Watch ACAB : All Cops Are Bastards For Free

It is a performances centric movie

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Great title for the book and subsequent film . Is the film entertaining?. No, not in the least. Yes these guys are tough - always impartial and honest , of course not and yet as of many police forces world wide are used by politicians like a football. So the scene is set, a young rookie for ostensibly financial reasons joins an experienced hard core riot squad. Then virtually the whole movie gets bogged down in the protagonists domestic lives and all the trials and tribulations that entails. What a snooze fest. Isn't that what soap operas are for.I personally don't feel the need to launch into some half baked political diatribe but clearly racial disharmony is a thread binding the film together with a couple of scenes attempting feebly to mimic American History X. ACAB is over-hyped and boring. Criminal.

It's always a bad assumption to characterize a group of people and make them what you think they are. Or what maybe a lot of them are doing. This issue gets handled head on here and it doesn't take any prisoners. The movie is made for you to think (especially if you're Italian or have followed some of the things that went down in that country) about incidents. Like the one depicted in another movie (Diaz: Don't clean up this blood). It's only a small fraction in this movie here, but that issue is spoken of too.So while you might have a pre-arranged picture that suits the title of the movie, there is more going on. Of course the movie would not be authentic if it didn't involve said cops. But the question always remains, why it came to that fact (for some of them). If you're open minded this might appeal to you and you might see that there are some differences

I recently came across this movie. Looked it up, read some reviews and got more and more curious. Finally, this weekend, I actually watched A.C.A.B. and... well, I don't write much reviews, but decided to do so in this case. Why? Because while I was looking up this movie, I read really, really dumb, political oriented, crappy reviews. I guess left wing extremists love put down this movie, which is actually quite unfair. This is a small effort of mine in order to help the reader with a honest and simple review.The movie is intended to be a slice of the lives of four Italian policemen, who belong to a special unit with the mission of controlling mobs. Three are veterans, one is a rookie. What we see are pieces of their lives, both on the job and at home. They all are have different experiences, and they all have serious personnel problems. The thing about showing the "slice of live" I mentioned is that the movie ends when it does, regardless of the stories reaching a conclusion. I say this because the movie could easily go on for quite longer, but the director ends it when he considers we have seen enough. Its fine, it adds to the realism, which it what is intended in the first place.The cops portrayed in this film are sometimes excessive and tend to take matters into their own hands. What makes left wing extremists really mad is that, instead of showing cops as blood thirsty maniacs, the movie shows the context of their work and the environment they operate in. What the movie really shows is the deep, complex, problems hypocritical government policies produce.It is an Italian film, the action goes on in Italy, but it could easily take place in most European countries with minor adjustments. Mine, Portugal, is a good example of that.To make a long story short, it is a raw, honest portrait of police officers hard life, one that everyone with common sense ought to be able to understand and relate to. Not a big budget, not the best movie I've ever seen, but a hell of a nice one! I do recommend it!

Though it's not propaganda, given that it's not a government body trying to influence people toward their way of thinking - it's certainly the commercial equivalent. This movie is not an honest depiction of police in Italy. The beatings and killings get worse, and the accountability gets less. This is because over and over again, the brutal thugs - unhappy about themselves & their lives, take out their frustrations & self loathing on the public: those they're supposed to protect - have become untouchable. Yes, without doubt they are a tiny minority. The vast majority of cops do not engage in such brutal behavior. BUT - they will arrest those who're beaten, and help cover up assaults and even killings. They turn the other cheek when they see their thug brethren having their fun & getting their therapy. The 'good' cops do not report what they see - in fact they actively ensure that such behavior goes unreported. And they wonder why the public distrusts and despises them more every day? Do they really believe their dishonesty is believable? This is an extremely serious issue, in Italy and most western countries around the world, as corporations move to strike down democracy, & police are given free reign to brutalize those who don't like it. Yet a film like this seeks to diminish all that. Cops are the real victims, not the public. Utter hogwash, of course, and yet a further sign that police around the world have become gang and cult-like: it's them against the world. They have more in common with a cop from the other side of the world than they do their neighbors. They've separated themselves from communities, and now they seek to change how they're seen. Not by engaging with those they have power over in a positive way, but by pretending to be victims. This movies seeks to achieve that dubious perception - and it's a real shame.