Brutale Stadt (1970)

Brutale Stadt: Directed by Sergio Sollima. With Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Jill Ireland, Umberto Orsini. After being double-crossed by his mistress and barely escaping a murder attempt, a hit-man sets out to take his revenge on the woman and the mob boss who put her up to it.

“First of all i must admit that iu0026#39;m a Charles Bronson fan and have been for quite a while. I have seen a lot of his films including all of them made after Violent City. So when i came across the movie being released on DVD and i was still yet to see it, i was quick to buy it. The DVD is presented in a fantastic format (trailer, production and movie stills, 15 minute interview with the director and cast and crew backgrounds). The movie is structured in a very unique way. Being an Italian/French coproduction and filmed largely in New Orleans the film consists of English and Italian dialogue to satisfy both cultures and uses flashback scenes to illustrate what is a very straightforward story of hitmen and mobsters and doublecrossings. The music score is by Ennio Morricone and as expected first rate. The cast is headed by Bronson. He doesnu0026#39;t talk much in this movie, more so than in his other outings and uses more of a physical style of acting with many close ups on his charactaristic face. He does well as usual. Telly Savalas has a small, but important role as the head of his u0026quot;familyu0026quot;. His philosiphies to Bronson are interesting. And Jill Ireland as Vanessa is truly seductive. She has never looked more beautiful than in this movie and you get to see plenty of her in this version. Her acting is not great but not too bad compared to some of her later stuff with her husband. As a whole i wasnu0026#39;t expecting too much but u0026quot;Violent Cityu0026quot; is quite under-rated and does have some very good scenes including a car chase, a sniper scene and the very well done ending. There are no good guys in this movie, but it is truthful. I give it a 7 out of 10, but i donu0026#39;t know if non-Bronson fans would enjoy it as much. I hope they continue to put more of Charlieu0026#39;s films on DVD and done in a similar way. Particularly u0026quot;Rider On The Rainu0026quot;, u0026quot;The Mechanicu0026quot;, u0026quot;The Valachi Papersu0026quot; and the little known Bronson/Curtis u0026quot;You Canu0026#39;t Win u0026#39;Em All.”