I caught Serpico last night on TV. One of those movies that I had never got round to seeing.
I have to say its a piece of work. Had me gripped from start to finish, and the paranoia levels were off the scale.
It seemed to me that it had a big hand in setting the tone for the departed, with a few similar scenes, but done a lot better (I know that Departeds a remake of internal affairs, but the tone of those two versions is quite different, and I feel that in "localising" the departed, Serpico was the inspiration. Thats just what I took from it).
I loved the character quirks, the outfits, the fairly realistic relationships shown, and the whole world of the movie. Especially the ballerina girlfriend. Jebus. She was like Jessica Beil but a lot hotter. Wooof! It doesnt really have seemed to have aged, and remains a good period piece. The only parts I think have aged, were the popgun effects for gunfire, which are pretty run of the mill standard effects for the movies time.
Obviously I also had our very own Pacino in mind when watching it, and then the onscreen text at the very end freaked me out.
Along with the blurb saying what happened after the events shown, the final line of text revealed that "Serpico is now living in Switzerland."
So Pacino, I ask you this, is this a Zoner injoke I have only just cottoned onto, or do you actually live in switzerland, and ARE Serpico, taking on the Pacino Persona as a homage?????

...and so forth.