Serpico

By VARIETY STAFF

De Laurentiis/Artists Entertainment. Director Sidney Lumet; Producer Martin Bregman; Screenplay Waldo Salt, Norman Wexler; Camera Arthur J. Ornitz; Editor Dede Allen, Richard Marks; Music Mikis Theodorakis; Art Director Charles Bailey
 
Al Pacino
John Randolph
Jack Kehoe
Biff McGuire
Barbara Eda-Young
Cornelia Sharpe
 

Serpico is based on the actual experiences of an honest NY policeman who helped expose corruption. Al Pacino's performance is outstanding. Sidney Lumet's direction adeptly combines gritty action and thought-provoking comment.

The real-life Frank Serpico, who climaxed an 11-year police career by blowing the lid on departmental corruption, told his story first through a book collaboration with Peter Maas.

Pacino dominates the entire film. His inner personal torment is vividly detailed, manifested first in the breakup of an affair with Cornelia Sharpe and later, much more terribly, in the wreck of his love for Barbara Eda-Young.

A very large cast exemplifies the assorted attitudes with which Pacino must deal.

1973: Nominations: Best Actor (Al Pacino), Adapted Screenplay

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1973. Running time: 129 MIN.