Città violenta

I'm a big fan of Sergio Sollima's ingenious Spaghetti Westerns, and Charles Bronson is without doubt a great enrichment to any movie he played in. Sollima's "Citta Violenta" aka. "Violent City" aka. "The Family" of 1970 is a very good crime/action flick with Bronson in the leading role and a great score by Ennio Morricone. "The Family" may not quite share the brilliance of Sollima's Westerns, but it is definitely a very solid, greatly acted film that no Bronson fan can afford to miss!

After hit man Jeff Heston (Charles Bronson) is double crossed by his girlfriend (Bronson's real life wife Jill Ireland), and almost gets killed by rival gangsters, he spends the following four years in prison. After getting out of jail, he wants to track down those who betrayed him. It is not so easy, however, to find out who was involved in his assassination attempt, and Heston has to make quite an effort to distinguish between friends and enemies.

Charles Bronson is once again great as the leading character, and definitely the best choice to play Jeff Heston. Telly Savalas also delivers a great performance as the boss of a crime family. Although many folks seem to think differently, I also found that Jill Ireland did a great job as femme fatale Vanessa. One of the few things that were not quite necessary in "Citta Violenta", were the endless car chases. Car chases are of course mandatory for a film like this, but when they get too long, they can get a bit boring easily. The car chase sequences here are usually followed by violent action, however. The movie is quite imaginatively photographed, and Ennio Morricone's score is, as always, great, and although it is a bit different to the 'typical' Morricone that we're used to from Westerns, it is immediately clear who composed this soundtrack.

A very well made action flick with a great leading performance by Bronson, "Citta Violenta" is a great flick, maybe not quite as essential as Sollima's Westerns, but immensely entertaining, atmospheric and totally badass, and not to be missed by a Bronson fan. 8/10

One of the better Charles Bronson films, with an exhilarating wordless car chase opening sequence, a memorable shock ending, and one of Ennio Morricone's greatest scores. The story does not sustain its initial momentum, but the film is stylishly shot throughout by Sergio Sollima, who gives it the flavor of an urban spaghetti Western. Bronson is typically muscular and assured; Jill Ireland, whom I often find bland, is quite hot this time, and gives one of her most accomplished performances. **1/2 out of 4.

Uh-oh! We've got a hit-man here who has fallen in love and wants to go straight – we all know that there's only one way to leave the mob, right? Bronson is the hit-man and Jill Ireland is the chick who's turned his head, and after one of my favourite credit sequences ever where we see Bronson under observation to a kick-ass Morricone soundtrack, a bunch of guys turn up to waste our stone-face killer. One car chase and a double-cross later, Bronson's having bullets pulled out of him and sent to jail for a while.

It gives him plenty of time to stew over what's happened. Seems the last guy who hired to him to kill someone has double-crossed him and somehow his missus seems to be involved. Being a 'let bygones be bygones' kind of guy, Bronson's first task upon being released from jail is to try and track down these two and kill them both.

Luckily for us his past-employer is also a race car driver! That gives us a lengthy sequence at a race track where Bronson scopes out a good place to take out this guy with a sniper rifle, a sequence which is dialogue free and lasts about ten minutes. Also, it takes place under a huge advertisement for Pan-Am airlines, so I guess they were fitting the bill for the film, or Sergio Sollima was just a big fan of that airline.

Once this guy has been incinerated, Bronson starts receiving pictures of him setting up the kill at the race track, and realizes that starting a new life won't be so easy after all…

Those expecting an action-packed film with Bronson taking down waves of bad guys would probably be better switching the film off around the ten minute mark because the film is more about Bronson brooding about his relationship with Jill Ireland and arguing with Telly Savalas (a mob boss who is blackmailing Bronson and wants to hire Bronson full time). Savalas is good here as a seemingly legit-businessman who may be telling more home truths than Bronson wishes to hear.

Set possibly in New Orleans and Detroit Michigan at the same time (I was a bit confused by that), the film looks great, sounds great and for the first half is great, but be warned that pace slows way down before you get to the grim ending. Also, the version I watched had eight minutes of extra footage added in Italian with English subtitles that seems to add a bit more depth to the proceedings.

For the mopiest hit-man that wants to leave the mob, look out for Tony Arzenta!

Director Sollima first forsook the Western genre with this stylish gangster drama: its complex revenge plot is, basically, a combination of two seminal American noirs – OUT OF THE PAST (1947) and POINT BLANK (1967). The end result is overlong and deliberately-paced – but the second half generates considerable tension, and the action sequences (particularly the opening car chase, a racing-car ‘accident’ and the climactic shoot-out in a rising elevator which, incidentally, are all the more effective for being completely dialogue-free) are undeniably well-staged and exciting.

The film also provided its star, Charles Bronson, with a virtual template for all his subsequent vehicles; though his real-life wife Jill Ireland (who appears in a surprising number of nude scenes) doesn’t quite cut it as a femme fatale, the couple’s chemistry is more than evident and gives credence to the on/off romance which essentially drives the narrative. Also in the cast: Telly Savalas (in his all-too-typical role of crime kingpin), Umberto Orsini (as a shady lawyer) and Michel Constantin (as Bronson’s ageing junkie pal). Beneficial, too, is the unusual New Orleans setting – and the remaining credentials are certainly imposing: “Euro Cult” fixture Ennio Morricone’s score is excellent (but, again, the main theme is awfully similar to that of REVOLVER [1973] and THE UNTOUCHABLES [1987]!); renowned cinematographer Aldo Tonti; and, most astonishingly, co-screenwriter Lina Wertmuller.

The DVD features an informative 15-minute interview with Sollima, in which he discusses how he became involved with the project: invariably, he had found the original script terrible but was eventually lured by the opportunity of a U.S. shoot, mentions that the lead roles were originally intended for Jon Voight and Sharon Tate(!), and even recalls an amusing anecdote which sums up Morricone’s attitude to films.

Charles Bronson is at his coolest and most bad ass in this entertaining Italian crime flick. Bronson plays Jeff Heston, a professional hit man who wants to leave that line of work behind him. But his associates will have NONE of that, and spend a lot of time trying to set him up and take him out. When attempts are made on his life, Jeff makes it his mission to get revenge on the old "friend" and current flame who tried to eliminate him.

Adding a shot in the arm is Telly Savalas, appearing around the one hour mark, as a slick, rich gangster, Al Weber. Telly is a lot of fun to watch. Female lead Jill Ireland is less satisfactory (but looks amazing), but she's not bad as this scheming, conniving person. The excellent international cast also includes Michel Constantin as Killain, Umberto Orsini as Steve, and Ray Saunders as one of Jeffs' cell mates.

This twist laden script, with six people in total credited for the story and screenplay (including Lina Wertmuller and director Sergio Sollima), has the potential to confuse the viewer, especially as it doesn't always exist in one time frame. But Sollima does an excellent job at crafting the action. One can hardly fail to notice that the opening set piece plays out wordlessly, with no actors speaking until about 12 minutes along. A climactic elevator ride similarly plays out almost without sound. The camera work is first rate, as is the use of various locations. The pacing may cause some viewers to fidget, as it's very deliberate most of the time.

Bronson fans will see a different side of him here, as he roughs up his real life wife Ireland on more than one occasion. He's not a squeaky clean protagonist, for sure. The ending may likewise take some people by surprise.

Overall this is stylish trash, well shot in Techniscope and featuring a typically eclectic soundtrack courtesy of the legendary Ennio Morricone. There are also little doses of nudity along the way.

Seven out of 10.