Serpico

I had just turned 7 years old by the time SERPICO reached the theatres of Halifax, Nova Scotia and strangley enough my biggest memory of this movie is not the film itself but a sketch MAD magazine ran doing a spoof on it. It would be years later before I actually saw the thing as to a alien monster freaked kid this police drama looked like pretty boring fare....and it some ways it still is. Slow moving at times and certainly dated, SERPICO is still none-the-less one of the best character studies ever put to film. Despite receiving accolades for his work in THE GODFATHER the year before it was SERPICO that put Al Pacino on the map as a serious actor and when he follwed this up THE GODFATHER PART II and DOG DAY AFTERNOON he cemented his place in American film history. Sidney Lumet is in supreme directorial form here though one might argue DOG DAY AFTERNOON is the better film. As a true story about an honest cop who blows the lid on a corrupt force not only does SERPICO serve as good viewing it acts as a wonderful time piece of the early Seventies. Look for early bit parts from Judd Hirsch and Tracey Walter and keep your eyes open for F. Murray Abraham, who would again work with Pacino in SCARFACE, in his big screen debut.