Violent City (1973)

Lack of good storyline.

Did you people see the same film I saw?

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Violent City (The family) is a curious introspective into the life of a paid assassin and the chain of events that unravel around him. Brilliant score by Ennio Morricone, it empowers the film ten-fold without question. Bronsons stoic nature and animalistic presence are used to their strengths perfectly here, his character counteracts Jill Ireland's soft & innocent persona wonderfully and works well. Telly Savalas is entertaining as always, brimming with charm and personality as usual. Violent City never got the exposure in the U.S. that it saw in Europe, a recent U.S. DVD release has finally brought this seemingly-lost gem back into the conversation. The film has a fast pace to it, this is the quintessential Italian crime film that others are replicated from. Car chases, shoot-outs and Charles Bronson. Worth a watch!

It opens with a smiling Charles Bronson at the helm of a modest yacht and a topless blond sunning herself on the deck. Bronson begins to undo her foolish bottom. Dissolve to Bronson and a girl, Jill Ireland, driving through the narrow streets of St. Thomas in a Ford Mustang, just like Steve McQueen in "Bullett" two years before, and the drive quickly evolving into a high speed pursuit, with cars screeching around sharp corners, taking leaps over the city's hills, and otherwise doing exactly what Steeve McQueen did in "Bullett" except for one shot of Bronson squealing from side to side on a cramped downhill street, which anticipates "Magnum Force," when Dirty Harry squeaked down Vermont Street in San Francisco.Bronson drops off Ireland and continues trying to escaped but is blocked by a Porsche driven by a friend. Bronson stop his Mustang, gets out, and with a big welcoming grin, says "Coogan!", and then Coogan shoots Bronson and drives off with a willing Jill Ireland. The other villains appear and want to be sure that Bronson has shuffled off this mortal coil but Bronson outwits them and drives them off, killing one of them with the last shot from his empty Luger. No kidding, it's empty.Bronson spends the rest of the film tracking down his betrayers -- Jill Ireland and "Coogan", who doesn't seem to be listed in the credits.Bronson in his prime was a fine specimen with a fine frame, not muscle bound but sinewy, with startling clavicles. He sports the bandido mustache that he made famous around this time. His talent was B level but not so bad he was embarrassing. Jill Ireland is fragile and likable.The movie takes them all over the place -- New Orleans and elsewhere -- so it's not a low-budget enterprise, but it's undone by the director's and writers' resolute determination to make this a brainless action movie. The gun shots sound tinny and carry a slight peep, as in a spaghetti Western. Ennio Morricone's music can be witty or sumptuous but here consists of variations on shrill electronic instruments. It's like listening to a musical saw. The cinematography is suitably done in lurid colors. And for reasons known only to the producers, some of the dialog is in Italian. In a Caribbean jail, three unrelated prisoners occupy a cell, and they speak Italian. A high performance care race in New Orleans is broadcast in Italian.It's not badly directed in terms of fundamentals like camera placement and staging. There are no editorial fireworks, thank God; no instantaneous cutting, and the camera doesn't shudder with each blow, each explosion. Nice shots of bayous and mammoth live oaks festooned with Spanish moss. Interesting if brief tour of New Orleans' enflowered courtyards.

Charles Bronson at his best? In a way yes, but maybe no. I guess it all depends in what you want to see. An all out action film, moving like a speeding car (in which the opening sequence ---and what a beginning it is! --- has a beautifully staged car chase through the slender streets of the Virgin Islands) and throwing caution to the wind. Well that would be a no on that aspect. However something a little twisty within its narrative, tension building through its dramatic story developments and brooding atmospherics with a watershed performance by Bronson. I would go yes. After a double-cross that leaves him for dead, professional hit man Jeff survives and serves some time before tracking down the culprit - an old friend and his former mistress to New Orleans. Jeff gets revenge and his lady back, but he finds himself being blackmailed by an influential crime boss Al Weber. Bronson at this period of his career was etching out a name through European productions and "Violent City" aka "The Family" happens to be one of those better enterprises. Italian director Sergio Sollima ("The Big Gundown", "Run, Man, Run" and "Revolver") stylishly lays out the rough and ready groundwork like a fuse waiting to ignite. The slow-tempo works, due to the plots knotty structure of betrayals and double-crossings with slice of tragedy in something of a modern western vibe and these moments are either broken up by reflective instances (like splicing together flashbacks), getting reactions in a game of wits between characters or relentlessly dynamic and imaginative action sequences. Sollima's crisp cinematography frames it all with remarkable long shots and showy camera angles, as the visuals are simply stunning and the location work is brought live by its authentically flavoured New Orleans backdrop. Ennio Morricone composes the scorching music score, which is excitingly cued with its majestically saucy edge… but despite the masterful effort I thought the greatest sequences arose from the silent periods in the intensely crackling opening spectacle and climatic finale passage of the film (which was beautifully unsettling). The tight screenplay keeps it sly and cynical, but at the core behind its engagingly complicated plot mechanisms is a simple minded, but seething revenge outlook. The acting fairs-up with more of a physical, but terse performance by Bronson, which his silent and tough persona fitted right at home with. There's burning conviction by Jill Ireland with her tantalizingly devious turn and Terry Savalas is living it up as a powerful crime figure. Umberto Orsini and Michel Constantin are quite good too. A gritty, compelling crime potboiler.

Director Sollima first forsook the Western genre with this stylish gangster drama: its complex revenge plot is, basically, a combination of two seminal American noirs – OUT OF THE PAST (1947) and POINT BLANK (1967). The end result is overlong and deliberately-paced – but the second half generates considerable tension, and the action sequences (particularly the opening car chase, a racing-car ‘accident’ and the climactic shoot-out in a rising elevator which, incidentally, are all the more effective for being completely dialogue-free) are undeniably well-staged and exciting.The film also provided its star, Charles Bronson, with a virtual template for all his subsequent vehicles; though his real-life wife Jill Ireland (who appears in a surprising number of nude scenes) doesn’t quite cut it as a femme fatale, the couple’s chemistry is more than evident and gives credence to the on/off romance which essentially drives the narrative. Also in the cast: Telly Savalas (in his all-too-typical role of crime kingpin), Umberto Orsini (as a shady lawyer) and Michel Constantin (as Bronson’s ageing junkie pal). Beneficial, too, is the unusual New Orleans setting – and the remaining credentials are certainly imposing: “Euro Cult” fixture Ennio Morricone’s score is excellent (but, again, the main theme is awfully similar to that of REVOLVER [1973] and THE UNTOUCHABLES [1987]!); renowned cinematographer Aldo Tonti; and, most astonishingly, co-screenwriter Lina Wertmuller.The DVD features an informative 15-minute interview with Sollima, in which he discusses how he became involved with the project: invariably, he had found the original script terrible but was eventually lured by the opportunity of a U.S. shoot, mentions that the lead roles were originally intended for Jon Voight and Sharon Tate(!), and even recalls an amusing anecdote which sums up Morricone’s attitude to films.