cjfoulke Review of The Violent Four

The Violent Four (1968)

An entertaining and overlooked pre-cursor to early 1970's American crime dramas

[7/10 · 16 November 2010]

This is an entertaining Italian crime drama from 1968 starring the excellent Gian Maria Volonte (bad guy in A Fistful Of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More) as the intelligent and increasingly hubristic leader of a gang of bank-robbers. The first ten minutes are pretty misleading, making it appear like this is going to be a light, even campy affair more in line with Mario Bava's Danger: Diabolik! than the serious crime drama it turns out to be. But once the gang's driver is rescued from an angry mob and interrogated by Tomas Milian we get down to business. This overlooked little Italian gem does a number of firsts from what I can tell and anyone who knows better is free to correct me. First, is the use of pop music throughout the film. It has instrumental tracks but the pop tunes are fairly ubiquitous in a way they were not in any other crime movie from that time or before. Secondly, there is the realistic planning and casing for one of the robberies, not the amusing fantasy plotting of the Italian Job, Topkapi, or Ocean's 11. Thirdly, there is a full speed, bullet flying car chase through the urban environment of Milan without any use of back screen, sped up film, or any other tricks still prevalent in Hollywood films from the period. It's all fast driving and editing. Last but definitely not least is the gritty cinema verite photography that is stamped all over later films like The French Connection and The Seven Ups. Having watched this, it's pretty obvious to me that the young film school turks like William Friedkin and Martin Scorcese (a self-admitted Italian film fanatic and preservationist) saw this movie when it was first released in the U.S. That makes Bandits In Milan a.k.a. The Violent Four a must see for film and 1970's crime drama buffs. I found it at Netflix but only for streaming which was unfortunate as I had to watch it on my laptop. Still glad I did.