VERSUS THE SCARECROW EPISODE 17: Based On A True Story. I decided to challenge myself and really open the doors of my film knowledge and take on “The Scarecrow Video Movie Guide”. It’s 808 pages of movies and movie reviews from some of the most knowledgeable movie people you don’t know. It’s a book put together by a staff that praises, and destroys, some of our favorites and not so favorites. You can read the rest of my series here.
Just a quick refresher: each episode, I’m going to tackle three films from three different categories. Two films will be films I’ve never seen before and one will be one I’ve seen before or own. For the new films, well, new to me, I’m going to review them like a typical FTS review using the TOAST Rating system. But, for the films I’ve seen, I’m going give a quick paragraph or two about why I like or don’t like the film. We’ll try to include the poster and trailer for each film. “….and here. We. Go!”
The title says it all this week as I review JFK (1991), Rope (1948), and I reflect on Serpico (1978) and the beginnings of my love hate relationship with Sidney Lumet. Because these films are based on true stories, I’ll have small blurbs regarding the actual events about each one.
Serpico (2000) Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring: Al Pacino, John Randolph, Jack Kehoe. IMDB says: “The true story about an honest New York cop who blew the whistle on rampant corruption in the force only to have his comrades turn against him.”
“You look like an asshole with dentures.”
My father introduced me to Serpico. He introduced me to a lot of Al Pacino movies actually… but that’s not the point. We were watching Dog Day Afternoon and I remember as we finished it I said something along the lines of, “wow that was really good dad.” To which my dad replied “ever see Pacino in Serpico?”
I hadn’t.
He told me what the film was about and that I might enjoy it. It was sometime but I got around to watching it and at first I was angry. I watched the whole film enjoying it until the ending came along and I got mad. I felt like I wasted two hours of my life and more importantly I hated Sidney Lumet. Why? No idea. I enjoyed the soundtrack, the settings, the feel of 1960s-1970s New York, and I always enjoy Al Pacino, no matter what movie he’s in. (Actually, I take that back. All of his films minus anything he does with Adam Sandler) Couple years later I revisited the film and while it still held up as both a great Pacino performance and a solid film, I found myself not so angry at the abrupt ending to the film. I felt like the ending was similar to that of JFK. The idea that when the films ends, it’s a quiet relief and a calming feeling. [Spoiler Alert Until End Of Paragraph]These characters, in this case Serpico, has been through so much these last years of his life that when he finally leaves the agency and goes into Witness protection, it’s like a big weight off his shoulders and ours, cause he longer has the stress of being an undercover cop trying to bust open a corrupt system, and we no longer have out emotions tugged at watching him fight his hardest to do that.
Serpico is based on the true life story of Frank Sperico, who would eventually go on to become an undercover cop in the New York Police Department and expose the mass corruption. Peter Maas wrote Serpico’s biography, which was adapted by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler into the screenplay. Bu rather than focus on his entire life like Biopics tend to do; they focused on his life in the NYPD from 1960-1972. If you haven’t seen the film or you want to see it again, it’s currently on Netflix Instant Queue.
You can read the rest of episode 15 where I reviewed JFK and Rope. If you’re interested in more, you can find the rest of the Versus The Scarecrow series here.