SYNOPSIS

This is the true story of Frank Serpico, the New York City police officer who almost lost his life exposing corruption within the force. Starting out as an idealistic young recruit, he soon realizes that many of his fellow officers are on the take, something he refuses to do. He tries to keep a low profile while remaining true to his principles, but his honesty is a threat not only to individual policemen but to the entire system. After making the acquaintance of Bob Blair, another honest member of the force, Serpico tries to raise his concerns with his superiors, but most turn a blind eye, leaving him unprotected as other officers abuse and threaten him. Serpico's stand against corruption eventually puts him in danger, and the stress takes a serious toll on his relationships and well-being, culminating in his shooting under questionable circumstances during a drug bust. Nevertheless, he doesn't back down, and testifies before a special investigative commission.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Producers: Martin Bregman, Dino De Laurentiis
Screenplay: Waldo Salt, Norman Wexler, based on the book by Peter Maas
Cinematography: Arthur J. Ornitz
Editing: Dede Allen
Art Direction: Douglas Higgins
Original Music: Mikis Theodorakis
Cast: Al Pacino (Serpico), John Randolph (Chief Sidney Green), Jack Kehoe (Tom Keough), Tony Roberts (Bob Blair), Barbara Eda-Young (Laurie), Cornelia Sharpe (Leslie).
C-129m.

Why SERPICO is Essential

Serpico was one of those fortunate circumstances in filmmaking where a compelling true story hit home with the mood of the country and the times. It all came together with an enthusiastic producer seeking to make his mark in the industry, an emerging young actor at the height of his talents backed by a strong supporting cast, and an experienced director with a feel for authentic locations and a sure hand at guiding performers to their best performance.

Frank Serpico was a New York City police officer who made headlines when he bucked the system and went public about entrenched and extensive corruption within the department. Serpico's principled stand made him a public hero but a pariah on the force and may well have contributed to his shooting during a drug bust. When Peter Maas' best-selling book about Serpico was brought to the attention of Martin Bregman, a film industry talent manager and representative looking to break into producing motion pictures, he knew he had found the perfect vehicle. He also knew the perfect actor for the project, one of his own clients.

Despite his highly praised performance in The Godfather (1972), Al Pacino truly became a star with Serpico. His work in the earlier film was part of an ensemble, dominated by Marlon Brando's towering portrayal of a Mafia don and secondary to the attention paid to Francis Ford Coppola as a major new force in film directing. Serpico, however, was totally Pacino's film, and he threw himself into the part with the intensity and focus for which he would become known in his long career as one of America's best actors. Serpico earned him a huge fan base, critical praise, and a number of awards and nominations for his electrifying performance of a man fighting not only City Hall but his own inner fears, frustrations, and isolation. He was ably supported by a cast of mostly little-known character actors whose relative anonymity boosted the strong sense of reality needed to drive the script's story and themes.

That air of realism was heightened even more by the use of multiple New York locations (more than 110) chosen by Sidney Lumet and his production team. Lumet came into the project with the confidence of a director who, as he described it, knew the city like the back of his hand. He also had a reputation for drawing the best performances from his actors which was one of his earliest trademarks as a director. Serpico was an important step forward in his career and addressed a persistent theme in his work - one that stretched from 12 Angry Men (1957) through such films as Network (1976), Prince of the City (1981), and The Verdict (1982). All these films charted the course of outsiders and rebels who were isolated by their principles and took outspoken stands against systems they saw as morally wrong and detrimental to society.

Much of the success of Serpico may also be attributed to that particular theme and focus. America was just coming out of the 1960s, a time of high idealism and countercultural rebellion in the face of war abroad, violence at home, and cataclysmic change. At the time of the movie's release, Watergate was very much in the air, drawing attention to an atmosphere of corruption and deceit at the highest levels that forced America to re-examine its image and the values the country once believed in unquestioningly. Frank Serpico, as presented on screen - and by general account, was true to life - was a cop, a symbol of authority and order. At the same time, he was an undercover officer who dressed and behaved like a hippie, a man dedicated to his profession but also actively seeking new ways of living, drawn to art, culture, and philosophy. So the more conservative elements of the audience could look to him as an upright, principled man of the law while left-leaning and younger audiences could root for him as a rebel and idealist, unafraid to buck authority and expose the ills that were having a negative impact on American ideals and society.

What raises the film above the level of the typical biopic, political diatribe or police drama, however, is its focus on the character of Serpico, who is brought to full life by Pacino's intense and layered performance, described by Vincent Canby in the New York Times as "a driven character of Dostoyevskian proportions, an anti-cop cop." And the positioning of Serpico as a man with this dual nature, one foot in each world but never wholly accepted into either, heightened his isolation and discomfort in almost every aspect of his life, making for a compelling human drama. As Peter Maas, author of the book on which the movie was based, noted, "It's more than the story of a cop. It's about a man who just dug in and said he won't go along with the system....He would have followed the same course if he had had another profession."

by Rob Nixon