On 'Serpico'

The bloody face in the rear of an ambulance–Serpico (1973) begins like a classic noir, flashing back from what looks to be a fatal climax. But soon enough we figure out that we are watching a different kind of movie: a biopic with the structure of a picaresque and the thematic dimensions of a morality play. The film covers a bit more than a decade in the life of Frank Serpico, a New York City police officer, from his graduation from the police academy in 1959 to his testimony before the Knapp Commission on police corruption in 1971 and his retirement in 1972. There are hops in chronology throughout the film: three years here, weeks and months there. Serpico moves from precinct to precinct in search of fellow cops that he can work with, cops that are not on the take, that can tolerate a “weirdo cop,” a “hippie cop,” that won’t accuse him of homosexuality and obstruct his promotion, that won’t turn down calls to the scene of a crime out of laziness, that won’t shoot at him recklessly when they encounter him undercover on the street making a bust, that won’t send him in first on a dangerous operation and then leave him for dead.