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Ruggero Deodato is a director known for making hard films, filled with violence and cynicism. His impressive cop thriller, "Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man", is no exception. Alfredo and Antonio belong to a special branch of the Rome police department. They are given the hard cases, having to deal with the lowest criminal scum around. Their methods of dealing with the criminal element are certainly not standard procedure, as we see early in the film. The 'bad guys' who have the utter misfortune of having to deal with Fred and Tony, do not get handcuffed and have their rights read to them. Deodato, most known for a contemptuous piece of cinema called 'Cannibal Holocaust', has fashioned a stylish crime drama, filled with interesting and unusual characters. The viewer gets to know the two vigilante cops, who seem to be operating on the same wavelength. They cruise around on a motorcycle together, kill and torture bad guys together, even live together. They share the same cynical attitude towards life and death. There is a real bond there, and that relationship elevates this to a higher level. It is fun to watch these two in action, cocky and sexist bastards that they are, but somehow likable. Filmed with a great deal of energy and style. The opening scene, a wild motorcycle chase through the streets of Rome, sets the tone for the rest of the film. And the music is worth mentioning, some great background music, typical of the 70's time period, compliments the action. Deodato often had a strange habit of using the most inappropriate music to go along with the extreme violence happening on the screen. Soft ballads were often heard as people got beaten and murdered, or sexy disco music complimented a brutal rape, such as in "House On the Edge Of the Park". It somehow makes the brutal imagery all the more sick and twisted. For 'Live Like A Cop' actor Ray Lovelock who portrays Antonio, sings the main theme for the film. Great stuff. In America at this time, a TV show called 'Starsky & Hutch' was doing well. A cop show that featured two handsome partners, one blond and the other dark haired, much like the two heroes of this film. Perhaps that TV show was an influence, but the movie was made before 'Starsky & Hutch' was shown on Italian TV, so who knows? Up until recently "Uomini Si Nasce Poliiziotti Si Muore" was super-rare, almost impossible to find on video. Now there is a new DVD from an Italian label, 'Raro Video', that is well worth tracking down. Featuring a choice of original Italian language or a funny dubbed English track, and including an interesting interview with Ruggero Deodato and actor Ray Lovelock, who both discuss the film. Highly recommended for fans of 70's exploit films and crime films. There were countless cop thrillers to come out of Italy in this time, but this stands out as one of the best, and certainly one of the most brutal.

Can best be summed up as the "Spaghetti Starsky & Hutch" but with better car chases, more sex (and sexism) and more violence. Prime 1970s Poliziotteschi up there with the best of Franco Nero, Fabio Testi or Mauricio Merli

'Nuff said, but apparently not enough for an imdb review, so I will continue...

Ray Lovelock looks like another refugee Americano actor following the path most famously trodden by Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Lee van Cleef and his friend Tomas Milian, but in fact he was born in Italy of an Italian mother and English father. He is blond and plays the "Hutch" role.

Marc Porel was born in Switzerland, but his parents were both French actors. He is dark and plays the "Starsky" role.

Adolfo Celi plays the "Captain Dobey" role, his face will be familiar from numerous character parts in post war Hollywood and across European cinema, most notably as supervillain "Emilio Largo" in the James Bond classic "Thunderball"

Silvia Dionisio plays the feisty modern woman who cheerfully puts up with the lads crude sexist banter and gives as good as she gets in the repartee department

Sofia Dionisio gets her kit off.

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 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.

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.