begins
brutally and climaxes in savage fashion – the modus operandi of the 'special
squad' is clear. The gloves are off and they'll do whatever it takes to nail
the villain of the day. Hell, when the thieves are minded to wear helmets but
the police ride like hell with the wind in their hair, you know who should be
scared of who – especially when Fred unceremoniously snaps the neck of one of
the bike-riding purse snatchers! These men work hard and play harder to the
point that the line between the two is practically transparent.
“You've caused me so many gray hairs that now they're
white!” Pasquini (Renato Salvatori) is the big cheese that
special squad is looking to snuff out, and after one of their own is
gunned-down outside their HQ, the already discarded gloves and cremated for
good measure. Put simply, Fred and Tony don't give a single solitary fuck and
enjoy themselves while doing so. They hit up a high-end gambling den and torch
all the rich folks' vehicles (an actual Rolls Royce included), and blow
off a little steam by bringing a hostage crisis to an effective – if bloody –
conclusion. Ultimately though, all roads lead to Pasquini, but how many people
are going to have to eat lead before the crime boss folds once and for all?
“Under no circumstances imperil the safety of a
citizen – regardless of age.” From the outset to the very end, Deodato
and his screenwriter Fernando Di Leo (Cold Blooded Beast) rarely
ease off the gas. Even the troughs, which compliment the peaks, come at you
packed with brazen displays of rampant lust and boyish immaturity. Fred and
Tony are like two boys who grew up without parental supervision and their
'criminal tactics to benefit the good guys' presents an intriguing hard line
dichotomy that makes Dirty Harry look positively square. This is a
teeth-gnashing kind of film, it's the serrated blade of a cold knife slashing
wildly out of the dark at your face, a middle finger to every shred of
bourgeois decency, and yet – perhaps surprisingly – it doesn't quite stray into
out-and-out sadism. Pasquini punishes a man who crossed him, but looks away
squeamishly from the results, while Fred and Tony would be giggling like school
kids if they weren't trying to remain so stoic and cool as they hard-charge motorbikes
through crowded streets. They may sometimes act like school bullies let loose
on the adult world, and are certainly not above torturing suspects for
information, nor coaxing a gangster's moll for their own pleasure, but their
exceptionally laddish behaviour plays a little more complex than plain old
testosterone-gone-wild.
“We women have more in us than you think. I'm prepared
to go all night.” There is a wealthy seam of homoerotic subtext
bubbling under the surface of Fred and Tony's partnership. They sleep in the
same bedroom, both practically nude, and are first seen cosied up together on a
motorcycle as they roam the city looking for criminals to take down. As the
bike weaves around, they move counter to each other as if in a dance with their
bodies close (as each actor makes sure the camera is getting a good look at
their face!). Even the characters' interaction with women is more complex
than the unrepentant chauvinism on the surface. Norma (Silvia Dionisio),
the secretary at the 'special squad', is hounded by the horny pair who seek to
claim her as a conquest (evidently the phrase “sexual harassment in the
workplace” is not in their lexicon). They steal a plant from the foyer and
try to pass it off as a gift for her – but she's no sucker and swats them away
with ease, chewing up their rampant masculinity by demolishing the usually
brisk nature of male performance, and stands up to their immature leering by
coming off as far more ravenous than the pair of them. Indeed, Fred balks at
the suggestion of a three-way, jokingly dismissing the whole concept as against
his own personal philosophy – and yet, in a later scene, the traded winks and
smirks between the pair when they come on to Pasquini's girl is clearly more
about the pair looking to nail her together rather than the woman
herself. Would it be going too far to read more academic ideas into the pair of
them pressing an explosive plunger together?
“Only if we love someone do we ever get cheated – then
we don't mind how much he fails in bed.” As if it wasn't already clear,
Deodato's film delivers on all fronts. The action sequences cut pretty fast as
bullets fly and engines roar, and the guerilla nature of Italian genre film
making of the time injects an added frisson to proceedings. The opening set
piece? Simply strap a camera to the front of the chase motorcycle and charge
full blast through the streets as real vehicles and actual pedestrians rush to
get out of the way. Indeed, a heist later in the film is shot in such a way
that many unwitting citizens genuinely flee at the sight of an actor's prop gun
just before he's 'snuffed out' in the middle of the road. Some are wise to the
event, but far from all are in on the gag. The theme of the piece, evidently,
is to hell with it and damn the consequences. From full throttle action
to unleashed sexuality, Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man is much like one
of Spinal Tap's amplifiers – dialled up to eleven, perhaps even with the knob
broken off. The visit to Pasquni's sister Lina (Sofia Dionisio, as Flavia
Fabiani), for instance, turns into a sordid farce once she opts to indulge
in a double dose of afternoon delight with both Fred and Tony – popping their
macho bubble by proving how easily they can be distracted – as the moans of
ecstasy go completely unnoticed in the next room by her mother, who is too busy
rustling up something to eat for these rapscallions with a badge!
“You should lay off it – alcoholics die!”
Coked-up to the eyeballs on sex, violence, and crazed behaviour, Deodato's film
(story credits to Fernando Di Leo, Alberto Marras, and Vincenzo Salviani)
wears its influences on its bloodied sleeve. What else is the character played
by Adolfo Celi (Thunderball) than a photocopy of all those
blustering police captains made weary by their barely controllable men in the
field? Naturally, it's not as slick as its American counterparts, but the film
still embodies that gritty 1970s aesthetic, perhaps even more so than the likes
of Popeye Doyle and 'Dirty' Harry Callahan. Swaggering onto the screen in
uncompromising fashion, it is one of Deodato's most assured films in his
notorious career (for more infamy, see The House On The Edge Of The Park
– another video nasty that fell foul of the British censors), and as such
is one that all fans of Italian genre cinema should check out.
“You take a woman to bed and what do you give her?”
88 Films' have made this movie available in the UK on both DVD and Blu-Ray
formats (separately), and present an impressive visual experience. Uncut
and in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the transfer is clear, crisp, and
free of damage while maintaining the grainy feel of its origins. The mono audio
track (in your choice of English or Italian language – subtitles optional),
meanwhile, is generally good albeit with a few clicks and pops that are
inherent to the source materials. When it comes to extra features, though, it's
slim pickings. A stills gallery (posters and lobby cards) and a trailer
is all you get. For other crime-fuelled Italian classics of the 1970s, see
Massimo Dallamano's giallo-tinged What Have They Done To Your Daughters?,
Umberto Lenzi's frenetic Almost Human (or, indeed, The Cynic, The
Rat, and The Fist), as well as Mario Bava's superb Rabid Dogs.
N.B. Screenshots are captured from the DVD version of
the release. A high definition Blu-Ray is also available at all good stockists
and from 88 Films' own website.
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