Uomini si nasce poliziotti si muore

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.

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.

You just know you're in for one hell of a thrill-ride when the movie you're watching opens with a 10-minutes-long chase sequence on motorcycles; through the crowd-infested streets of Rome and ending with a shocking execution that truly goes against all the rules of ethically correct police work. "Live like a Cop, Die Like a Man" is a work of genuine 70's exploitation, scripted by the multi-talented Fernando Di Leo and directed by the almighty Ruggero Deodato. Deodato is, without a doubt and hands down, the KING of exploitation cinema! A couple of years before he dedicated himself to the notorious jungle adventures ("Jungle Holocaust", "Cut and Run" and, of course, his ultimate masterpiece "Cannibal Holocaust") and brutal revenge-horror ("House on the Edge of the Park"), Deodato made his one and only "Polizieschi" movie, but it's definitely memorable & unique enough to rank among the best in the sub genre. "Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man" is an indescribably sadistic and cynical film and it's very different from the usual efforts in the "Polizieschi" genre. These raw and explicit Italian crime-thrillers always introduce macho cop characters that shoot first and ask questions later, but at least they usually have good reasons for their very unorthodox investigation techniques. They either want to avenge a murdered friend or colleague, or they're on a tight time-schedule to rescue kidnapped children or recover a stolen treasure. (Al)Fred(o) and (An)Tony(o), the two protagonists in Deodato's film, are different. They simply cross the thin line between justice and delinquency because they enjoy it! Much more than any other entry in the Polizieschi sub genre, "Live Like a Cop, Die like a Man" glorifies extreme violence and nearly encourages people to take justice into their own hands. Fred and Tony terminate unarmed & defenseless gangsters, force female suspects into having sex with them, burn down fancy cars and invade private clubs for no real reason and they carelessly endanger the lives of civilians. And whilst they're performing their "jobs", they never for one second stop to pay attention to their good playboy-looks and macho charisma. This film is fast-paced and multiple isolated sequences are terrific (the hostage-situation! The bank robbery!), but the script as a whole sadly lacks continuity and depth. There's no actual plot, as Fred & Tony are simply hunting down Rome's biggest crime boss, Roberto Pasquini, and they eliminate a lot of his accomplices and random street scum during their 'assignment'. Most other Polizieschi flicks have a slightly more intelligent script, but "Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man" primarily benefices from sickening violence, gratuitous sleaze and unscrupulous controversy. The editing is sharp, the lurid 70's music is fabulous and Deodato's profound direction is brilliant and ultimately praiseworthy. I read somewhere that the motorcycle chases amidst crowded shopping streets and during broad daylight were filmed without official permission. Your name simply has to be Ruggero Deodato if you risk endangering the lives of unsuspecting civilians only to shoot credible and realistic footage of Rome!

An absolutely gonzo Italian action film that's insane before it even starts. Just read that title. Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man. So dumb and self-assured of its hamfisted-ness that you have to admire it.

Another tip-off that this is going to be wild is the fact it's directed by Ruggero Deodato, who's best known for making Cannibal Holocaust, which is one of the most controversial and violent movies of the 1980s (or arguably of all time). This one is similarly twisted and violent, though definitely not as extreme or horrific... even if it cruelly kills a blind man's guide dog on-screen five minutes into the movie (unlike the animal violence in Cannibal Holocaust, I'm pretty sure it's fake here). I guess it's done to show that the movie's not going to mess around. Unsurprisingly, it proceeds as such.

The film has a loose plot which pretty much boils down to two rogue cops taking on violent criminals in ways that are just as violent as the criminals. It's absurd enough that maybe it's intended to be darkly funny or even satirical, but I couldn't be 100% sure. Maybe the film was trying to be cool, but I'd like to think Deodato knew what he was doing here, to some extent (because I do think Cannibal Holocaust has a great deal more satire than some give it credit for).

I don't know, if you find the title funny and like crazy, over-the-top cop movies, this'll probably scratch an itch. But I don't know many people who I'd personally recommend it to, in all honesty, even if I got some enjoyment out of it.

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.