Serpico is a film which was released in 1973. Serpico stars Al Pacino who plays Frank Serpico. The director of the movie was Sidney Lumet. It was produced by Martin Bregman. A screenplay of Serpico was written by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler, an adaptation of the book Serpico by Peter Maas. The music was done by Mikis Theodorakis. The movie had a budget of $2.5-3 million, and generated $29.8 million at the box office.
The format of the movie is of the style where the movie opens with a dramatic scene and then backtracks on the main character’s life. The film opens with an interesting, in medias res scene in which Frank Serpico is in the backseat of a police car covered in blood. This scene is the result of a drug bust in which Frank is a key player. In the events the movie backtracks on, the first is when Frank becomes a police officer in 1960. At the time, there was extensive police corruption, and Frank was a type of pure soul surrounded by evil. He resisted and condemned police corruption and eventually works from within the police force to attack this corruption. The questionable acts of many police officers includes shaking down and taking payoffs from drug dealing and gambling organizations. In fact, the fact that Frank refuses to take bribes, he catches the suspicion of those around him. The movie perfectly highlights the political and social tension in society between the police force and the rest of the citizens in New York City at the time. Upon moving to Greenwich Village, Frank interacts and associates with many people who, like him, are a part of the counterculture movement of the sixties. He keeps his hair long and grows his hair out and ideologically aligns with a left wing, liberal philosophy. The main struggle Frank has throughout the whole movie is the struggle he has exposing the corruption within the New York Police Department to his bosses. The administration is indifferent to these things, and would rather concern itself with money and power rather than morals. He asks his friend, a fellow officer, Bob Blair, to try to appeal to the bosses about the corruption, but even with his connections, Bob cannot crack them. A very gripping part of the movie is when his fiancee, Laurie, leaves him because of how his mental health declines from the struggles he faces in the police department. In a seemingly positive progression of events, Frank is transferred to the narcotics sector of the police department, a sector which he has always wanted to be a part of. However, because of the reputation he has already developed as being one of the people who wants to decorrupt the police department, he is faced with even more hostility than he was faced with before. He finds himself alone. The climax of the movie is during a drug raid. During the raid, none of the officers he was sent with helped him. He was shot in the face because of the lack of support he received from the officers, and the movie loops back to the beginning, with him hunched over, bleeding in the back of the car while he is being transported to the hospital by a couple of officers who found him. The movie closes with Frank being promoted to detective and being decorated for his heroism. He catches a boat to Switzerland, and lives there for the rest of his life.
The fact that this movie was given 90% on Rotten Tomatoes testifies to how great the movie is. Rotten Tomatoes is probably one of the most savage rating scales in the movie ratings business, so a 90% means this is a highly recommended movie. Critics have raved about the movie. One critic from EmpireOnline.com states, “Al Pacino delivers a powerful performance in this compelling biopic…of a cop and a city’s police force.” Pacino being as talented as he is was bound to give a great performance, and probably his amazing acting was the reason why the movie was so well received.
The plot behind the movie is very powerful itself. The struggle between one pure man and a corrupt environment is something we can all relate to. The world in general is not always the most pleasant or moral place, to put it lightly. Being surrounded by a very tumultuous environment and struggling through it is something that we can all relate to. This movie relates to a couple of course themes for this seminar. Firstly, it relates to the obvious theme of “Morals & Norms” because Frank Serpico is struggling against a corrupt environment, something which is based on his personal ethics. The norm during his time in the police department was that officers would take bribes and whatnot. His resistance to this abhorrence is a moral act which goes against the norms of his environment. Secondly, the movie relates to the theme of “Social Justice” because of the implicit ideological struggle between the political left and right, the left being represented by Serpico and his friends who are a part of the counterculture, and the right being represented by the blue collar police force.
I definitely would recommend this movie to everyone. It is a great movie with a simple plot with flawless delivery.
Some clips of Serpico:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy0YpVNx_Mk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUnMT2Xd1t0
Bibliography:
http://www.empireonline.com/movies/serpico/review/
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/293709%7C0/Behind-the-Camera-Serpico.html
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