Serpico
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: December 5, 1973 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
This is a movie about disguise, denial, alienation and the terrible toll taken on the people who make a stand that their fearful or resentful contemporaries see as odd, eccentric or foolhardy – but will later sheepishly admit were entirely right. Read full review
100
EmpireKim Newman
Al Pacino delivers a powerful performance in this compelling biopic...of a cop and a city's police force. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
A quintessential New York director made this quintessential New York movie in 1973, with Pacino at his best. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderDon Druker
A virtuoso performance by Al Pacino and some expert location work by Sidney Lumet add up to a tour de force genre piece. (Review of Original Release) Read full review
90
The New York TimesVincent Canby
It is galvanizing because of Al Pacino's splendid performance in the title role and because of the tremendous intensity that Mr. Lumet brings to this sort of subject. (Review of Original Release) Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Director Sidney Lumet (working from a screenplay by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler) chooses not to press the superheroic aspect of his protagonist. Serpico is more street-level, tracing a decade of NYPD change--and refusal to change--through an episodic, often elliptical structure. Read full review
80
BBCAlmar Haflidason
Al Pacino takes on police corruption in the gritty Serpico, a film that's entirely dominated and driven by Pacino's empowered performance. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not credited)
When all is said and done, Pacino is the riveting presence that makes the movie work and it is difficult to imagine any other actor in the part. (Review of Original Release) Read full review
80
VarietyStaff (Not credited)
Pacino dominates the entire film. His inner personal torment is vividly detailed. (Review of Original Release) Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Judith Crist
Pacino's performance is bolstered by a screenplay and direction that respects the city-dweller's intelligence, that tells of an eleven-year experience with sophistication and temperance and resists endless opportunities for a wallow. [10 Dec 1973, p.93]
80
Village VoiceBenjamin Strong
Ought to look pretty dated. Instead, Sidney Lumet's biopic of Frank Serpico, the virtuous cop who exposed a network of graft in the NYPD, feels depressingly relevant. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhilip French
One of the grittiest, least romantic movies ever shot in New York, it's incisively edited by Dede Allen, whose work ranges from The Hustler to Reds. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRachel Ward
A courageous and gritty police exposé. [11 Oct 2014, p.37]
70
The New YorkerPauline Kael
The theme is richly comic, and the film is great fun, even though it sacrifices Serpico's story--one of the rare hopeful stories of the time--for a cynical, downbeat finish.
60
Time OutGeoff Andrew
Whereas the later film built up an impressively complex series of narrative strands and psychological motivations, this is far more one-dimensional, and is so laxly structured that its rambling story seems to last longer than the (almost) three-hour Prince of the City. Read full review
50
TimeJay Cocks
Wonderful potential, and wasted. Serpico has some brutal surface flash and an acetylene performance by Al Pacino in the title role, but its energy is used to dodge all the questions it should have raised and answered. Read full review
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