“Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man” (“Uomini si nasce poliziotti si muore,” original title) is one of those mid-20th Century European genre movies where the only response is: “What the hell?” As the Spaghetti Western faded in popularity, Italian genre cinema was revitalized by the new wave of extremely successful American crime movies and gave rise to Poliziotteschi, ultra violent rogue cop films.
Filmed in 1976, no one with tender modern sensibilities should watch this violence-ridden, misogynist Italio-“Dirty Harry”/“Death Wish” film about a couple of scoff-law police officers. But those of us with hardened hearts and thrill-seeking souls love it. Truly, this duo would give Italian law enforcement a bad name if they weren’t a whisker less vicious than all the mobsters who inhabit this criminal hellscape.
The “Starsky and Hutch”-esque buddy cops open the film riding a motorcycle that acts as their ‘squad car.’ Director Ruggero Deodato frames their heavenly faces while the wind ruffles their luxuriant hair. What ensues is a 10-minute high speed motorcycle chase à la “The French Connection.” This chase and those faces got me all in. I overlooked and forgave so much in order to enjoy the 1970s high-gloss color, raw animal spirits, and gaudy blood-letting the like of which we don’t get to see anymore. Plus these hip-swingin’ dudes played by Marc Porel (the Starsky character) and Ray Lovelock (the Hutch character) never misstepped or misjudged in their pursuit of the bad guys. They just misbehaved, badly.
These cops are licensed to kill by the Italian government and do they ever. The plot is beside the point. The point is style and the frisson of transgression, which Deodato delivers aplenty.
Theatrical poster, 1976.
It slightly mitigates the wall-to-wall machismo that the ‘Miss Moneypenny’ of the film, Silvia Dionisio (who also appeared in other genre films such as “Waves of Lust”), presents the unvarnished feminine point of view while being light-heartedly and mercilessly harassed by the gorgeous twosome. She lets them know her opinion of men’s sexual adequacy, essentially punching below the belt.
There are as many things that made me shout with glee as there were things that made me gasp in shock. Not for everyone by a long shot; but if you like it rough, the Italian Poliziotteschi genre is worth checking out.
If you don’t like the grit in your eyes, you can watch a fun, funny cop buddy movie “The Heat” (2013).
