I can't say my expectations were too terribly high for this film seeing as I'm not a big Pacino fan, but after years of hearing that this one of the man's greats, I was hoping that it was better than just good. For the most part, those expectations were satisfied. I mean, I was entertained by the film (I stayed up 'til 4 a.m. to finish it so I had to like it on some level) and enjoyed seeing a young Pacino, post-Godfather, strut his stuff a little.The story was compelling enough and the characters, though underdeveloped, had enough going on that you could make some sort of intellectual or emotional connection to them. You do care about what happens to most of these characters, so it can be said the filmmakers did their jobs.
It would have been nice to see a little more tension as the story builds to its climax, but I did appreciate the consistent tone of the film. It gave an element of realism to the story. Like, no one day with Serpico was any less joyous, tragic, dangerous or banal than all the rest. Whether or not it was a device being used, or a stylistic choice, it worked for me.
The only real distraction was the score by Mikis Theodorakis. Most times it was just unnecessary in many places where it was used, and even when it fit the scene, it was kind of overdone. Not a big fan of the music, but, to be honest, it doesn't play too big a role in the film anyways.
Now that I think about it, I would like to see this movie in widescreen sometime and see if that changes my view of Lumet's direction or gives the movie a little more scope. Could be an interesting experiment.
Overall, Serpico is a pretty good film. It sort of gives me a hankering to watch Dog Day Afternoon, now.
mike
No comments:
Post a Comment