Adapted by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler from Peter Maas's book Sidney Lumet's drama portrays the real-life struggle of an honest New York City cop against a corrupt system. Neophyte officer Frank Serpico (Al Pacino) is determined not to let his job get in the way of his individuality. Despite his colleagues' leery reactions he keeps one foot firmly planted in the counterculture sporting a beard and love beads and living in bohemian Greenwich Village while he performs his police duties with dispatch. Serpico's peers genuinely ostracize him however when he refuses to take bribes like everybody else. Appalled by the extent of police corruption Serpico goes to his superiors but when he discovers that they have ignored his charges he takes the potentially fatal step of breaking the blue wall of silence and going public with his expose. Serpico's revelations trigger an independent investigation by the Knapp Commission but they also make him a marked man permanently changing his life.

Serpico (Blu-ray) Warner Home Video MPAA Rating: R