Naive, idealistic rookie cop Roy Fehler (a typically fine performance by the always dependable Stacy Keach) gets shown the ropes by wise maverick veteran policeman Andy Kilvinski (superbly played by the inestimable George C. Scott) as the intrepid duo work a tough beat in the worst ghetto areas of Los Angeles. Roy's work as a cop takes over his life and causes his marriage to his concerned, but fed-up wife Dorothy (a strong portrayal by Jane Alexander) to fall apart while Kilvinski has trouble adjusting after he retires from the force. Ably directed by Richard Fleischer, with a sharp and astute episodic script by Stirling Silliphant, an uncompromisingly stark, realistic and unsentimental downbeat tone, grainy, yet fairly polished cinematography by Ralph Woolsey, authentically gritty Los Angeles locations, a funky, syncopated score by Quincy Jones, a devastating grim and depressing ending, a powerful central message about the heavy toll being a police officer takes on a man's soul, and several strikingly vivid individual vignettes (the accidental shooting of an innocent man in a dark alley way, Roy getting blasted in the stomach while on duty, Kilvinski committing suicide in his empty house), this film packs a very potent and lingering punch to the gut. Keach and Scott display a wonderfully natural and engaging chemistry in the lead roles; they receive sterling support from Scott Wilson as earnest eager beaver Gus, Rosalind Cash as sympathetic nurse Lorrie, Erik Estrada as honest Hispanic flatfoot Sergio, Clifton James as the crusty Whitey, James Sikking as the doltish Sergeant Anders, Ed Lauter as the dim Galloway, and William Atherton as the by-the-book Johnson. Isabel Stanford and Carol Speed pop up in an amusing scene as a couple of brash hookers. Harsh and pessimistic, but well worth watching just the same.
Review of The New Centurions
