Serpico (1973)

Starring: Al Pacino
Grade: Classic

Anytime Al Pacino or Sidney Lumet is involved in a movie, you already have “Classic” potential. When they’re in the same production together, it’s a sure thing.

Summary

NYPD Officer Frank Serpico (Pacino) is being rushed to the hospital by fellow officers after being shot in the face. Back at the precinct, one of the officers gets the call. Another asks if a cop was the one that did it, and the guy admits he knows six that would’ve like to. As Serpico is brought into the emergency room, we get a quick flashback to when he first graduated from the academy. Following this, we go back to the present where Chief Sidney Green (John Randolph) shows up and asks who was there with Serpico. The lieutenant covering things tells him Heineman and Julio, so Green demands they be interrogated. In Serpico’s room, Green goes to check on him, and you can see how much he cares for him. Once this happens, we jump fully into the flashback when Serpico first joined the department as a lowly patrolman.

Right away, Serpico is introduced to the problems that will continue to plague his career in law enforcement: corruption at almost every level. He is stuck with a veteran partner, and they go to a deli. There, they get two get sandwiches, but Serpico’s roast beef turns out to be all fat. He intends on complaining about it, but his partner explains they give the owner a break when he double parks on deliveries. In doing so, they eat for free, so he doesn’t want Serpico to ruin this for them. This may be small, but it shows how the laws tend to bend if it benefits the right people. That night, Serpico is with fellow cop Becker, and there’s a call on the radio for a possible rape. Becker says it’s not in their sector, so they shouldn’t have to worry about it. Since it’s on the borderline though, Serpico does take it, and the two manage to save a woman after she’s assaulted by three men. Serpico arrests one of the men, and they go back to the department. After the woman tells them what happened, Serpico and his superior bring the arrested man into a room. Serpico’s superior beats the guy down in interrogation to find out who the other two men were, so Serpico leaves the room. Before the guy gets taken away, Serpico talks with him privately, clearly pitying him over what transpired. He explains how much trouble he can get into if he takes the rap himself, so the guy gives up the other two names. Serpico finds the two at the park, so he calls the department to let them know.

The guy tells Serpico not to do anything because there’s a guy on the case already. He’s just off for a couple of days. A pissed off Serpico hangs up and arrests the two anyway.

Back at the department, his superiors decide they’ll take the two off his hands because it wouldn’t look good if a patrolman took them. He tries to protest, but all the veterans tell him how he can be reprimanded for leaving his post and not getting permission and all that. They do say they’ll give him an assist on the arrest though. Afterwards, he goes to pick up his shoes at his friend Pasquale’s work. Pasquale tries to get him to see some girl named Marianne, but Serpico isn’t interested because her entire family consists of cops. The disillusionment with the force has already begun. Sometime later, Serpico is now working with the BCI (Bureau of Criminal Investigation). Another worker named Barto continuously gives him shit for being a “weirdo cop” while he tries to work, and Serpico is not having it. Later, Serpico moves into an apartment in Greenwich Village and buys a dog for $5 from a couple of hobos. Following this, we see Serpico take some Spanish class and pick up a fellow student and ballet dancer named Leslie (Cornelia Sharpe) after class. They start seeing each other. This is where we start to see Serpico change drastically during this time. He starts being looser and goofier, and his appearance changes to a more non-traditional look. His interests and demeanor even change. All of it angers his co-workers at the department. They already didn’t like him but now, he really doesn’t care. Captain Steiger (James Tolkan) has taken notice of Serpico’s new attitude too.

Once Serpico goes to the bathroom, a fellow cop has the lights turned off because he’s spying at a woman across the street with binoculars. He has Serpico come over and look, but she pulled down the shade when he does. After the guy leaves, Steiger runs into the bathroom and accuses Serpico of sucking the guy’s dick.

Serpico goes and talks with Captain McClain (Biff McGuire), and he tells Serpico that Steiger won’t make a report on it because it would make the image of the department look bad. He does say however that it could affect his future with the BCI. Serpico is okay with this because he’s been there for two years and doesn’t see how he can move up. He wants a transfer, but he doesn’t want to go back to uniform. McClain says he’ll do what he can and then gives him a pamphlet for a retreat for Catholic officers. After a party Serpico attends with Leslie to meet all her friends, he makes his transfer and immediately gets shit for wearing his mustache. His reasoning of it being a great way for him to blend in with the streets when he goes undercover goes over well with Captain Tolkin (Gene Gross). He allows him to do it, to wear whatever he wants, and to ride by himself. Sometime after this, Serpico captures some robber but is shot at by a fellow officer because they didn’t recognize him. After the guy apologizes, he pleads with Serpico for the suspect because they don’t want to fill out all the paperwork. A frustrated Serpico relents but tells the guy to tell Tolkin he gave him to them. After testing out some weed per request from the department, he befriends Detective Bob Blair (Tony Roberts). Bob tells him he skipped four years of plain clothes and is working on special assignment with the mayor’s department of investigations, Detective Squad. Serpico is annoyed how he unfairly skipped steps, but Bob notes how good he knows the politics of the job. He does give credit for how well Serpico knows the streets though, saying how they can do some serious damage together.

At his apartment, Leslie tells Serpico she’s going to marry this guy Roy from Texas in two months unless he does it first. He asks, “Am I invited to the wedding?”.

The first day at his new precinct, Serpico is gifted money in an envelope delivered to him from “Jewish Max”. Seeing this as corruption of some sort, he meets up with Bob and gives it to him. Bob suggests they take it to Inspector Kellogg (John McQuade), the second-highest ranking cop in the department of investigations. They meet with Kellogg at a restaurant, but he blames Serpico for taking the envelope from someone he doesn’t know. He offers two alternatives. One option is that he can take Serpico to the commissioner of investigations, and he’ll put him in front of a grand jury. However, it’ll probably end with Serpico getting killed.

The other alternative, you ask?

“Forget it”.

Well, he’s been a big help.

Serpico gives it to his seargent instead, and he tells him he’ll take it to the “Benevolent Association”. After meeting his cute neighbor Laurie (Barbara Eda-Young), Serpico talks with Captain McClain about getting another transfer. His narcotics application went well until he said he was in plainclothes. This apparently stopped everything. McClain tells him he’ll talk with his administrator friend Roy Palmer (Bernard Barrow). At home, Serpico already has Laurie in bed. He gets a phone call from McClain, so he records it. He assures him that the 7th Division is as “clean as a hound’s tooth” according to Palmer, and he’d be happy to have Serpico over there. Soon after, Serpico starts work at the 7th Division and runs into friend Tom Keough (Jack Kehoe) who takes him on a drive before he can even check in. They pick up some guy who’s doing some betting and then get back to the department. He asks Serpico to write up the report, but Serpico refuses, deciding to go check-in instead. Privately, Tom offers him some money he got from the suspect, but Serpico refuses it. He tells Serpico they got a call from downtown that said he couldn’t be trusted. Serpico knows it’s because he doesn’t take bribes. Tom admits they’re skimming gambling money and despite Serpico clearly not being interested, Tom gives him time to think about joining in on the fun. Following this, Serpico is gifted a new partner in Don Ruebello (Norman Ornellas).

This is where he’s shown how real the corruption of the 7th Division is.

They go on a ride to see Vernon, a numbers collector who “isn’t meeting his obligations”. Don straight up tells Serpico he collects for the division along with two other bagmen. This is what Tom was hinting at. The three of them pick up a payoff twice a month. They find Vernon, and Don beats the shit out of him, demanding he pay his $300 by tonight. Back at Don’s place, he offers Serpico his share, but he once again refuses. Even so, Don tells him he’ll keep his share at his place until Serpico changes his mind. This continues the divide Serpico has with the rest of the department as they already don’t trust him. Now, he’s a target. No one wants to work with him, and no one trusts him because he won’t take the money. McClain notified Commissioner Delaney about everything Serpico told him and apparently, he wants him to stay there and be his “eyes and ears”, so he can continue to gather information. This gives him a little bit of hope, but he finds out soon after that the corruption runs even deeper than this, and he may have to enlist outside agencies for help.

My Thoughts:

During a time when filmmakers were trying everything to tackle grittier material, expanding and blending genres in a fearless movement to push the envelope when searching for new ways to tell stories, we get a film like Serpico in the midst of it all.

This is where we uncover the corruption of the NYPD over the course of two hours through the eyes of Frank Serpico, an honest cop wanting to do good but is forever stuck in a sea of crooked officers that have no interest in changing their ways. Serpico doesn’t just become an enemy of everyday criminals, but he’s also an enemy of his co-workers, the ones who should be doing the right thing. He continues to fight the good fight until the very end, and it changes his life forever. When you talk about genuinely good, honest, and hard-working people, the name Frank Serpico will be one that is brought up. He is a man whose name will always be etched in history and will be referred to when regarding true heroism among the police. He makes history by doing the right thing no matter what it costs, and it costs him dearly. This is what solidifies this film’s legacy and Frank Serpico as a character. Whether or not all of the details are accurate, Serpico is a classic. It starts directly from the top, with director Sidney Lumet bringing this story to life in a way not many directors could. The plot doesn’t even really come together until an hour in but with the way the story carries itself, the intriguing situations Serpico finds himself in, and the unraveling of everything keeps you hooked as the plot develops.

With a grimier and more realistic New York backdrop representing the corrupt aspects of the story, we watch as Frank Serpico slowly begins his transition from a bright-eyed, clean-cut cop straight out of the police academy to a jaded, hippie-looking degenerate that can’t connect with anyone on the force because of his refusal to take a bribe or do anything looked at as being wrong.

Watching the transformation of Serpico as a person is one of the more unintentionally funny parts of the film too. The transitions come out of nowhere, and it gets more and more amusing as time goes on. To show how much time has passed and to represent a major advancement in the story, we see how Serpico’s hair changes, his facial hair grows, and his attire becomes increasingly more outlandish. It gives you a great idea of the character’s headspace, but you can’t help but laugh here and there. In one scene, he’s out and about doing his job as an undercover job and in the other, he’s feeding a Cockatoo while dressed like he’s tour guide from Egypt. We notice his behavioral changes as well. Obviously, we know how he is right out of the police academy but when he starts getting his transfers because of all the corruption he sees, he becomes a bit more unhinged. He starts taking Spanish classes, is interested in ballet, and he starts dating Leslie who seems to open his eyes to the artistic side of New York. This is where he comes face to face with the counterculture and it inspires his image, his developing personality, and his understanding of how real citizens act in the outside world. It further distances the forward thinking Serpico from his outdated and conservative co-workers.

It’s not lost on us either that Serpico’s co-workers look down on him for dressing and acting like the people they look down on when they are the ones who actually can’t be trusted.

One thing stands out to me is the scene in which Serpico attends a party with Leslie and her friends and when she introduces him to each person, she talks about the job they have to do and what their actual job is. Serpico even asks her, “How come all your friends are on the way to being somebody else?”. It’s a line that stands alone. It seems weird to “Paco” at first but as we see when the plot continues to unravel, it’s almost as if this story is Serpico’s trail into becoming somebody else himself because of the circumstances he runs into. Subconsciously, it may be the reason he identifies more with this crowd than he does his fellow police officers. Even at the end of this scene, he tells Leslie to not introduce him as a cop because of the stigma around it. Scenes like this are vitally important when looking at the overall film. It may not seem like that big of a deal at first, but in reality, it’s gives us a glimpse of what our consistently evolving protagonist will become.

It can never be said enough, but prime Pacino couldn’t be touched. Very few possess the emotional intensity of Pacino, but he exemplifies the man who’s back is against the wall and whose life is on the line. As a man against the world, Pacino puts his heart and soul into this one, as we can feel the stress he goes through. He wears the character’s bravery as a badge of honor throughout, and you’re rooting for him at every turn, especially when more and more people turn their back on him.

It fires you up!

There’s a level of fear as well. He already has to face criminals in his everyday job but not having a fellow cop to rely on (something we take for granted in a movie) is an incredible stress that takes a toll on this genuinely good man. The department is too powerful. He knows there’s corruption at the top and when it’s implied he might snitch, Tom suggests other cops may come after him. I want you to imagine the position Serpico is in for a second. At any given moment, they can be sent out for a mission and if Serpico walks into the wrong alley or apartment or something, the guy he drove with could look the other way and watch him get shot. Serpico could even scream for backup in a firefight, but what if that backup never comes? If he continues as a cop, he will forever have to have eyes in the back of his head, hoping he doesn’t find himself in a situation where his life is in danger. THIS is real bravery. There should never be a question as to why the character of Frank Serpico is one of the all-time great movie heroes either. He’s damn good at being a cop, but it’s not that. It’s all the pushback he gets from every end possible, the continued threats on his life from others in law enforcement, and his refusal to take the easy way out and give in to the evil. This is why he’ll be remembered. Despite the toll it takes on him and how it affects the rest of his life, he can’t help but do the right thing. This is a true hero.

I can’t imagine the stress the real-life Frank Serpico had to go through. By trying to be a good person, his life, career, and relationships were ruined all in the pursuit of justice.

If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s basically the epitome of the classic line, “I won, but at what cost?”.

It’s crazy how cruel the world can be. At one point, the cops turn a blind eye to Serpico bringing in Cosaro, a known cop killer, because of their connections with him. Can you imagine that? It’s scary to think about the type of stuff they got away with back then. Today’s standards may not be perfect either, but if you want a reminder as to why you should be thankful about the time you live in now, then this is a great film to watch. We might have never found out how nefarious and unethical law enforcement could be in the first place without trailblazing heroes like Frank Serpico uncovering the madness.

It’s an incredible film and an even more incredible story. Serpico is a bonafide classic.

Fun Fact: Early negotiations had Robert Redford playing Serpico and Paul Newman playing Det. David Durk (Bob Blair in the movie). Director Sam Peckinpah was going to direct as well.