Stars: Kim Rossi Stuart, Valeria Solarino, Filippo Timi, Paz Vega, Moritz Bleibtreu
Running time: 125 mins
Rating: ***

THE short synopsis in the production note sums up this real life Italian crime drama in the following terms: “Biography of infamous gang leader Renato Vallenzasca, famous in Milan for numerous robberies, kidnapping and prison escapes in the 1970s”.

In other words – perfect material for a movie.

Vallanzasca (Kim Rossi Stuart) began his life of crime as a youngster. His first “job” was freeing the animals in a circus. “I was born to be a thief,” he says.

Nice to find a young man with a purpose in life, even if it is unlawful.

He’s one for the ladies too with chat-up lines that involve telling a girl to strip – “I want to see you naked before this cigarette burns out”. Doesn’t he know that smoking is bad for your health?

He starts early in prison too, with a spell in a juvenile correction facility. Once out, he and his gang embark on a life of armed robberies and champagne lifestyle. He becomes a cop killer and newspapers write about his exploits. Murder becomes a way of life for him.

There’s a problem. Vallanzasca develops a feud with the infalmous Francis Turatello (Francesco Scianna), whose gang dominates the criminal underworld. They don’t get along at all.

There are shoot-outs, beatings, kidnappings and cold-blooded murder. Vallanzasca ends up back in prison, brutalised by the guards although headbutting the gaoler bringing him food isn’t the best way to make friends inside. He never learns. “As soon as I’m out, I’m going to have to smash a few heads,” he declares.

Michele Placido directs this fastpaced, violent drama for all its worth with Stuart and Scianna squaring up for a showdown with a lethal outcome.