The 1973 film Serpico marked the first of two collaborations in quick succession between director Sidney Lumet and Al Pacino, bringing contemporary true crime stories to the big screen. While the movie divided opinions upon its release, it was soon followed by Dog Day Afternoon, which received widespread acclaim.
Serpico has since been reevaluated as a classic of New Hollywood realism. It concerns the ordeal of real-life New York police officer Frank Serpico, as played by Pacino, who we first see on screen immediately after he’s been shot in the face during a narcotics raid.
At first instance, this might seem like a simple occupational hazard. Drug traffickers in New York during the 1970s tended to be heavily armed, after all. However, the reaction of Serpico’s local chief of police, Sidney Green, suggests something even more sinister might have taken place.
During the course of the film, we then see the entire context of the incident being played out in the years and months preceding the shooting, and the reason for Green’s reaction becomes clear.
So who fired the shot?
Serpico is an honest cop who runs into the systemic bribery and corruption rife across the NYPD. As one detective tells him, “Let’s face it. Who can trust a cop who won’t take money?” Whenever he tries to report the crooked practices he witnesses to superiors, he runs into brick walls.
After failing to get even the city’s judiciary and political representatives to act on his testimony, Serpico leaks his reports to the press. Meanwhile, he’s already made himself a target for the rest of the NYPD by trying to escalate reports against fellow officers.
His police captain spells it out to him when he tries to involve “outside agencies” in the investigation of officers: “Oh, you are in trouble, Serpico. You are in trouble!” Once his story goes to the media and is published all over the city, he’s a sitting duck.
The police deliberately reassign him to dangerous drug busts to increase the chance of him getting incapacitated or even killed on the job. In the movie’s climactic scene, Serpico is deliberately left alone by his backup officers as he struggles to break into a dealer’s house. “What are you fucking waiting for?” he shouts at the two support officers, who simply continue to maintain their positions, watching on as he fails to force the front door open.
Finally, as Serpico manages to pull his gun on the dealer, he is beaten to the punch. A shot goes off, and he lands on the floor, his face covered in blood. His fellow officers look on in horror at what they have allowed to happen.
It may have been the drug traffickers who pulled the trigger on him, but it was the NYPD who were ultimately responsible. Quite the price to pay for maintaining your honesty as an enforcer of the law.