Serpico ***** (1973, Al Pacino, John Randolph, Jack Kehoe, Jack Kehoe, Biff McGuire, Tony Roberts, M Emmet Walsh, F Murray Abraham) – Classic Movie Review 1190

Director Sidney Lumet’s edge-of-seat 1973 real-life film about corruption in the New York Police Department stars a perfectly cast 33-year-old Al Pacino in a scalding, mesmerising performance as plain-clothes cop New York Frank Serpico cop battling against the bad guys in and out of the force. Pacino won his first Golden Globe as Best Actor  in 1974 but couldn’t turn his Oscar nomination into a win.

Thanks largely to Pacino’s powerhouse acting, the movie packs a powerful, knockout punch. The tough and uncompromising action is driven by an absorbing blend of tense emotional drama, rapid scene changes and piercing social comment, in a scenario that’s entirely pervaded by the threat of personal violence to the lone hero, as abandoned by the good guys as any Western hero.

Pacino’s Frank Serpico slowly discovers a hidden world of corruption and graft among his own colleagues at all levels, and merely wants to be an honest cop and get on with his job. After witnessing cops using drugs, committing violence and taking payoffs, Serpico decides to become a whistle blower and expose what he has seen. But, unsurprisingly, his zeal for honesty and impartiality soon provokes an escalating reaction of suspicion, harassment and threats by his peers and ultimately dangerous reactions when his life is threatened.

Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler’s excellent, rousing Oscar-nominated screenplay is based on the Peter Maas bestseller. Maas’s book and the film cover 12 years – 1960 to June 15 1972 – in the life of Serpico.

John Randolph (as Chief Sidney Green), Jack Kehoe, Biff McGuire, Tony Roberts, M Emmet Walsh, F Murray Abraham, Kenneth McMillan, Tony Lo Bianco and Judd Hirsch are in the outstanding cast.

Some audiences might prefer Pacino on the other side of the law, as in The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon or Scarface, with their anti-establishment tone that was very much in keeping with the times. But as a hard-hitting advertisement for good cops, upright behaviour and taking the right moral path whatever the consequences, this is hard to beat.

The score is composed by Mikis Theodorakis, who was nominated for both the Grammy Award for Best Original Score and the BAFTA award for Best Film Music. Its Greek name is Dromoi Palioi or Old Streets.

It was agreed at first that Frank Serpico could be on set during filming, but he was eventually barred as Lumet feared he would make the actors, particularly Pacino, feel self-conscious.

A total of 104 different locations the five boroughs of New York City except Staten Island were used.An apartment at 5-7 Minetta Street in Greenwich Village was used as Serpico’s residence, though he lived on Perry Street. Lewisohn Stadium, closed at the time, was used for one scene.

As the film shows Serpico’s beard and hair getting progressively longer, scenes were filmed in reverse order, with Pacino’s hair being trimmed for each scene set earlier.

David Birney starred as Serpico in a 1976 TV movie called The Deadly Game and an unsuccessful (1976-77) TV series Serpico with him followed with 15 hour-long episodes.

Oscar-nominated Lumet died on April 9 2011, aged 86. After five Oscar nominations as Best Director, he never did win.

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(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1190

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/