Al Pacino is one of those actors who, at this point in time, seems to make a lot of movies that involve a lot of shouting. That may not be fair. He does do work that requires more sedate performances, but that isn’t what he’s known for. It’s also not what he became well known for initially. There’s very little shouting in the first two Godfather movies, and when he does, it’s often to the film’s benefit, and not just because he feels like going over the top for a paycheck. But that reputation is why I am often surprised when he gives a performance that isn’t just scene-chewing shouting matches.
Case in point: the biopic Serpico. He has some shouting moments, but they’re always appropriate to the scene.
Frank Serpico (Pacino) is a New York City cop who finds himself going a bit against the grain right from the start. When other cops use physical beatings to get confessions out of wary witnesses, Serpico just tries talking to them. His general scruffy demeanor gets him a chance to patrol in his street clothes, and he works his way up the ladder. However, he is soon offered bribes from the mob to act as part-time muscle like most of the rest of the cops in his precinct. Serpico isn’t interested in that and considers it wrong. He became a cop to help people in the first place. There’s just one problem: there really is no way for Serpico to fix this problem.
That’s essentially how the movie goes. Corrupt cops keep asking him if he can look the other way or join in or something. What they’re doing is more or less an open secret. Meanwhile, different authority figures keep promising help but are unable or unwilling to do so when Serpico knows what he needs done. He can’t get protection for himself if he testifies, but the problems are systemic, and the authorities don’t want to look into root causes so much as swat an errant bad cop here and there. The whole thing grates on Serpico, costing him one long term relationship such that the only constant companion he has is his sheepdog.
By the by, nice touch showing the passage of time. The real Serpico (still alive according to Wikipedia) was in the NYPD for something like 13 years, so showing him purchasing the puppy from a couple selling them on the street when he moves into his apartment and coming back to a dog that seems bigger every time it appears is a good way to show the passage of time.
As it is, this isn’t a film with a straightforward narrative. The movie opens with Serpico being rushed to the hospital from a gunshot wound before showing how he got there. He did survive the shooting (obviously, see above), but the movie is more about the lack of accountability that Serpico wanted to see and never quite got while he was a cop. He was depicted as a man who never quite fit in with the rest of the department anyway. It’s more a character study than anything else, particularly since scenes of Serpico’s off-duty time don’t really do much for the overall plot aside from showing how the stress of being stuck in the middle ruined his life in many ways. Pacino shines in the role, showing an eager young rookie gradually become a jaded ex-cop who quit the force and moved to Switzerland. I don’t know that I would call it Pacino’s best, but it certainly is an indicator about why he is as respected an actor as he is today.
Grade: B
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