Serpico (1973)

Swedish and Finnish title:
Serpico: Street Tiger

Director: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Al Pacino, Tony Roberts, John Randolph

Running Time: 2 hours, 9 minutes

Rating: R

Pre-Conceived Notions: The ultimate good cop/bad cop story line: Serpico the good cop against a whole police force of bad cops. To me, this has ‘thriller’ written all over it. Will Frank Serpico prevail by exposing the corruption of the NYPD? I like a movie with questions to answer at the beginning.

Why I Haven't Seen This Film: Because I’m not really into action movies, or cop dramas. Especially old ones. But this whole project is about me trying new things and, who knows. I may end up liking this movie. And it’s based on a true story, so it’s got that going for it.

Trivia: Serpico’s badge number is 716.

2 hours and 9 minutes later…: Wow… that wasn’t as intense as I thought it was going to be. I was expecting at least one scene where all the cops got together to beat him up. Nothing. Although he does eventually get shot in the face. (That wasn’t a spoiler. The movie opens with Seprico on his way to the hospital, and the first words of the film were, and I’m paraphrasing: “It’s Serpico. He’s been shot. In the face.”) 

The movie consisted of a lot of Al Pacino shouting; secret and not-exactly-inconspicuous meetings in cars and parks; and shots of Pacino tackling black guys. Seriously. The majority of the people he chased down were black. Also, Al Pacino shouting. Did I mention that already? I think I did. Wanted to make sure that got in here. 

But what was interesting about the movie was that it examined the nature of corruption. How when it’s ubiquitous, it’s really hard to squash. Even though Serpico was one in only a handful of cops not on the take, within the police force, he was very much the outsider. Serpico’s second girlfirend (he had two, except I don't know if the first one was his girlfriend. They had a bathtub scene together, so I figured they were.) Anyway, Girlfriend #2 told a very interesting story toward the middle of the film: There was a village where a witch had poisoned the local well. All the villagers drank from the well—except the King—and became mad. The villagers wanted to overthrow the unpoisoned King because they thought he had become mad. But then the King decided to drink from the well, and the villagers rejoiced because he regained his reason. I thought that was a fabulous parable, if you ignore the whole, “village that is also a monarchy” thing.

Final Thoughts: I’m going to give Serpico 3 slices of pizza out of 6. It didn’t hold up very well, and you can only take so much of Al Pacino flying off the handle and tackling black guys. But I enjoyed the insight it gave me into the nature of corruption.