Film Review: Serpico (1973)

These days, when “liberal” and “progressive” opinion-makers openly celebrate the idea of Julian Assange dying in prison, it becomes more difficult to imagine a world in which whistle-blowers used to be celebrated as national heroes and global role models. Half a century ago, one such person was the protagonist of Serpico , the 1973 biographical drama directed by Sidney Lumet.

The plot, based on the book by Peter Maas, begins when NYPD plain-clothes officer Frank Serpico played by Al Pacino is rushed to hospital after being shot in the face. As doctors struggle for his life, Chief Sidney Green played by John Randolph , his superior, suspects the perpetrator might be another policeman. The plot then goes back a decade and begins to chronicle Serpico’s career in the NYPD and the events that led him to this point. Serpico, who made his immigrant family proud by graduating from the Academy, works hard and shows enough talent and initiative to advance from a uniformed street patrolman to a plain-clothes officer. But his idealistic zeal, hard-working ethic and willingness to try new methods of policing – whether talking humanely to crime suspects instead of beating them, or wearing long hair and counterculture fashions to blend into the street crowd – increasingly…

Serpico became one of the most successful films in Sidney Lumet’s career. Not only did it receive rave reviews and prestigious award nominations, but it also became a big commercial hit, even spawning a short-lived television series dedicated to the protagonist. For Al Pacino, the role of Frank Serpico represented another triumph, cementing his status as one of the world’s greatest film actors and showing that after his masterful performance as Michael Corleone in The Godfather he could create another iconic role. In inevitable comparisons between the two, the character of Frank Serpico, with his clear moral alignment and uncompromising stance, might seem simpler, but Pacino makes us forget this with his powerful performance. This was carefully and methodically prepared, including spending a long time with the real Frank Serpico to provide as faithful a representation as humanly possibl…

Serpico owes much of its success to the talents involved, but it could be argued that most of its success came from being made at the best possible time. With the fresh trauma of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal raging, the American audience was feeling complete distrust of government and felt a natural sympathy for a single brave individual who challenged the Powers That Be and was willing to risk his life doing so. The film was even better served by the still-relevant aftershocks of 1960s social turmoil, with Serpico being not only an anti-establishment rebel but also enthusiastically embracing a counterculture lifestyle – not only for his undercover work but in his private life. It is this simplicity in pitting one generation against another that makes Serpico inferior to some of Lumet’s films that dealt with the same subjects with greater complexity. That includes Prince of…

RATING: 7/10 ++

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