Before Ruggero Deodato made one of the most notorious films in cinematic history with Cannibal Holocaust he made this crazed Poliziotteschi film. I actually met Deodato at a screening of Cannibal Holocaust a few years ago without knowing about this film but he was a the sweetest old man you can imagine and certainly didn’t live up to the reputation of his notorious film nor did the film. He started out as the assistant director on Sergio Corbucci’s films and he definitely learned some tricks from the Spaghetti Western master.

Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man as Quentin Tarantino once said has “one of the greatest titles of all time, and it lives up to its name!”. The film is about this duo of cops who live together and work as a team and of course they have a license to kill. They both total sexist and nihilistic scumbags to the most ridiculous levels it’s hard not to laugh at it but it’s so over the top you have to think Deodato is making a statement on macho behaviour. They just blow shit up for kicks throughout the film and even at one point they blow their own car up and they are like shucks we have to walk.

The film naturally is a total blast and of course being A. a 70s B-Movie and B. a film directed by Deadato it’s full of gratuitous violence and nudity. There is a literally a scene near the end where they randomly have a woman sun bathing simply so their show her tits. The relationship between the cops borders on the homoerotic they ride on the same motorcycle and one of them always holds tight to the other like his little bitch. There is a scene early on where they jokingly talk to the police secretary about having a threesome and they seem to be a bit closer than just friends. I would say the two cops should get a room but they already share a bedroom.

In closing if you like ’70s eurosleaze action cinema you are in for a treat. If you want some politically correct film you should probably skip this. It wants to be Dirty Harry or Serpico etc but it’s turned up to 11 and the nihilism which Dirty Harry had is taken to the extremes. Deodato might be famous for Cannibal Holocaust but Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man is the far superior film and is does have a scene where they kill a dog but it’s certainly not real like the animal killings in Cannibal Holocaust (which Deodato regretted). The disc is pretty barebones but it features a solid transfer with the option of either English or Italian dubs.

★★★★

Ian Schultz

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