film review - Serpico (1973)

Just started doing this on Spacehey so I thought I'd carry it over onto here as well. I'm just gonna make use of my blog to review films (away from the prying eyes of my irl friends and film teachers on Letterboxd).

Starting with "Serpico" (cause that's the last thing I watched). Not a bad film, it was an easy watch with good pacing, but didn't necessarily stand out to me in any special way. The cinematography is nothing to gawk at, but it's by no means bad, Lumet is a brilliant director and it shows. It interests me seeing how a filmmaker who started on the cusp of New Hollywood fares making films later along the line, especially to see how he plays around with new technology (it's pretty easy to tell he was a fan of using a split diopter). I especially like how he lights his night-time scenes, I love an incredibly harsh shadow paired with a nonsensical light source much more than "realistic" darkness, after all, the light comes from the "same place as the music". Pairing Lumet with Pacino always works well, Lumet knows how to use him very well and Pacino is a seriously great actor. Most of the reviews that came out right after it's release are about Pacino specifically, which makes sense with his newfound fame, fresh off the release of "The Godfather" the year before.

However, I didn't find the film entirely captivating. I wasn't huge on the plot going in as I'm not big on the whole "misunderstood cop that's actually one of the good guys" schtick, but I don't want to harp on the matter too much after finding out it's actually a biographical film (sorry for being out of the loop!!). I've briefly read up on the real Frank Serpico, but don't want to mess around too much on a topic I'm largely ignorant about. The film is very flattering portrayal of Serpico, especially with Pacino's casting. He's a good cop who just wants to make a change in the world, and he's always right, but he makes bad choices in his personal life, but only because of all of the pressure of being a tortured hero in his work life, and then he realises he was wrong and apologises so is he really bad? and he's played by a seriously handsome actor. Jesus, if I was Serpico I'd be fucking thrilled at the good press. But back onto the plot, even if undoubtedly I agree with what Serpico stands for in the film (honest police work), I'm still intrinsically not a fan of the police force. I don't expect the film to have touched on all of the moral wrongs of police officers when it's specifically focused on a case surrounding police bribes, but it's almost funny seeing a portrayal of the police where that's their worst quality. And I guess they also don't like Serpico because he's weird and they think he's gay, and they're racist but that's basically just one line in the film that's brushed past. I do find it an interesting reflection of the filmmaker's morals that in his cop-aganda film, practically all of the criminals (well, all of the petty criminals if memory serves correctly) are black. Obviously it's not inherently racist to depict black criminals, but the director's choice to overwhelmingly showcase dark-skinned actors in these roles is very telling. There's a scene where another cop talking to Serpico uses two racial slurs to describe the criminals they catch, this is portrayed negatively, as opposed to Serpico who describes another man he works with as "the coloured cop" which is meant to show him in a more positive light. He's a good man so he doesn't say slurs, instead he's just racially insensitive. Of course I am a modern viewer, I don't really understand the racial politics of 1970s America, standards of progressivism change, but these factors do align with the type of person I would imagine to make a film about a misunderstood cop. So while it is a critique of the police force, I can't brush past the critiques not given, even if they aren't relevant to the plot. In the end, Serpico leaves the police force, believing that the system cannot be changed when those in power turn a blind eye to the wrongdoings of those below them. But he doesn't leave because he's given up, but because he's put his life on the line and come close to death, just to finally be listened to, because of course in the end he's a perfect hero.

Brief last notes, the costuming is very good throughout, I really like the outfits Pacino wears of course, but I also found a lot of my attention going to the outfits the background actors wore, I think it's something about how film stock makes colours pop. Red looks especially good, like it's almost bursting from the screen, fake blood always sticks out to me as well, very beautiful.

Overall, the film is shot well, and has an amazing performance from Pacino (as expected), but it isn't notable to me in any way, oh and yes, I have a dislike for cops. Before finding out this was a biography I had a much longer, more scathing review written, but now I can't really blame Lumet for his overly positive depiction of Serpico even if it's very in-your-face in moments. It also infuriates me how many of the top reviews on Letterboxd for this film are just endless one-liners about how fit Al Pacino is, yes we get it he's very handsome (why do you think I finally got around to watching this film) but do we have anything else productive to share with the class? 

Final rating - ★★★☆☆