Review of Serpico (1973) by Briain D — 04 Jul 2011

A powerful tale of corruption and one honest cop's quest to quash it, Serpico is a great film to watch and, in my opinion, involves Al Pacino's second greatest performance (after Scent of a Woman). The film is rated 18 in Ireland, which I think is slightly too extreme and rules out a huge number of people in their older teens from seeing this great motion picture! Corruption is something I feel particularly strongly about and so this film was always going to interest me but it portrays the problem so effectively, that it shoots itself from a good film to a great piece of art.

Character development is the only weak point. Pacino's character is fascinating, yes, but I reckon some of the other characters (including his girlfriends) should receive a little more attention.