Serpico

Serpico (1973)

Timing: 2:10 (130 min)

7.532/10
2125

7.807/10
20977

7.7/10
146000

All about film

Video 4

Photo 78

Actors and characters

Release date

1973-12-18

Country

Italy, United States

Production

Paramount, Dino De Laurentiis Company, Artists Entertainment Complex, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, Produzioni De Laurentiis - International Manufacturing Company

Genre

Crime, Drama, History

Budget

$3 000 000

Revenue

$29 800 000

Website

Director

Sidney Lumet

Actors

Al Pacino, John Randolph, Jack Kehoe, Biff McGuire, Barbara Eda-Young, Cornelia Sharpe, Tony Roberts, John Medici, Allan Rich, Norman Ornellas
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Martin Bregman, Dino De Laurentiis, Dino De Laurentiis

Operator

Arthur J. Ornitz

Composer

Míkis Theodorakis

Artist

Audition

Shirley Rich

Editing

Dede Allen
All team (25)

• John G. Avildsen was supposed to direct the film, but he dropped out of the project shortly before filming began due to disagreements with producer Martin Bregman. As a result, Sidney Lumet became the director of the film.
• The film was shot in 104 different locations, situated in almost all districts of New York.
• Filming took place in reverse chronological order. Al Pacino first filmed scenes where he had long hair and a beard; then, in each subsequent episode, his hair and beard were shortened. This was done to give the audience the impression that Al Pacino's character's hair and beard were growing naturally.
• 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.
• The film was intended for release around Christmas 1973. Sidney Lumet had only four and a half months for filming, editing, and everything else (in his view, 'insanely little time'). That's why editing was done concurrently with filming. Time was so tight that the footage was taken to editor Dede Allen immediately after completing any scene, and she had only two days to edit it before it had to be handed over to the sound engineers.
• 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.
• On the first day of filming, Sidney Lumet preferred to shoot various minor details in order to give the actors and crew involved in the film a chance to "get to know" each other, and 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 the weak links in the team. On the first day of filming for this particular movie, he worked in three locations far from each other. Al Pacino was initially very surprised by this, especially after the calm and measured work on "The Godfather," but soon both he and the other actors realized that this working pace helped everyone stay in shape.
• 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.