My Thoughts on the Film, Serpico (1973), 2/21/2026…

For a man’s honest efforts and attempts to maintain his integrity, he gets shot in the face. Frank Serpico was an NYPD officer who refused to take kickbacks. For this refusal, others in the NYPD labeled him a troublemaker, not to be trusted.

When he started with the police, Frank was already a holier-than-thou stickler, wanting to play by the rules and adhere to the laws he enforced. When a nondescript envelope was handed to him by another officer—an envelope that was filled with three hundred dollar bills—Serpico balked and sat on the money. Ultimately, he gave it to his partner at the time, who said he’d donate it to the PBA.

After several transfers and building his reputation as unyielding and incorruptible, Serpico winds up in the narcotics division in Brooklyn. The scene where Serpico gets shot involves two fellow officers just waiting, watching it unravel (one policeman was portrayed by future Oscar Winner F. Murray Abraham). Later, in the hospital, Frank is finally awarded his gold shield—he finally makes detective. But Frank Serpico’s career with the NYPD was over.

A final scene portrays Serpico testifying before the Knapp Commission, where he relays his experiences and calls for a separate department within the NYPD that would deal solely with police corruption. The Internal Affairs Bureau of NYC was not created until 1993, after another commission on police corruption.

Serpico is portrayed with simmering intensity by superstar Method Actor Al Pacino. The film is directed by auteur Sidney Lumet (who later directed Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon), who depicted NYC not in terms of urban sprawl, but of urban decay. Every apartment, street corner, and office building had an aged, weathered, decrepit quality that would deter many folks from wanting to live there.

I highly recommend this film.