Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1976)
Typical isn't it? I don't watch a new 70's cop thriller in months then it's two brilliant ones on consecutive evenings. Following the excellent
The Seven-Ups (1973) comes the high octane
Live Like a Cop Die Like a Man.
Starring Marc Porel and Ray Lovelock as two Rome policemen who do the jobs others would faint at and thrive on their dangerous way of life. In a way the concept isn't much different to any of the other wayward cop films of the 70's, be it
Dirty Harry or even tv shows like
Starsky and Hutch. Never going by the book, Porel and Lovelock get in as much trouble with their superiors as they do with Rome's notorious crime syndicates. The two actors gel brilliantly and again Starsky and Hutch springs to mind with the way they trade off each other with the lines and the women. However it's the fuel injected way director Ruggero Deodato takes on the subject that really made this a hell of a lot of fun.
The film catches fire from the opening seconds and we have car chases and bullet strewn violence galore not to mention lashings of nudity all hitting the screen with a frenetic energy that to my mind Deodato loses with the exception of 85's
Cut and Run
Interestingly the songs on the soundtrack are all sung by Lovelock and sound like Americana, putting many scenes into an odd place in my head as they seem more fitting to say
Easy Rider (1969) or any other open road movie rather than a cynical crime production.
One rather tasteless sequence aside that involved the death of a blind man's guide dog in the street that again fuels the Deodato hatred of animals debate,
Live Like a Cop.... is a terrific action film / Poliziotteschi and in my opinion ranks up with
Rome, Armed to the Teeth and
Violent Naples (both 1976) as the best i've seen of the genre.
Upscaled 88's dvd looks delightful. It's hard to imagine the blu-ray looking much better.