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Rating: 7.5 stars

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All movies seen on 06/22/2024

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Savage Three (1975)

Directed by Vittorio Salerno

Crime | Thriller | Action

Overview

By day, Ovidio (Joe Dallesandro) and his two friends work at a data center. After work, they blow off steam by committing random acts of savage violence, swiftly graduating from sparking a riot at a football game to vehicle theft, rape, and murder. The police are convinced this recent spate of crimes is politically motivated, but world-weary veteran Commissario Santaga (Enrico Maria Salerno) suspects a far more terrifying explanation: that these young men are motivated by nothing more than boredom and disaffection at civilized society. As Ovidio’s behavior escalates, a psychological game of cat-and-mouse ensues between the two adversaries, building towards a shocking final confrontation.

Length 85 minutes

Actors

Joe Dallesandro | Gianfranco De Grassi | Guido De Carli | Salvatore Borgese | Carmen Scarpitta | Luigi Casellato | Claudio Nicastro | Ada Pometti | Umberto Ceriani | Gualtiero Rispoli | Enzo Garinei | Renzo Ozzano | Enrico Marciani | Francesca Lionti | Gengher Gatti | Silvia Clara Fascietto | Martine Brochard | Enrico Maria Salerno | Alba Maiolini | Alfredo Ciarpelloni | Duilio Olmi | Salvatore Billa | Marino Cenna | Omero Capanna | Gilberto Galimberti | Giovanni Ukmar | Sergio Ukmar | Walter Margara | Gianni Franco | Antonio Calò | Adriana Bruno | Eros Buttaglieri | Teresa Rossi Passante | Osvaldo Peccioli

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

I’m generally not a big Joe Dallesandro fan but he’s so perfectly cast as the de facto leader of his two friends with a nihilistic outlook, lack of conscience and just generally amoralistic approach to life. Chillingly great performance and sadly still relevant in today’s world, maybe even more so.

Poliziotteschi generally portray the cops as bumbling idiots totally outclassed and unprepared to deal with the wave of violence they’re confronting; or as right-wing fascists who consider themselves above the law. Or both. So, basically fairly realistic portrayals of police both then and now.

Interestingly the scene with the mice biting each other was shown when I watched this because I had the region set to A. Apparently that scene is censored in the British version, so if your player is set to region B you get a black screen with the score playing over it.

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