Serpico (1973)
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Serpico Movie Review
Serpico is a 1973 crime biopic directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino. It’s a solid and important, but ultimately highly uneven movie.
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“The reality is that we do not wash our own laundry –
it just gets dirtier“
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It follows officer Frank Serpico who went undercover to expose corruption in the police force from 1960 to 1972. It’s a true story thus serving as a biographical movie about this important figure in the police force. So it succeeds as a biopic, but unfortunately not as a crime drama because it’s so flawed that it really disappointed me.
This is a highly inspirational, great real-life story that needs to be seen and in that way the movie is even essential. It has some truly terrific sequences and powerful emotion. However, it’s never as immediate in its tone as it should have been and the flick is simply not particularly engaging owing to dull, slow pacing and a particular lack of energy and conviction in its execution.
Al Pacino is definitely very strong. I have never been a fan of this actor, but he is obviously so well cast here and he delivered a very good performance in a terrific role for him. I found the character pretty good and memorable. But unfortunately the others are all rather forgettable when compared to his character. They serve their purpose, but individually they’re rather weak.
Serpico is technically pretty good, I have to say. Sidney Lumet directed the movie quite well and the score is also fine. The dialogue is, as I’ve already said above, one of the standout aspects here along with some very well accentuated emotion in a couple of scenes here and there.
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I also found the entire emphasis on a neo-noir approach quite welcome as the cinematography is very good and the atmosphere of gritty realism, crime and corruption in New York of that time is so well conveyed that you are really transported to its setting and period. I just wish that the pacing was better and that the runtime was shorter as then the movie would have been so much better.
Serpico is a solid movie which features a very important real-life story of an inspirational titular figure well acted by Al Pacino. It’s also well shot and with memorable atmosphere to it. But the pacing is so slow and the runtime is too long that the movie ended up being quite uneven and never achieving the much needed immediacy in its tone.
