Serpico   

By Jim Emerson

Tony Manero (John Travolta) in Saturday Night Fever and Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) in Boogie Nights have one major thing in common: They both have posters of Al Pacino as Serpico on their bedroom walls. As the real-life NYPD detective whose integrity cost him virtually everything (and almost cost him his life), Pacino became one of the icons of gritty, realistic 1970s filmmaking. Released in 1973, between the first two Godfather movies, this is the true story of Frank Serpico, a long-haired, idealistic, iconoclastic cop who reluctantly goes undercover to investigate dirty colleagues who are on the take. This is one of the definitive Pacino performances, along with his role as Michael Corleone in the Godfather saga, and Sonny the bungling bank robber in Dog Day Afternoon (which reunited him with his Serpico director, Sidney Lumet)--and Pacino was nominated for a best actor Oscar for all of them (although he wouldn't actually win until 1992's Scent of a Woman).

Academy Awards

Serpico received Academy Awards nominations for Actor (Al Pacino) and Writing (Best Screenplay based on material from another medium; Waldo Salt, Norman Wexler).

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		Your Memories Shared!

"I had written a previous comment regarding The Godfather, but that was without seeing Serpico as a listing. My grandfather starred in this movie. Dr. Joseph Anile, He's the very first face you see as the movie begins, he plays a cop in the movie, but after reading this summary, I noticed it only spoke about Al Pacino and mentioned nothing about my grandfather or the other cast members. He may not be a movie star, but my family and I are proud of his acomplishments. [Editor's note: I hope someday to be able to list the full credits for these movies. With all the other work to be done around here, it may be a while. Whether or not your grandfather gets the credit he deserves, he was a fortunate man to work as an actor for a living. Mine fought and died in WW2 and is not listed anywhere that I can find.]" --Caitlin