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DVD (23)
Wonderful potential, and wasted. Serpico has some brutal surface flash and an acetylene performance by Al Pacino in the title role, but its energy is used to dodge all the questions it should have raised and answered.
Sidney Lumet's direction adeptly combines gritty action and thought-provoking comment.
A virtuoso performance by Al Pacino and some expert location work by Sidney Lumet add up to a tour de force genre piece that transcends the supercop conventions to create a moving, engrossing portrait of Frank Serpico.
Lumet's biopic of Frank Serpico, the virtuous cop who exposed a network of graft in the NYPD, feels depressingly relevant.
A remarkable record of one man's rebellion against the sort of sleaziness and second-rateness that has affected so much American life, from the ingredients of its hamburgers to the ethics of its civil servants and politicians.
"Serpico" is a candid and gritty police expose film that juxtaposes systematic police graft with the personal toll it takes on the man who attempts to blow the lid on the crooked activities that surround him.
... one of the films that brought this new realism to the screen portrait of American cops with its realistic portraits... and systemic failure and flawed, human characters behind the badges.
Lumet and screenwriters Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler can't do anything but skim rapidly over the surface of their tale.
Imbued with mythic and even religious dimensions, Al Pacino's resourceful, Oscar-nominated performance takes Lumet's quinessential 1970s New York film beyond the realm of a cop-corruption drama.
Al Pacino delivers a powerful performance in this compelling biopic of a cop and a city's police force.
Memorable, thought-provoking and courageous.
Exibindo segurança e intensa presença cênica, Pacino demonstra inteligência ao criar um imenso contraste entre a futura angústia de Serpico e a maneira irreverente e jovial com que este surge nas cenas logo após formar-se como agente da Lei.
an acting tour de force for Al Pacino
When all is said and done, Pacino is the riveting presence that makes the movie work and it is difficult to imagine any other actor in the part.
Another problem, these days, is Pacino's characterisation; he seems at times more like a misplaced hippy than a plainclothes cop.
One of the best films of our time, and our grandkids' time. "Serpico" is pure Pacino, powerful as hell.
This is a DVD that is very quiet in announcing its better-than-average wares.
Very much an Al Pacino vehicle, not that this is a bad thing.
A quintessential New York director made this quintessential New York movie in 1973, with Pacino at his best as an honest cop who turns on his crooked colleagues.
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