Watch Violent Rome For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

Criminal violence in Rome is increasing due to weak legislation and unscrupulous layers.The old methods are no use anymore...they are antiquated.So it's up to Inspector Betti(Maurizio Merli)to fight the rising crime.Thugs are everywhere:robbing,shooting,murdering and raping innocent victims."Roma Violenta" is an exciting slay ride full of nihilistic characters and outrageous violence.The direction by Marino Girolami of "Zombi Holocaust" fame is tight and effective,the car chase scene is mind-blowing and the soundtrack is pretty mellow.Maurizio Merli was so believable in the role that he went on to reprise it in many times before his death in 1989.A must-see for fans of Italian cult cinema.8 out of 10.

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

This is cheap and nasty film making at its best/worst. Sensational, kamikaziesque car chase sequences featuring Fiat 500s are the highlight of this marvelous time capsule from a raunchier, less precious era. Rome in the mid-70s looks grungy, edgy, poor and downbeat -- the perfect backdrop for this "Spaghetti Noir" homage to Eastwood's Inspector Callahan. The Foley-guy goes crazy during laughably excessive fight sequences, each blow delivered with an sickeningly unreal aural crunch. All manner of brutality is explored without shame or pity; no victim is too vulnerable - from aging female bystanders, to the wheelchair-bound. The acting is by turns wooden and hysterical, the extras either homicidal maniacs or their hapless victims. But the real highlights are the car chases, "exhilarating" doesn't do it justice. "Suicidal" comes close. Then again, having lived here for the past couple of years, it could be just another day in Roma traffic.