Poliziotti violenti

Henry Silva plays a Army Major who teams up with a tough cop (sabato) to investigate of a series of crimes that used a army issued machine gun. Lots of car chase, and action centers in a standard Italian action film. Silva, who isn't dubbed is good as usual and Sabato is a little more low key than his usual performance. Recommended.

When para Paolo Altieri (Henry Silva) brings up the awkward matter of defective chutes that have claimed two lives, he is given a promotion to major and a comfy office job in the city, where he can be less of a bother to his superiors. But trouble seems to follow Altieri, and, after foiling a kidnapping, he finds himself targeted by a gang of criminals armed with military issue machine guns—weapons that have only ever been supplied to his old unit. Teaming up with tough cop Paolo Tosi (Antonio Sabato), Altieri tries to find out who is supplying the gang with the guns, but in doing so puts the life of his girlfriend Anna (Silvia Dionisio) on the line.

Poliziotti violenti is a fairly routine poliziotesschi, meaning that it delivers lots of noisy shoot outs (innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire, with excessive use of bright red squibs!), fist fights, car and motorbike chases (with stacks of crates being knocked in all directions), and general acts of violence, plus a smattering of gratuitous nudity, the lovely Dioniso baring her boobs for a couple of scenes. All of this is set to a wonderfully funky '70s soundtrack. Unfortunately, the unexceptional story, which primarily serves to deliver the regular bouts of action, is far from gripping, while Michele Massimo Tarantini's direction is lacking in style, making this particular thriller rather a forgettable affair, at least until the surprisingly downbeat ending.

Antonio Sabato and Henry Silva as violent police officers in Rome

This tough crime film was shot by Michele Massimo Tarantini in 1976. However, it was only released in cinemas in West Germany in 1982. The great film music is by the De Angelis brothers.

He's a great kid, this Inspector Paolo Tosi (Antonio Sabato)! And he knows it too when the camera glides over the body of this model athlete from a worm's eye view. But somehow his weapon seems like a strange extension of his arm. And he also seems to be a lone wolf with no social connections. But he's the best at his job, maybe a little too brutal, but oh well. While fighting crime in Rome, he has to deal with Major Paolo Altieri (Henry Silva), who, as an accidental witness, behaves just as brutally as the smart inspector. This Major Altieri was recently sent away to Rome because he asked too many unpleasant questions in his parachute unit. Just like Tosi, he seems to be more of a lone wolf, but he met the lovely kindergarten teacher Anna (Silvia Dionisio) on the train to Rome. In any case, the major is astonished that the gangsters in Rome used weapons from his parachute unit's inventory. There's something wrong going on there! Tosi and he are getting closer and closer and are looking for clues together. There two found each other! Somehow there seems to be a large organization behind this story, in which the influential lawyer Vieri (Ettore Manni) is somehow involved. In any case, the gangsters take extremely brutal action against the two investigators. They don't even shy away from a bomb attack in a crowded restaurant. After that the measure is full...

Car chases, shootouts, brawls - everything that the police and gangster film genre has to offer is here. But love and the political background are not neglected either. And with Golden Globe candidate Antonio Sabato (1943-2021) and Henry Silva, born in 1928, there are two deserving veterans of the EuroCrime era at the start.

It's worth it!

Maestro, Michele Massimo Tarantini's flint-edged 'Poliziotti violenti' aka 'Crimebusters' (1976) is a terrifically entertaining Poliziottesco from the largely unheralded director of the no less exhilarating, 'A Man Called Magnum' & '7 Hours of Violence'. This enjoyably boisterous Euro-crime includes the splendidly stone-faced Henry Silva, charismatically delivering yet another Stoic, sinisterly simmering performance as the honourably straight-shooting, Maj. Paolo Altieri. Incensed by army corruption and the increasingly brutal machinations of the criminal underworld, Altieri is fatefully driven to acts of extreme retribution, and soon, wherever the militantly macho Major ventures, a bloody swathe of cathartic ultra-violence is sure to follow!

Swarthy cinematic stud, Antonio Sabato is well cast as the sharp-witted, belligerent Police commissioner, Paolo Tosi, whose fearsome propensity for twin-fisted justice is put to efficient use in Tarantini's enjoyably rough-hewn poliziottesco potboiler, and, rewardingly, the dynamic filmmaker constructs a number of compelling action scenes. The vehicular calamity, ear-shattering gun play and equally pugnacious punch-ups ensure that, Michele Tarantini's rumbustious, pleasingly action-packed actioner remains a shrapnel savage Poliziotteschi that most certainly merits a larger audience among Euro-cult fans. For me, one of 'Crimebusters' most enduring qualities is the robustly propulsive crime-jazz score by thrilling Euro-crime maestros, Guido & Maurizio de Angelis.

This is not a great movie. Director Michelle Massimo Taranti was very much a hack, and moreover a hack who usually specialized in comedy. Lead actor Henry Silva, on the other hand, was best playing either villains or VERY morally ambiguous anti-heroes (like the brutal gangsters he portrayed in "Cry of a Prostitute" and "The Boss"). Here though he's an annoyingly straight-arrow parachute major who has been sidelined from the army after he filed a report about defective parachutes. He comes to the city and decides to wage a one-man war on crime and corruption after he realizes organized bands of criminals seem to be getting their hands on military weapons. He is helped by a macho but possibly homosexual cop (Antonio Sabato). With the exception of a downbeat ending (and the homosexual subtext), this is way too much like an 80's era American police thriller (a genre which I personally hate).

This movie does have some good points. The pure stupidity of the plot is at times pretty entertaining. Silva ALWAYS seems to be where the action is. At one point he thwarts a kidnapping, but nearly barbecues the victim after running the kidnapper's car off the road. Then he knocks a would-be mugger off his scooter bike and the poor guy is set upon by a pack of vengeful senior citizens who beat him mercilessly with their canes in a truly surreal scene. The whole homosexual subtext is also interesting, especially when Sabato's character takes Silva's character into a transvestite bar and goes in the back room to "pump an informant" (actually he slaps the transvestite around, but for all our straight-laced hero knows. . .). I don't mean to imply, however, that this is really a gay movie. Silva, at least, has a love interest played by the sexy Silvia Dionisio. And Dionisio gets naked twice, not in particularly erotic scenes (in the first one she's being assaulted by goons), but a movie with Silvia Dionisio getting naked is ALWAYS better than a movie without Silvia Dionisio getting naked.

All in all, this is a pretty mixed bag. It's not great, but it's not totally worthless either.