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Serpico (Sidney Lumet, 1973)
This is a powerful, true-life story of a New York cop who finds corruption everywhere he turns, and since he won't become part of it, he becomes a pariah, who even starts the film off in an ambulance with a gunshot wound to his face. Frank Serpico (a perfect Al Pacino) has always wanted to be a police officer, but he's heartbroken by the fact that he learns that most all NYC plainclothesmen in the 1960s are collecting payoffs to look the other way from crime. He has a good cop friend (Tony Roberts) who tries to help him get this info to the higher-ups, but it just seems that the corruption has been ingrained for too long, so Serpico can't get anywhere. This makes Serpico a marked man: an honest cop who won't take money is dangerous, or so his fellow officers believe.
Sidney Lumet, who was a last-minute replacement as director for Joe's John Avildsen, brings his expertise of location filming in New York City into play in this tense, gritty film. The script, which is basically a collection of dialogue by Midnight Cowboy's Waldo Salt, structurally supported by Joe's Norman Wexler's re-write, gives plenty of opportunities for the huge cast to shine, but Pacino really excels and is allowed to create a strong character who is not only heartfelt, but also witty, light-hearted (when possible), sexy and justice-seeking. The brief, yet evocative, Mikis Theodorakis musical score is a major asset in making the film affecting and so easy to relate to. This is one of the true classics of the '70s which unfortunately seems to be lost in the shuffle of all that decade's great films. If you've missed it thus far, do your best to correct that oversight.
This is a powerful, true-life story of a New York cop who finds corruption everywhere he turns, and since he won't become part of it, he becomes a pariah, who even starts the film off in an ambulance with a gunshot wound to his face. Frank Serpico (a perfect Al Pacino) has always wanted to be a police officer, but he's heartbroken by the fact that he learns that most all NYC plainclothesmen in the 1960s are collecting payoffs to look the other way from crime. He has a good cop friend (Tony Roberts) who tries to help him get this info to the higher-ups, but it just seems that the corruption has been ingrained for too long, so Serpico can't get anywhere. This makes Serpico a marked man: an honest cop who won't take money is dangerous, or so his fellow officers believe.
Sidney Lumet, who was a last-minute replacement as director for Joe's John Avildsen, brings his expertise of location filming in New York City into play in this tense, gritty film. The script, which is basically a collection of dialogue by Midnight Cowboy's Waldo Salt, structurally supported by Joe's Norman Wexler's re-write, gives plenty of opportunities for the huge cast to shine, but Pacino really excels and is allowed to create a strong character who is not only heartfelt, but also witty, light-hearted (when possible), sexy and justice-seeking. The brief, yet evocative, Mikis Theodorakis musical score is a major asset in making the film affecting and so easy to relate to. This is one of the true classics of the '70s which unfortunately seems to be lost in the shuffle of all that decade's great films. If you've missed it thus far, do your best to correct that oversight.