Review of Serpico (1973) by Filipeneto — 16 Apr 2020

This film is based on real facts. Set in the USA in the early Seventies, it tells the story of Frank Serpico, an honest young man who became a policeman and dreamed of becoming a detective, but who clashed head-on with widespread corruption within the New York police force. By refusing to accept bribes, he became a "persona non grata" for colleagues and even his superiors. After many attempts to make himself heard in the highest levels of the force, he publicly denounces what is happening and ends up becoming a target.

Very well directed by Sidney Lumet, it is worth watching this film just to see Al Pacino in one of the most interesting and profound works of his career. He was truly able to show the naive way in which Serpico thought and acted when he joined the police, and the way he gradually became disenchanted with reality. The character is going through a real crisis of conscience, and Pacino was perfectly able of put that to the screen. His purity, his unquestionable honesty and integrity, his psychological and moral ordeal make him worthy of our empathy, and that empathy holds us to the end. It is no accident that Al Pacino was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor, and won the Golden Globe.

Technically, the film is very good. It's very, very dated... everything smells like the Seventies, Summer of Love etc., and the main character looks like a hippie from San Francisco, with a Che Guevara beard and bizarre clothes. But it's alright! Serpico was just like that and it was at that time that everything happened, so the film really had to be that way. The film uses excellent New York locations and scenery, and shows the city in all its tainted dove beauty.

It seems to me a little forgotten nowadays. Being a film entirely about integrity and honesty, Serpico may seem difficult to digest with all that Seventies ambience, but it deserves to be revisited, if only for the quality of Al Pacino's work.