SERPICO [1973] review
July 8, 2011 · Print This Article
It all makes sense to me now after watching SERPICO [1973]. How can drugs and crime exist to the large extents they do? The police allow it to be so because they get paid. I feel so naive. I was not even really aware that Serpico was based on a real life cop either. Al Pacino and Sidney Lumet did some great work together in the 70s (see DOG DAY AFTERNOON). To me this is the importance of seeing old movies, or in this case an older movie. Now to me Al Pacino largely exists as a caricature. Over the top. Bombastic. The object of impressions by comedians. I am glad to know who he really was before that, a helluva actor.
Should it be called being ethical? Being honorable? Being courageous? Being the lone person abstaining from participating in corruption when all others do so without penalty. Perhaps doing that is all of the above. Serpico does not take money. Department after department he gets transferred to is more on the take than the next.
It was fascinating to me to see how being an honest cop actually makes other cops be suspicious of you, even afraid of you. What it ultimately made Serpico is an outsider. No reward for doing what is right other than knowing what you are doing is right. This is an extraordinarily satisfying feeling. I feel it myself three meals a day. Having such strong ethics though also leads to rage at the lack of action against corruption. Serpico does not take money, but he certainly pays for that in damage to all his personal relationships, save for his faithful sheep dog. Again, something else I can relate to directly.
I really love the cold, hard way 70s movies end. I cannot imagine a movie like SERPICO getting greenlit today. This is a movie that makes New York look like a cesspool, every police officer suspect and an overall system of ambivalence that just cannot be bothered to clean itself up even if it wanted to. Just like the cop who did not want to do paperwork for dangerously firing his gun. Too much paperwork, just lie instead.
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