Serpico
Short description
Based on the true story of a New York City police officer, Serpico follows Frank Serpico, an idealistic cop who refuses to take part in the widespread bribery and graft tolerated by much of the department. His willingness to work undercover in the drug trade earns him respect, but his honesty sets him apart from colleagues and superiors alike, and once he reports what he has seen, the institution closes ranks against him rather than confront the problem. The film traces his growing isolation as the pressure from those around him mounts.
Sidney Lumet directed the film, the seventh of the twenty-six features he made, arriving between The Anderson Tapes and The Offence. Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler wrote the screenplay, and Martin Bregman and Dino De Laurentiis produced. Al Pacino leads the cast as the title character, with John Randolph, Jack Kehoe, Biff McGuire, Barbara Eda-Young and Cornelia Sharpe among the credited performers, sixty-six in all.
Released in December 1973, the film cost about three million dollars and returned roughly thirty million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.7 from around 146,000 votes, while TMDB users give it 7.5 from a much smaller base of about 2,275. A critics' score of 8.4 from fifty-five reviews places it above both audience measures.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was shot in 104 different locations, situated in almost all districts of New York.
- Al Pacino became so deeply immersed in the role of Frank Serpico that one day, on his way home from the set, he fined a driver for speeding.
- Frank Serpico joined the New York City Police Department on September 11, 1959, at the age of 23.
- According to director Sidney Lumet, during filming, the lead actor Al Pacino constantly remained in character, even when not on camera – sometimes having fun and rejoicing, and at other times taking his frustration out on everyone when the shooting schedule demanded it.
- The real Frank Serpico spent a lot of time with Al Pacino, helping the actor prepare for the role and get into character, and then expressed a desire to stay on set during filming. Producer Martin Bregman had to order him to leave the set so as not to distract the actors with his presence.
- Before filming began, Sidney Lumet and the producers auditioned candidates for 107 speaking roles in the film. The decision was made to mostly cast actors unknown to the public. According to Lumet, it's always better if viewers watch the film without associating the actors with their previous roles. Even Al Pacino, who had already starred in Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Godfather' (1972), was a young actor and therefore relatively unknown.
- Actors were allowed to improvise during filming. Al Pacino, in particular, improvised extensively during the filming of the scene of Serpico's last meeting with his former captain.
- John G. Avildsen was originally slated to direct the film, but he left the project shortly before filming began due to disagreements with producer Martin Bregman. Sydney Lumet ultimately became the director.
- Filming took place in reverse chronological order. Al Pacino first filmed scenes with long hair and a beard; then, in each subsequent episode, his hair and beard were gradually shortened. This was done to give the audience the impression that Al Pacino's character's hair and beard were growing naturally.
- The film was intended for release around Christmas 1973. Sydney Lumet had only four and a half months for filming, editing, and everything else (in his view, “an insane amount of time”). Therefore, editing was done concurrently with filming. Time was so tight that the footage was taken to editor Dede Allen immediately after completing a scene, and she had only two days to edit it before it had to be handed over to the sound engineers.
- On the first day of filming, Sydney Lumet preferred to shoot minor scenes to give the actors and crew involved in the film a chance to “get to know” each other, while everyone understood that this relaxed pace would soon end and everything would move much faster. It often happened that he shot only one take before immediately moving on to filming another scene. The director himself claimed that this method allowed him to identify weak links in the team. On the first day of filming for this particular film, he worked in three locations far removed from each other. Al Pacino was initially very surprised by this, especially after the calm and measured work on “The Godfather,” but soon he and the other actors realized that this working pace helped everyone involved in the filming process stay in shape.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
