Serpico Reviews

Gripping and Inspiring

Pacinos performance is excellent of this honest police officer who keeps on standing up for whats right. As a Christian I found his refusal to give in to the corruption around him a real inspiration. Its well made, and gripping. This is typical 70s cinema, bleak and slow in places, but its worth it. Has some interesting short featurettes too. This film contains adult content.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Mixed

A good based-on-real-events story of corruption in the New York police force focussing on a strong performance by Pacino. Although the story may seem a bit standard in this day and age, it was hot on the heels of The French Connection and try as it might it doesn't really surf the heights of Friedkin's classic. Great in parts, it's let down by a script that sails between great cinema to TV cop show. The direction is good but if you've never seen The French Connection or Dog Day Afternoon I'd recommend them as better alternatives for the genre or the director.

non excitement

despite the great reviews i found this film very boring and dull i expected better fron al pacino it was not at all intriguing no suspense very unimpressed i only understood the plot later down the film when i watched internal affairs that was a very enjoyable film which i loved till the end not this one a truly thumbs down a waste of time

Good but not great

I really was looking forward to seeing this after watching it years ago and although Pacino is one of my fav actors overall thought this could have been better. Still it has some excellent acting and would recommend.

Serpico

This was a great film about a guy trying to do his job and be an honest decent cop.Meanwhile all around him are cops who are corrupt and care nothing for the job and the crime in the city.Pacino is great in this and decideds enough is enough and sets about exposing the truth and shows why he is for me, the best actor in the history of film making.

Cop corker from Pacino

Coming in between his two mesmerising roles in the ‘Godfather’ & ‘Godfather part II’, ‘Serpico’ continued the rich vein of acting form Pacino showed in the mid-70’s.

Pacino plays new recruit Frank Serpico, who joins the force in order to make a difference and reduce crime. However he quickly realises that police politics interfere in making the arrests he needs. At the start of the film he is very happy go lucky, and unusually for a policeman has a fondness for the arts. His general hippy demeanour causes friction with his colleagues, but it is this which allows him to work better undercover.

At the start of the film he is able to separate his work and home life, but things start to go wrong when he is unwilling to take pay outs from criminals, like other officers. When he reports it little is done and he becomes more and more ostracised in the department. Threats from other officers are made against him and his inability to leave his work ‘at work’ lead to the collapse of his personal life.

Pacino’s character goes from a very open minded individual to a constant feeling of claustrophobia and anxiety. His performance is very controlled and it does not display the criticism often levelled at Pacino of overacting. The film displays all the standards you expect from a ‘70’s cop film, but this was one of the originals and as such should be held in high regard.

THIS COP ROCKS

Pacino's performance is solid as a cop who gradually finds himself in really deeply involved in police corruption....a real problem he's fellow officers spend more time collecting than arresting...as the corruption goes higher, the pressure starts getting to him. HIP (ie) cult nostalgic....and i'm sure how it was before the zero tolerance....gotta see this. Only reason it don't score a 5 is these days other stuff has surpassed it.....just!!

What a great film!

This movie made me an instant Al Pacino fan. It rivals many movies made far more recently and it's really worth watching!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Al Pacino is Brilliant

Another triumph for Sidney Lumet, the film has a gritty look and as usual the lighting adds atmosphere yet Lumet remains unobtrusive throughout allowing realistic performances by all. Al Pacino really stands out as Frank Serpico, capturing the character perfectly from the idealistic youth to the outspoken, brooding rebel later on. The film remains gripping throughout, mainly because the audience is so drawn towards Pacino's fantastic performance. Pacino met with the real Frank Serpico to prepare himself for the role and it looks like this has really paid off. Well worth watching.

Great cop movie, great Pacino performance

If you like Pacino, if you like 70's cinema, if you love cop movies, if you like lone man stories, if you like stories of government corruption, if you dig Lumet, if you get a kick out of cops with a hippie lifestyle, then this is the movie for you. If you don't, then you shouldn't be allowed a dvd player