Serpico (1973)

On February 3, 1971, NYPD Detective Frank Serpico was shot in the face during a raid on a suspected drug dealer. He was rushed to the hospital; the bullet severed one of his auditory nerves and left bullet fragments lodged near his brain, but otherwise he recovered. The shooting quickly drew attention – because one year previously Serpico had brought evidence of widespread corruption to the New York Times – evidence that they quickly wrote up in a front-page article and which spurred then-mayor John Lindsay to investigate the matter, and Serpico was due to testify for that panel within the month; the incident also brought Serpico’s eleven-year careers for the NYPD to a close. ….I had to look up several of the details in the summary above because they simply and frustratingly were not in this movie. My ignorance wasn’t the actors’ or director’s fault, I don’t think. Al Pacino does just fine with Serpico – starting with his graduation from the police academy in 1960, following him…