Powerful story of disguise and alienation is led by the moral passion of Pacino’s countercultural whistleblowerFilm-making guts and glory are on display from director Sidney Lumet, star Al Pacino and many others in this compelling New York crime drama from 1973.
It is based on the true story of whistleblowing police officer Frank Serpico who, outraged by the top-to-bottom corruption in the NYPD, finally went to the New York Times with his evidence.
In revenge, dirty cops knowingly led Serpico into a dangerous standoff with armed criminals in an apartment building and left him undefended to be shot in the face.
Screenwriters Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler adapted the bestseller from journalist Peter Maas’s book about the police officer’s remarkable life, on which Serpico collaborated almost immediately on being invalided out of the department.Serpico is a classic movie of 1970s New York: it has Tony Roberts,…
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