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Yours truly is an avid seeker of Italian cult cinema of the 60s - 80s era, and specifically giallo or poliziotesschi films. I'm always ecstatic when stumbling upon something new and completely unknown, but should also realize by now that all the worthwhile classics have been (re-)discovered already! There's usually a good reason why the others don't emerge from their eternal obscurity status, although the case of "The Children of Violent Rome" is a difficult one. I really wanted it to be great, and it almost is, thanks to a handful of terrifically elaborated elements, but in the end it's just too boring and talkative to be a cult favorite. Simply put, what this production desperately needed was the unorthodox touch of a true Poliziotesschi director, like Umberto Lenzi or Fernando di Leo. The relatively unknown writer/director Renato Savino has a fascinating story to share, but he lacked a Lenzi to stir it up with explicit violence and raw action.
The topics and tone featuring in "The Children of Violent Rome" are bleak and nihilistic enough, don't worry about that. The plot focuses on a group of spoiled and extremely bored high-society adolescents who are gathering in a lair decorated with Swastikas and immense posters of Adolf Hitler. Here they plan their upcoming crimes that usually involve petty theft, rioting and rape. Lots and lots of rapes, in fact! The most remarkable strongpoint of the film is undoubtedly the efficient casting. These youthful thugs come across as genuinely menacing, even though they often have baby-faces or an overall nerdy look. It's also disturbing that they are such fanatic neo-Nazis, because they certainly don't resemble your typical skinhead or aggressive loser. There are a couple of very powerful sequences, notably taking place in Nazi clubhouse, but "The Children of Violent Rome" is sadly too slow-paced and missing out on excitement. There exist similarly themed movies that have a much higher entertainment value, like "Violence for Kicks", "Naked Massacre" and "Young, Violent, Dangerous"
The topics and tone featuring in "The Children of Violent Rome" are bleak and nihilistic enough, don't worry about that. The plot focuses on a group of spoiled and extremely bored high-society adolescents who are gathering in a lair decorated with Swastikas and immense posters of Adolf Hitler. Here they plan their upcoming crimes that usually involve petty theft, rioting and rape. Lots and lots of rapes, in fact! The most remarkable strongpoint of the film is undoubtedly the efficient casting. These youthful thugs come across as genuinely menacing, even though they often have baby-faces or an overall nerdy look. It's also disturbing that they are such fanatic neo-Nazis, because they certainly don't resemble your typical skinhead or aggressive loser. There are a couple of very powerful sequences, notably taking place in Nazi clubhouse, but "The Children of Violent Rome" is sadly too slow-paced and missing out on excitement. There exist similarly themed movies that have a much higher entertainment value, like "Violence for Kicks", "Naked Massacre" and "Young, Violent, Dangerous"
- Coventry
- Mar 13, 2018