A pretty good film. It has a good central character and a semi-interesting story about uncovering police corruption, but everything else leaves a little to be desired. Al Pacino's performance elevates the film a lot though, and it's no wonder he became a legendary actor.

A film ahead of its time in regard to the showing the flaws of police tactics at the time, and how Serpico was ahead of his time in police tactics, at least in the beginning. It also shows a bit ahead of its time in regards to masculinity, and not trying to be so manly or chauvinist, especially for police officers. It isn't explicitly political, but the film shows he's a kind of liberal in a country where most police departments are conservative. He's even called a hippy at one point.

We see the personal toll that seeing corruption and trying to stop it but seeing the bosses are corrupt, is hard to deal with.

It's rare i comment on a soundtrack that isn't good, but this one i feel is probably one of the worst miscast soundtrack i've ever seen. Sometimes it's decent with a kind of romantic tone, casting Serpico as a bit of a hero against the grimy backdrop of the constant corruption going on, but the soundtrack overall just isn't that good.

It tore him and his relationship up, but he couldn't get out because he feels so much to want to clean up the whole thing and actually do some good.

This is like Prince of the City, the film by the same director also about police corruption, but in this film the main character is more observing and trying to expose the corruption from the outside for the most part, while in Prince it was all about exposing it from the inside with the help of police higher ups.

He waited so long for help exposing the corruption, but he should have got out a long time ago.

Serpico is a smart guy though, and when the investigation finally starts, he doesn't throw himself fully into it or rather he doesn't fully expose himself to danger too much.

Once again, like Prince of the City, it shows how doing the good thing may not be the RIGHT thing. Serpico lost a great woman, friends, a career, and almost his life, in order to try and clean up some corruption. And the latter is an important point to highlight; that's it's only part of the corruption, in one city. He could have just ignored it and stayed clean, but he tried to expose it and lost almost everything. He'd never be able to live a good life on the force, always being bullied for being a snitch, and he'd always have to watch his back. That's no life to live, especially if you have a family.

He's a hero. A foolish hero.

Luckily he retired soon after. He realized in that hospital bed "what was it all for?" and i think he realized that it all wasn't worth it. Not with what he went through and what he lost.

The foolish hero realized he was a fool, and resolved to change.