MovieChat Forums > Serpico (1973) Discussion > Movie's length and downer topic put me o...

Movie's length and downer topic put me off for years

posted 8 years ago by timothy_fairchild
1 reply | jump to latest

I waited 43 years to see this. All I heard as kid was [spoiler alert] "He gets shot in the face" and I didn't care to see the leading man shot. As a fan of Pacino, it was good to see more of his early acting, especially this Academy award-nominated performance.

I thought the story was a bit slow and repetitive. It could have come in at 110 mins instead of 130 mins and attracted more viewers, I suspect. But it was a solid hit, anyway, earning over 10 times its cost. If only it were that easy in Hollywood today.

In real life, I read that Serpico said that an honest cop should not fear a dishonest one, as he did – if anything, it should be the reverse. That sums it up. And he won. The anti-corruption commission formed as a result of him helped change the culture of systemic payoffs. He preferred the term "lamp lighter" to whistleblower.

Btw, if a girl ever tells you she's a whistleblower, tell her you're a whistle.

LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!

[–] richard.fuller1 8 years ago

I'm always put off by hype.

"Good movie! Good movie! Gotta see it! Gotta see it! You ain't LIVED til you see it!"

Still am today, and generally won't see these movies until they have died down.

As it is, NY cop movies are not my cup of tea, and finally managed to see it a few years back with not a clue how it turned out (knew nothing about his being shot in the face, so that helped enjoy the film a bit more).

Just watched it again, and it's still very good, but again, I think it was sadly overblown with film coverage (the movie, not the actual events).

At a young age as I was, I had the impression actors walked on water.

I remember adverts for the tv show with David Birney more, and I'd really like to see how that played out now.

The man is interesting, the movie is well done and holds up.