Search - Serpico on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Adult Language Movie Release: 1973 DVD Release: 12/03/2002 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 10 mins Studio: Paramount Total Copies: 6 Genres: Drama, Docudrama, Police Drama, Social Problem Film See Also: Serpico [Circuit City Exclusive] [Checkpoint]

Adapted by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler from Peter Maas's book, Sidney Lumet's drama portrays the real-life struggle of an honest New York City cop against a corrupt system. Neophyte officer Frank Serpico (Al Pacino) is determined not to let his job get in the way of his individuality. Despite his colleagues' leery reactions, he keeps one foot firmly planted in the counterculture, sporting a beard and love beads and living in bohemian Greenwich Village, while he performs his police duties with dispatch. Serpico's peers genuinely ostracize him, however, when he refuses to take bribes like everybody else. Appalled by the extent of police corruption, Serpico goes to his superiors, but when he discovers that they have ignored his charges, he takes the potentially fatal step of breaking the blue wall of silence and going public with his exposé. Serpico's revelations trigger an independent investigation by the Knapp Commission, but they also make him a marked man, permanently changing his life. Shot on location with a gritty emphasis on documentary-style realism, Serpico presents a city in decay both literally and morally, as everybody is in on the take, and the cops and criminals are almost interchangeable. Released in late 1973, after months of revelations of Presidential malfeasance in the breaking Watergate scandal, Serpico's true story of bureaucratic depravity touched a cultural nerve, and the film became a hit with both critics and audiences, particularly for Pacino's complex performance as the honest, long-haired whistleblower. One year after his star-making triumph in The Godfather, Pacino was nominated for an Oscar again, and lost again; Lumet and Pacino would reunite two years later for another true New York story, Dog Day Afternoon. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Al Pacino - Frank Serpico
Tony Roberts - Bob Blair
Jack Kehoe - Tom Keough
Cornelia Sharpe - Leslie
Barbara Eda-Young - Laurie

Sidney Lumet directs Al Pacino in Serpico, which comes to DVD with a widescreen anamorphic transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Closed-captioned English soundtracks are rendered in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital Mono, while a French soundtrack has also been recorded in Dolby Digital Mono. English subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials include a documentary about the making of the film, the theatrical trailer, and a photo gallery with commentary from the director. This is a solid release from Paramount. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide