Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Michael A. Martinez Richard Conte signed out on a relatively high note on this not-too- bad Italian cop film quickly put together as a spiritual sequel to 1973's LA POLIIZIA INCRIMINA LA LEGGE ASSOLVE. The producers couldn't get Franco Nero or Enzo G. Castellari to come back so instead what they did was hire Nero's lookalike Maurizio Merli and Castellari's father Marino Girolami to direct. On top of that, they brought back genre regulars Silvano Tranquilli, Massimo Vanni, etc. as well as Guido and Maurizio De Angelis to score (often relying on music tracks taken right out of LA POLIZIA). This would not be the only Eurocrime movie to do this.As relatively cheap and rough as this movie feels with plenty of awkward scenes and barely a plot to speak of, this movie is notable for 3 big points:1) Maurizio Merli. Merli could have just been a cookie-cutter fill- in for Franco Nero but very much makes it his own with a new definition for "physicality". Merli's first act upon entering frame is to clench his jaw and grind his teeth standing over a poor homicide victim. From then on out it's hell to pay as Merli shoots, beats, foot-chases, and car-chases his way through the criminal underground with dogged determination. It's a formula that worked so well that he repeated it about a dozen times in the following 5 years... usually with Attilio Duse as his clueless loyal sidekick.2) The car chase! While there were a lot of great ones in the genre, the chase in this film I find the most deliciously entertaining. It takes us through the streets, parks, and highways of Rome, gloriously destroying several cars, a flower stand, a random pile of freeway debris, and several innocent bystanders before it ends. The first crash of the chase is a particular delight, spinning in circles with glass and metal flying in all directions.3) John Steiner. This film also gave the fledgling British character actor a whole new career by casting him in a small but extremely memorable part as a particularly violent and snarky bank-robber. While Steiner had already had a few memorable villain roles, he said that this film changed the game for him like no other, and secured him nonstop work for the following 15 years. He's hilarious, mischievous, and ultimately frightening in the second of the film's two career-defining roles.Even if you're a casual fan of the genre, I'd recommend you give this film a try. It represented a paradigm-shift unlike any other film in the genre and set the table nicely for Umberto Lenzi's several subsequent contributions.

Leofwine_draca The film that launched Maurizio Merli's tough police inspector into the limelight is a thrill-a-minute story of cobs and robbers done in the inimitable Italian style. Sure, the plot is light and episodic, but who cares when your film contains action as cool as it is here? Even to genre fans, Merli's crime films all look and feel the same, but VIOLENT ROME being the first seems even more polished and professional than most. Director Marino Girolami invests the film with plenty of style, cool exciting music, some of the finest genre actors around, and places hard-edged action at the centre of the film.Never has a movie lived up to its title so well, as this film contains some of the most brutal violence you will ever see. Innocent bystanders are bloodily gunned down by criminals, men slug it out with killer blows and sharp slaps to the faces which look like they really hurt, ferocious men shoot each other with guns and machine guns in broad daylight and turn each other into Swiss cheese as a result. The film goes really over-the-top as it tries to shock the viewer as much as possible in some moments. "Highlights" include a crippled man in a wheelchair being beaten to within an inch of his life, an innocent lady being stripped and raped, and a thug opening fire on a park full of happy people and mowing them down from a passing car.Meanwhile, Maurizio Merli - who, after the international success of this movie, found himself typecast in such productions for years to come, always playing exactly the same part (his name would sometimes change but never his character) - goes gunning for the criminals, engaging them in hand-to-hand combat, shoot-outs, and exciting car chases which really show off the excellent Rome location photography. Sometimes he just shoots them in the back to be sure. The strong supporting cast includes veteran Richard Conte as the leader of a vigilante group which Merli joins, Ray Lovelock as an undercover friend of Merli's who gets machine gunned during an exciting bank raid, and John Steiner as a suave English villain who is coincidentally dubbed by the same guy who did Lovelock's voice in THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE.The photography is crisp and fluid at all moments and the film has superb pacing which never lets up until the bizarre ending, which you have to admit is pretty offbeat (as is the case in a number of Italian productions). Girolami's excellent direction is what makes this movie so good, and although the plot twists and turns and many characters come and go, VIOLENT ROME retains a relative simplicity which makes it so watchable. Fans looking for a traditional game of cops-and-robbers played out in some authentic Italian locations should check out this movie as one of the highlights of the Italian polizia genre.

Witchfinder General 666 Marino Girolami's "Roma Violenta" aka. "Violent Rome" of 1975 is a good, though not exceptional Poliziottesco that is very memorable for several reasons. This was the first of three films in which Maurizio Merli played the rough and ready copper Commisarrio Betti, the other two being Girolami's own "Italia A Mano Armata" (aka "A Special Cop In Action") 1976, and the great "Napoli Violenta" ("Violent Naples"), also of 1976. This is not the best of the films in which Maurizio Merli played unorthodox cops (of different names, but basically the same character), but it was the first one. The sequel "Napoli Violenta" is superior, and Merli's all-time highlight is "Roma A Mano Armata" (directed by Umberto Lenzi), but "Roma Violenta" is the film that made him one of the greatest stars in Italian Crime/Cop cinema. Furthermore this is the last film ever to star the great Richard Conte known for many films including "The Godfather" and Fernando Di Leo's Italian crime masterpiece "Il Boss" (1973).As the title promises, the film takes place in Rome, and a violent city it is indeed. Comissario Betti (Maurizio Merli) is a tough, mustached copper whose unorthodox methods make Dirty Harry look quite clean. Betti is fed up with criminals getting away with their crimes, and he expresses his opinion both verbally and by his tough methods of crime-fighting... As most good Poliziotteschi at the time, "Roma Violenta" is very gritty, violent and delightfully politically incorrect. It seems as if Maurizio Merli was born to play super-tough unorthodox cops, and the role of Comissario Betti fits him like a glove. Good supporting performances come from Richard Conte, Ray Lovelock and especially John Steiner, who plays a ruthless criminal. Regular Genre bit-part actor Luciano Rossi is also typecast as a sadistic small-time crook. The film is full of action-packed car chases, violent shootouts and scenes of genre-typical brutality, all stylishly shot and accompanied by a nice score by the De Angelis brothers. As mentioned above "Violent Rome" is no particular highlight of Poliziotto-cinema. It is not quite as stylish as some other specimen of the genre, and it lacks the charismatic and diabolical main villain of films like "Milano Odia - La Polizia Non Può Sparare" (aka. "Almost Human", 1974) or "Roma A Mano Armata". It is a good example for the genre, however, and a highly influential one too, as it basically made Maurizio Merli THE unorthodox copper in Italian cinema. All things considered, "Violent Rome" is a film that I highly recommend to any of my fellow fans of Italian genre-cinema. My rating: 7.5/10

Giovanni rossi Man, Maurizio Merli has topped himself in the this CLASSIC police movie. The movie is about a cop, who is sick and disgusted by the way things are going, the criminals never seem to go to jail, and the bad guys seem to take advantage of the situation. That's where Merli comes in, he beats on them without flinching, his boss doesn't like it, so he kicks out of the force, but the story continues...( I won't give away anything, not even the suprise finally. Anyway, this according to me is a prime example of a classic Italian Pulp/thrash 70's movie. It's complete of old ladies, and children being shot in the face for no reason, rapes, angry people shooting each other in broad daylight. I give 2 thumbs up. You might remember Richard Conte in the movie "the Boss", here he plays a character that seems to have a heart(not a big heart, but at least he has one). Ray lovelock should have won an oscar as best supporting actor, and Maurizio Merli should have won a golden globe award