Guido & Maurizio De Angelis: Roma Violenta
The police charge, the law acquits and a cop does justice on his own
Rome, mid Seventies. A shooting inside a bus. A teenager is injured by some criminals. A police car converges in Piazzale Flaminio, the commissioner Betti (Maurizio Merli) is on board. Light raincoat, tie and blue shirt. The police are powerless, can only see the death of an innocent. The criminals have already fled. Who has witnessed the crime is angry and provokes the pride and sense of duty of commissioner Betti. The death of the seventeen hits him deeply: the policeman has lost a brother during a robbery. Thus begins the hunt for killer. Brigadier Biondi (Ray Lovelock), infiltrated in the local crime gangs, identifies those responsible for the disappearance of the young man. Meanwhile, the capital is overwhelmed by a wave of crimes.
Sticks, extortions, robberies and shootings bring the citizens to their knees. Commissioner Betti contrasts them using overly violent and hasty methods: illegal arrests, fights, various pitfalls and the killing of Franco Spadoni (John Steiner), called ‘Chiodo’, head of the gang of robbers. Excess that forced him to resign from the police. However, the city still needs him. The lawyer Sartori (Richard Conte) invites him to join a group of vigilantes, who act at night, identifying scoundrels of all sorts, beating and delivering them to the authorities. Once the brigadier Biondi, now on a wheelchair, is chased, the colleague will look for and get his bloody revenge and, in parallel, he starts meditating on the future, ready to move elsewhere.
An open ending, ideal for a sequel. “Roma Violenta” (1975), directed by Marino Girolami, was a raw poliziottesco like few others, the first episode of a trilogy that, based on commissioner Betti interpreted by Maurizio Merli, that includes “Napoli Violenta” (1976) and “Italia A Mano Armata” (1976), distributed in cinemas after four months. The first by Umberto Lenzi, the second signed by Marino Girolami, hidden behind his alias Franco Martinelli. The father of the director Enzo G. Castellari was hired to replace his son, not interested in shooting a sequel to his “La Polizia Incrimina, La Legge Assolve” (1973), a successful film, with Franco Nero in the role of commissioner Belli, whose receipt was, however, lower than that of “Roma Violent”.
With over two and a half billion lire, the work produced by Edmondo Amati won the primacy for a film of the genre. Four months of programming in theaters, but also fierce criticism, a leitmotiv during the seventies. “The ideology of pure fascist brand that circulates throughout the film is not even masked”, wrote Aurora Santuari on “Paese Sera”, where “the underworld is then all petty: there are no bosses, organizers, links, receivers: yes it is always about young long-haired men dressed according to the ‘uniform’ that is considered suitable for young people on the left. The mechanism of hatred, unleashed with these false arguments, has a good hold on many spectators”. The comment by Leonardo Autera on “Corriere Della Sera” was also negative.
“Using a screenplay that is less than a canvas, the director has abused until the boredom of all the ingredients of the genre”, adding that “Maurizio Merli does not have the chance to give dimension to the protagonist”. The judgment of “Il Giorno” is more harsh and political, in the review published in the chronicle of Milan, because “the Italian police trend, which had already shown dangerous skidding, with the incitement to summary justice and personal revenge, finds in “Roma Violenta” the last bitter, execrable outlet”. It is therefore the movie that inaugurates the commercial series of policemen. Reactionary, fascists, cynical man. “Roma Violenta”, however, also sets the rules: the most civil, political and social issues will soon be shelved.
It is the beginning of the myth. Maurizio Merli downs Franco Nero, becoming the icon of the police and, paradoxically, will be ‘forced’ to play ‘iron’ policemen for the rest of his short career, cut short by a heart attack during a tennis match on March 10, 1989. Marino Girolami had taken a tried and tested model, transforming him into a pop celebrity, guaranteeing the public a dose of violence and action, especially in crudest forms. If “La Polizia Incrimina, La Legge Assolve” cleared the poliziottesco, “Roma Violenta” favored the drift with a puzzle movie, divided into episodes that illustrate the work of crime, penalizing the intertwining, whose protagonists are executioners from heterodox ways, often opposed by their superiors.
The last element that characterizes the lucky season of the poliziottesco is the music of the great orchestras, composed by the best composers in circulation. Fundamental, if not phenomenal. American-style funk and jazz are reworked in terms of style. The main themes are still widely recognizable today, melodic, vibrant and full of pathos. Tricolor prerogatives. Like the electric guitars of the brothers Guido & Maurizio De Angelis, authors of the soundtrack of “Roma Violenta” (2016), printed on vinyl by Sub Ost ten years after the cd edition by Beat Records Company. Same cover, taken from the iconic poster signed by Sandro Symeoni, and also the tracklist, based on four supporting traces, with annexed reprises, and three cult recoveries.
The ‘castelli romani’ guys, or Oliver Onions, have always combined the styles of the tradition with stars and stripes, the catchiness of disco music and, above all, a grit of rock. The same that emerges from the score of “Roma Violenta”. Opener The Other Face is based, in fact, on a rhythmic and obsessive dialogue between bass and guitar, compared to an excellent percussive component. Despite some variations, strategic addition of the flute, the two shots do not affect the character of the track, perfect to introduce the listener to the typical climate, or stereotyped, from poliziottesco. The Punitive Justice is built on the same sound architecture, with harmonics and country echoes. It is the song that follows the action of commissioner Betti.
The alternative versions highlight the drums, another characteristic feature of the duo. The Reason Of A Just War follows the rhythm section, but relies on a bitter guitar arpeggio, on which are inserted, after seven shots, the wind and keyboards. Versions from more or less broad range, with an heartbeat, sometimes suspended. The shadows in Undercover Investigation, an ad hoc title, the prelude to the sadness between the folds of Revenging A Friend. The soundtrack is composed, finally, of three tracks of the score of “La Polizia Incrimina, La Legge Assolve”, equally by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis: the unleashed Gangster Story, the evasive bossa Casa Di Moda and the seductive blues Chicca. A jewel to rediscover.
