For his second Academy Award nomination and his first in the Best Actor category, Al Pacino essayed the title role in Serpico, the true story of an incorruptible cop and a man who Diogenes could have ceased his search for an honest man with.
As I'm sure many idealistic young people do, Frank Serpico joined the New York Police Department with hopes of making a difference in society. What he found was a systemic culture of corruption there and faced his own crisis of conscience.
Nobody's ever decided where the line is to be drawn. A free meal at a local diner all the way to big payoffs from drug dealers. The police in this film run the gamut, except for Pacino who won't take a dime. His very honesty makes him a marked man.
The only problem that I have with Serpico is that he tends to be too self righteous. I do wonder if the real Frank Serpico, who is very much alive, is that way. He seems to repel all possible allies. Personally, I think at some point he should have put his papers in and taken the lesser pension at a point way before the near tragedy which does happen to him.
If the script makes him too self righteous, Al Pacino's skill as a player and Sidney Lumet's direction level it out and make Serpico someone we can sympathize with. There's a lot subtlety there in every move, in every facial expression, Al Pacino has even under that heavy beard.
Serpico got a nomination for Best Screenplay adapted from another source, it was adapted from Peter Maas's biographical study. Al Pacino unfortunately lost the Best Actor Oscar that year to Jack Lemmon for Save the Tiger. Oddly enough Save the Tiger is about another man at a crossroads in his life and his choice is break the law.
Sidney Lumet does love New York, so many of his good films are based and shot there. This one is no exception. I recognized many of the locations of the scenes. Every New Yorker ought to see this film just for that.
And I think Diogenes can end his search.
As I'm sure many idealistic young people do, Frank Serpico joined the New York Police Department with hopes of making a difference in society. What he found was a systemic culture of corruption there and faced his own crisis of conscience.
Nobody's ever decided where the line is to be drawn. A free meal at a local diner all the way to big payoffs from drug dealers. The police in this film run the gamut, except for Pacino who won't take a dime. His very honesty makes him a marked man.
The only problem that I have with Serpico is that he tends to be too self righteous. I do wonder if the real Frank Serpico, who is very much alive, is that way. He seems to repel all possible allies. Personally, I think at some point he should have put his papers in and taken the lesser pension at a point way before the near tragedy which does happen to him.
If the script makes him too self righteous, Al Pacino's skill as a player and Sidney Lumet's direction level it out and make Serpico someone we can sympathize with. There's a lot subtlety there in every move, in every facial expression, Al Pacino has even under that heavy beard.
Serpico got a nomination for Best Screenplay adapted from another source, it was adapted from Peter Maas's biographical study. Al Pacino unfortunately lost the Best Actor Oscar that year to Jack Lemmon for Save the Tiger. Oddly enough Save the Tiger is about another man at a crossroads in his life and his choice is break the law.
Sidney Lumet does love New York, so many of his good films are based and shot there. This one is no exception. I recognized many of the locations of the scenes. Every New Yorker ought to see this film just for that.
And I think Diogenes can end his search.