One would expect Ruggero Deodato, the director of the notoriously nihilistic Cannibal Holocaust, to bring something different to an Italian cop film. In Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man, he does just that: basic disregard for human life. Enjoy!
The best part of this crime story comes right out of the gate, as thieving hoodlums on a motorcycle drag an innocent woman along the city sidewalks, because her purse is chained to her wrist. Plainclothes buddy cops Alfredo (Marc Porel) and Antonio (Ray Lovelock) witness this, setting off an ass-kicking, near-10-minute motorcycle chase through the streets (partly shot with no permits). When they catch up to the crashed bandits, only one survives; rather than arrest him, they snap his neck. Justice!
Mind you, this is merely the first scene in a film full of “shoot first, fuck questions” scenarios. We simultaneously root for and abhor Alfredo and Antonio as they go about their really lethal-weapon ways. They rest only long enough to sexually harass women, pestering them for threesomes or sometimes not bothering to ask at all. Chivalry!
All of these elements combine for a one-of-a-kind experience, albeit bookended by ill-fitting, Yankee folk ballads of the era. Our poliziotti violenti anti-heroes play like Starsky & Hutch with undiagnosed pathological problems, where blowing up a bunch of people just seems like a really good joke to amuse themselves. And you. Kaboom! —Rod Lott
Watching this, I was wondering if the cops were coded as being gay or if it’s something you notice now. On the one hand, they were supposed to be be super macho, shooting up the place, and hitting on and/or nailing on the ladies, but then again they both rode on the same bike, they both lived together and they both looked liked rail thin, semi-androgynous, 70’s fashion models.
I got that vibe, too! The scene that sold me on that theory was when one walked around their place in red briefs.