Naked Violence (1969) User Reviews

audacious

[cfcpg · 7/10 · 21 December 2005]

The teacher of an evening school for youngsters with social problems is brutally raped and murdered right in her classroom. The only suspects are on the kids of course and the police is surprised to find them all quietly in their homes instead of having escaped. There is a reason. Each kid declares that he did not participate in the brutality but was forced to watch. The police officer Lamberti has reasons to believe that someone, an adult, has orchestrated the kids which are afraid to even mention this person. It will not be an easy case.

Fernando Di Leo takes us for this incredible trip among juvenile delinquency. Although the movie was made in 1969, Di Leo talks about drugs, veneral diseases, prostitution, transvestism, teenagers having sex with old women, homosexuality and incest much in advance compared to what still had to come in our society.

Fernando Di Leo delivers us a very interesting movie technically superb. The interrogation of the youngsters is done in a very sharp style. The rape scene, although very impressive, is simply done with a camera movement. The suspense is well built. Pier Paolo Capponi offers us an excellent interpretation. With him we have Livia Ussaro more interested in the social aspects of the youngsters: "The police doesn't care about the kids, who they are, what they wanted to be, what they do and why they do it, if they have feelings. They are considered criminals and that's all..." But for inspector Lamberti these words will not remain unheard. To solve the case he will also have to consider these aspects.

Fernando Di Leo. One of Italy's most interesting directors.

I will show how I will change, If you give me, something to slaughter - we are SPARTA FC!

[Bezenby · 5/10 · 7 August 2017]

Fernando De Leo at first seems to usher in the no holds barred approach to gialli during the credits of this film by having a teacher pounced upon, raped and killed by her entire class of teenage deliquents. Further still, it looks like we're up for a tense police interrogation of the entire class one by one which will involve a lot of screaming, police brutality, and double-crossing.

And that's the way it plays out, for about half an hour, and it's a good half an hour. Nearly every single one of these lads is a soulless monster, a product of their environment, and they all maintain their innocence. Our policeman hero has been ordered not to beat any of the prisoners, but he still screams in their face and makes them sit in a pool of super strength booze (which is partly blamed for the attack - but who gave them it?).

At this point someone must have pointed out to De Leo that the plot wasn't 'giallo' enough, and therefore all the tension that's built up over the course of the first third of the film dissipates as our cop (with a social worker sidekick) go off looking for some mysterious woman that one of the prisoners mentioned. So that's all our suspects, that we're introduced to one by one, dumped in a favour of the usual giallo person.

There's also another plot diversion when our police guy decides the best way to get the truth is to take one of the teenagers home and treat him like he's a normal person - eventually this does lead somewhere, but where it leads to is the unmasking of someone as the main instigator of the attack, and it took me a few seconds to actually recognise who it was.

I can't help but feel that if De Leo concentrated only on the pupils in the class we may have ended up with a better film. Who knows? De Leo's next film was The Beast Killed In Cold Blood - a straight forward giallo with over the top gore and nudie bits, and that most terrifying thing of all - Klaus Kinski!

School for drinking, raping & murdering... scoundrels.

[Coventry · 7/10 · 9 July 2007]

Fernando Di Leo was undoubtedly the emperor of Italian crime-cinema during the late 60's and the 70's. The work he did on other genres wasn't exactly impressive (anyone remember "Asylum Erotica"?), but in the area of rough 'n tough exploitation thrillers he was absolutely unequaled. Di Leo has some of the sub genre's classics on his director's repertoire (like "Milano Calibro 9", "Manhunt" and "The Boss") and he even contributed a lot to writing other filmmakers' finest accomplishments, for example Ruggero Deodato's "Live Like a Cop, Die like a Man" and Romolo Guerrieri's "Young, Violent and Dangerous". This "Naked Violence" somewhat predates Di Leo's greatest work, but it certainly is an extremely convoluted and ambitiously scripted gem of Italy's most glorious cinematic cult years. Granted, the title is slightly deceptive and misleading (don't expect to see much nudity, nor violence), but nonetheless the complex screenplay hints at multiple controversial themes, like juvenile delinquency, teenage alcoholism, confused sexuality and rape. The movie opens bizarrely and impressively disturbing, with fuzzy flash-images of an entire classroom of drunken adolescent boys gang-raping their teacher before choking her to death with a handkerchief in the mouth. After the opening credits are finished, we learn that they're all boys with questionable backgrounds and mild criminal records, and the class they were attending actually was some kind of social project to still give them one last chance to normally integrate into society. The slightly unorthodox police inspector Marco Lamberti is charged with the investigation, but the case is very frustrating because the boys turn it into a game of blaming each other and act all innocent. Bit by bit, Lamberti discovers that the influence, as well as the heavy liquor that caused the kids to turn into rapist killers, comes from an adult who always remains in the shadows. This malicious person occasionally uses the young scoundrels for petty crimes, but now he - or she – must have had a reason to revert to murder. The plot of Di Leo's "Naked Violence" is perhaps silly and far-fetched, but the tight dialogs and particularly the powerful acting performances make it rather plausible. Pier Paolo Capponi is splendidly cast as the stubborn cop and also the young cast members are truly convincing in their roles of menacing small-time thugs. The film is overall a bit too talkative and the script reveals too few clues to really get involved in Lamberti's investigation, but the story's evolution is always compelling and worth your complete attention. The flashbacks near the end are atmospheric and a little creepy, and the end-twist is ahead of its time albeit quite silly. Definitely worth purchasing if you're into the more challenging titles of the Italian exploitation-industry.

Alternately interesting and boring

[Wizard-8 · 8 August 2017]

"Naked Violence" is a crime movie different than some of director Fernando Di Lio's other crime movies, being that it is not action- oriented. Instead, it's a relatively serious and sober look at a rape- murder and the subsequent investigation of it. Parts of this investigation are definitely interesting, the most being the angle of the movie being the teenagers who witnessed the crime but are unwilling to talk about it; it sometimes comes across as an early version of the American movie "River's Edge". However, this angle is eventually more or less abandoned, and the movie becomes somewhat tedious and slow in its second half. Does the movie still have enough interest to make it worth a look? Maybe. If you are interested in seeing a cinematic police investigation that is more realistic than usual, and have enjoyed other movies by Di Lio before, this may be an interesting change of pace.

He or she ?

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 5 July 2022]

A thriller which involves a group of teenagers born on the wrong side of town and their devoted teacher who tries to help them come back on the straight and narrow through education in evening school ; why did someone kill this harmless generous woman? One of her students? But one of them hints at a mysterious woman who might be the killer.

Much time is given over to the questionings in which the superintendent (Pier Paolo Cappani) uses special methods to make them talk (for it is forbidden to mistreat youngsters; really?) .One of them, played by Giuliano Manetti ,as a hung-up kid about his gay sexuality steals the show from the principal in his scenes; youngster Mazio Margin is very good too ,from a slack boy to a clean-cut sonny from a good background, complete with suit and tie ,the cop uses as a bait.

The score is intrusive ; when a suspect enters the superintendent's office ,it looks like circus music heralding a sensational act .

Apart from that, it's a respectable thriller, in which the slayer is refered to by "he " or "she " .

Naked

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 7 January 2024]

A group of eleven street criminals between the ages of thirteen and twenty have raped and killed a teacher. There's no evidence or even enough information to determine why they did it or if they had a motive. The judge wants the case closed, but Chief Luigi Càrrua (Enzo Liberti) knows that only Commissioner Lamberti (Pier Paolo Capponi) can solve it. He's brutal on the boys, while social worker Livia Ussaro (Nieves Navarro) tries to understand how they could be this way. Once the main witness is killed, the rough cop discovers that this case may be more difficult to figure out than he thought it would be.

Based on the book by Giorgio Scerbanenco, director and co-writer Fernando Di Leo cut down the story and concentrated on the boys who have actually committed the crime.

He would also adapt two other books by the author, Caliber 9 and The Italian Connection. Scerbanenco's books were popular stories to turn into movies, as Yves Boisset made Safety Catch from Venere privata (A Private Venus), Duccio Tessari directed La morte risale a ieri sera (Death Occurred Last Night) from the book Milanesi Ammazzano al Sabato (The Milanese Kill on Saturdays), Luigi Cozzi directed The Killer Must Kill Again from Al mare con la ragazza (By the Sea With the Girl), Carlos Saura directed ¡Dispara!, Romolo Guerrieri made Young, Violent, Dangerous from two short stories "Bravi ragazzi bang bang and "In pineta si uccide meglio," plus TV movies include the Alberto Siron, Gian Pietro Calasso and Vittorio Melloni-directed Quattro delitti, the Daniele D'Anza directed La ragazza dell'addio, Bruno Mattei's Appuntamento a Trieste, L'uomo che non voleva morire by Lamberto Bava and Occhio di falco by Vittorio De Sisti.

Fruitcake With Aniseed

[radiobirdma · 1/10 · 9 August 2016]

Be True to Your School: In Milano, a teacher is raped and killed by a class of booze-fueled students, but when the Commissario gives the teener pack the bad cop routine, he hits a wall of silence. Fernando di Leo's fifth film comes along as a predominantly lukewarm, actionless talkie and tries to surf the social commentary wave, a ludicrous endeavour that completely falls to pieces after the first half. Though Pier Paolo Capponi as the tough investigator gives a superb performance – erm, what for? –, soon-to-be Miss Ravishing Italia Nieves Navarro ("The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Beyond Suspicion") is wholly wasted as a mousy social worker, Silvano Spaddacino's soundtrack a jittery alarm-clock pain in the ass, and after 80 minutes of pointless drivel, brace yourself for the cross-dresser jack-in-the-box all of a sudden jumping out of Giorgio Scerbanenco's stenchy script: The conclusion featuring the gross transvestite from transsexual Aniseedonia – presaged with not even the friggin' slightest hint – tops almost any nonsensical rubbish denouement from the giallo department (think Argento's Opera) with mind-blowing panache. As an Emilio Miraglia c-flick, this lesson in ineptitude and stupidità would have been titled "The Closet Queen Kills Two Times", but since di Leo undoubtedly had had the lion's share of the liquor himself he couldn't even come up with a catchy title. And the hangover lasted: Unbelievable, but his next try, Asylum Erotica, is even worse.

Another excellent film from Fernando Di Leo

[The_Void · 8/10 · 18 September 2008]

Naked Violence is yet another well made and effective offering from Fernando Di Leo; a director that often doesn't receive the praise he deserves. Di Leo would go on to make some of the best Italian crime films in the early to mid seventies, but he also made some interesting stuff in other genres; such as this film. The film is based on a novel by Ulkranian writer Giorgio Scerbanenco, who also wrote books that inspired other Di Leo films. The film is very concise and the director is keen to focus on the important elements of the plot, which helps the film to keep focus and in turn makes it more interesting. The film begins with a scene that sees a young schoolteacher raped and murdered by her class; which just happens to be full of delinquents high on alcohol. Police Inspector Liberti gets on the case and begins by interrogating the kids in the class, but as he continues his investigation; he realises that it's becoming less and less likely that the kids acted on their own accord, and his suspicions are confirmed when his best witness is found dead.

The film is essentially a character study and we mainly focus on the Police Inspector and a handful of the boys at the centre of the crime. The locations used are not particularly diverse; especially not during the first third when almost everything takes place inside a room in the police station. The film does have a very minimalist approach, but it's all done very professionally and the film is of a higher quality than a lot of the output from Italy in the late sixties and early seventies. The film is bolstered by a handful of good acting performances; Pier Paolo Capponi is absolutely great as the police inspector and receives good support from Giallo heroine Susan Scott (who in truth doesn't have a whole lot to do) and Giuliano Manetti as the main character of the school class. The majority of the film is build-up as we try to work out the reasons behind the heinous crime at the start of the film; and the brutal climax doesn't disappoint. The motive for the killings might not go down too well in some circles; but it's inventive enough and ensures that the film finishes well. Overall, this is an excellent thriller and comes highly recommended!

the children of violence

[andrabem · 9/10 · 23 October 2007]

"I Ragazzi del Massacro" tells the story of the brutal rape and murder of a female teacher by the students in a classroom. The opening scene shows the teacher, the classroom and the students. There's no other sound beside the ominous soundtrack. She's is writing something on the blackboard and then we see the faces of the students. They don't seem about to start singing "To Sir with Love". We see their faces in close-up, the apprehensive look of the teacher. The scene builds to a crescendo till her rape and murder - this is not shown graphically but rather in an elliptical way. We see faces, pieces of flesh, her being undressed, the students crowding her.. Cut! In the next shot her dead body is lying naked and defenseless - it is surrounded by policemen. An investigation is about to begin.

The police detective Marco Lamberti (Pier Paolo Capponi) has to interrogate the students of the classroom to know the who, how and why. The students of this school are from the lower classes, come from reformatories, live lives in which poverty and violence are their daily companions. But police detective Lamberti is indignant - all he wishes is to crack some heads. Curiously, after the rape & murder scene, I myself was so full of anger that I felt in sympathy with the cop's indignation. It's funny! On seeing a film, I'm not the one who roots for the cops. Especially if there's a lot of finger wagging and preachiness. But "I Ragazzi del Massacro" doesn't follow the easy way - the crime is shown in all its hideousness, but we are given also brief glimpses into the lives of those students - illness, violence, hopelessness...

Lamberti has to find out who started the thing, and he can't lay a finger on the students - they are under age, and Italy, after all, is a democracy.

Lamberti is teamed up with a social worker, Livia (Nieves Navarro/Susan Scott). Justice and compassion work hand in hand to find out what happened. But make no mistake. This is not a political film in the strictest sense of the word - it's just a crime flick with a social consciousness.

What is remarkable is the honesty and crudity of "I Ragazzi del Massacro". This was very rare at the time. And even now, if the same story were told by Hollywood, it would be transformed into the usual tear-jerker - the tears would be followed by revenge and crowned by beautiful moral lessons.

The acting overall is very good - the tough but sensitive Lamberti (Pier Paolo Capponi), the students, the lovely Susan Scott as the social worker etc.. The soundtrack is a gem, it is scary and ominous without being too flashy. The story is well told and there are many surprises in store - it's not a predictable film at all! The film hooked me from the beginning to the end.

What are you waiting for? See this film if you can.

CAn Ferdinando DiLeo ever make a bad movie? No

[realmovieseeker · 23 January 2000]

Another masterpiece I'll remember, the flashbacks in the movie were done really, well. I don't thinlk the story was that good, but DiLeo once again made it into a masterpiece. After any of his movies I seriously can't watch anything else, he's to good. I'm seriously thinking of leaving my Job and becoming a director, and try to continue his legacy. This film, agan is based on the milano of the late 60s, when no one in Italy made real movies about outsider kids, but he dug deep and, as always made a masterpiece