Liberi armati pericolosi

LIBERI ARMATI PERICOLOSI aka. YOUNG VIOLENT DANGEROUS of 1976 seemed promising to me for a variety of reasons. Being a hardcore fan of Italian cult-cinema I am always looking forward to watching gritty Poliziotteschi from the 70s, in particular when the script was written by master filmmaker Fernando Di Leo (MILANO CALIBRO 9, LA MALA ORDINA, IL BOSS,...) and the credited star is the great Tomas Milian, whose impressive career covers the leads in all sorts of Italian cult movies, and Poliziotteschi in particular (most notably Umberto Lenzi's films such as the brutal 1974 masterpiece MILANO ODIA: LA POLIZIA NON PUÒ SPARARE).

While YOUNG, VIOLENT, DANGEROUS (which is a wrong translation as the original Italian title translates "Free, Armed, Dangerous") is an entertaining and worthwhile film, I cannot deny that I was slightly disappointed in director Romolo Guerriri's movie. My two main complaints are the fact that Tomas Milian had far too little screen time, and that the musical score was crap (by the high genre standards). The Italian Poliziottesco is a politically incorrect, brutal, gritty and testosterone-driven genre, and a large part of the greatness of its violent and sleazy masterpieces consisted in the greatness of its scores which accentuated the grit and action. The score to this movie is the constant repetition a boring and wussy-sounding hippie-song which seems terribly out of place.

My second complaint about the movie is Tomas Milian's role. Milian is cool as always, but his role is far too small. Also, Poliziotteschi-cops are meant to be unorthodox ruffians who hate criminals and take the law in their own hands, as opposed to sensitive social workers who blame society for the evil-doings of criminals. The movie is about a bunch of spoiled kids from good families who start robbing and killing people just for the heck of it. Their trigger-happy leader is played by Stefano Patrici, who is best known for being offed by tough-cop Maurizio Merli in Umberto Lenzi's ROMA A MANO ARMATA (1976). The youths are violent all right, but they are also quite annoying, especially one idiot with a stupid grin who constantly cracks painful jokes. The 'good' female lead is played by the beautiful Elonora Giorgi, who is best known for her role in Dario Argento's INFERNO (1980).

In 1974, Tomas Milian had played one of the all-time greatest villains as the diabolical Giulio Sacchi in Lenzi's masterpiece MILANO ODIA. Also a murderous psychopath on the loose, Giulio Sacchi was sadistic and purely evil, and believable in just that. The baby-faced killers in this film tend to annoy. Nonetheless, the film has its qualities. It is gritty and sometimes quite suspenseful, and it has several outbursts of sleaze and bloody violence. The cinematography is great, especially the car-chases are very well-filmed.

Overall, LIBERI ARMATI PERICOLOSI is a decent-enough film that should entertain my fellow Eurocrime fans. However, the genre has brought forth many films that are far better; people who are not yet too familiar with Poliziotteschi are well-advised to check out anything by Umberto Lenzi, Fernando Di Leo or Enzo Castellari before this.

This somewhat late entry in the 1970s Italian crime drama genre did give me some anticipation, given that the screenplay was written by the famed Fernando di Leo. While this effort of his is not up to some of his other contributions to the genre, it should give enough satisfaction for fans of di Leo and/or the genre. When the movie is primarily focused on the three no-good youths and their heinous actions, things are pretty lively and fun. But there are some slow spots here and there, and it quickly becomes clear that there won't be a lot of plot on display. Also, the movie doesn't really get into the heads of the three louts, such as giving us explanation as to why they are so amoral. In fact, the movie seems to be starting at chapter two, not giving us a chance to learn about the youths before they start their crime spree. The movie is still reasonably enjoyable, though it's not the crime classic that it could have been.

First and foremost, I love it when a movie fulfills the promise of its own title! Far too often this isn't the case, though. With a title like "Young, Violent, Dangerous" director Romolo Guerrieri and writer Fernando Di Leo generate quite high expectations, but they also definitely deliver them to the max! The anti-heroes in the film are young, they behave incredibly violent and they become gradually more and more dangerous! It's also quite remarkable how a relatively small subgenre of exploitation cinema, like euro-crime, brought forward so many different and versatile streams. Within euro-crime, you have the regular Poliziotteschi movies (tough coppers chasing robbers), mafia sagas, gang war movies and vigilante thrillers. There also exists another and much lesser known stream focusing on rich, spoiled and derailed teenagers that go on a murder rampage for no other apparent reason than kicks. "Terror in Rome/Violence for Kicks", starring Antonio Sabato, is an example of this and "Young, Violent, Dangerous" pretty much falls in the same category as well. The film starts with the beautiful Lea nervously sitting at the desk of grumpy police commissioner Tomas Milian. She comes to report that her boyfriend Lucio, together with his friends Blondie (Mario) and Joe, is about to rob a gas station with fake toy guns. The police prepare an ambush, but the the guns turn out to be very real and Blondie and Joe kill four policemen. Instead of showing remorse, they continue to terrorize the streets of Milan. Lucio is reluctant but he cowardly follows Blondie, who's the leader of the trio, and the completely nihilistic madman Joe. They rob banks, only to threw out the money back in the streets, and invade a crowded supermarket where they even massacre a "befriended" gang in cold blood. When Blondie discovers that Lucio's girlfriend Lea betrayed them to the police, they kidnap her and try to drive out of Milan. The DVD-cover proudly announces that contemporary big star Tomas Milian plays the lead role, but actually his role as the embittered commissioner is rather dullish and familiar. He smokes a lot, gives lectures to the fugitive teenagers' parents about how it's their fault and commands his squads to pull up road blocks, road blocks and more road blocks! The crooks stay well ahead of the police, but the intrigues come to the surface. Lea grows increasingly disgusted by her weak boyfriend Lucio, and Blondie takes advantage of this. Di Leo, the genius behind "Milano Calibro 9" and "La Mala Ordina" which are arguably the two greatest Poliziotteschi movies ever made, once more delivers a fast-paced and action-packed screenplay full of unexpected twists, uncompromising violence and deeply unpleasant characters. In other words, genuine and hard-boiled exploitation cinema like they could only make it in Italy during the seventies! Stefano Patrizi is excellent as the cool and stoic anti-hero. Benjamin Lev's character Joe (or Giovanni) is often quite irritating, especially because of his exaggeratedly moronic laughter, but I do like the idea of an utterly relentless lunatic. "Young, Violent, Dangerous" definitely contains a lot more character development than the average euro- crime thriller, but it's not at the expense of the action and excitement. There's a bit of gratuitous (yay!) nudity, principally provided by beautiful lead actress Eleonora Giorgi, and also – of course – a typically cynical and downbeat climax. Most certainly recommended if you like Italian cinema of the '70s; - and who honestly doesn't?

In the days before those innocent acts of trolling each other on Facebook and revenge porning each other, the youth of yesterday were content simply to drive around Milan acting like jerks, robbing banks, and shooting innocent people in the face. This is their story.

Three young guys - Blondie, Hunky and the annoying Joe, plan to rob a petrol station in Milan, but they don't know that Hunky's girlfriend has gone to the police and tipped them off. She does make the mistake of telling cop Tomas Milian that they have toy guns though, toys that turn out to be real as several cops and a petrol station owner are gunned down. Now Blondie and the rest are on the run, but instead of keeping their heads low they hit banks, recruit others to rob supermarket, then kill said others with hot lead.

Milian can't figure out why some rich boys would go on such a crime spree, but at least he takes time out to blame the parents for their lack of attention to their kids. To be honest that's the only time he shows any emotion here as Milian doesn't have much to do besides try and track down the trio as they kill everyone they meet, and get Hunky's girlfriend caught up in it too. Milian really just looks concerned, smokes, and becomes increasingly dishevelled.

We spend a lot more time with the youngsters instead. Hunky never kills anyone, but goes along with the crime spree and only seems to enjoy things when he's outrunning the police in a car chase. Blondie however is the leader, and although he doesn't show much emotion, he's might have a thing for Hunky (Hunky's girlfriend spots it during the car chase too, plus he doesn't get involved in a gang bang earlier in the film, which someone ruins by farting!). That leaves Joe, the weak link in this film as his character is so annoying. He's the hyperactive 'joker' of the pack, but his jokes are only funny to himself and he laughs at them in a shrill moronic bray (at least in the Italian language version). The only time he calms down is when one of Blondie's mates refers to him as being the village idiot, which results in said mate being machine-gunned in the face.

I'm sure writer Fernando Di Leo is trying to say something here, but I didn't catch it. This is a nihilistic cavalcade of violence, all set to Tomas Milian's jaw clenching. That cheesy song at the start was awful though - maybe that's what made them go nuts?

Silly '50s style juvenile delinquent flick with a '70s Eurotrashy touch. Three teenaged punks kidnap a rich girl and force her to accompany them as they terrorize the streets of Milan. Fun car chases in dumpy Euro-subcompacts and a surprise ending add to the fun.