FUZZ

US, 1972, 93 minutes, Colour.
Burt Reynolds, Jack Weston, Tom Skerritt, Raquel Welch.
Directed by Richard A. Colla.

U.S. police have featured in many films of the 70s. Fuzz will not win any Oscars, but the fuzz will probably like it a lot. They are a sympathetic, harassed, ordinary human lot in Boston's 87th Precinct - "inept" as villain Yul Brynner calls them, muddled, as we see them. Their story is half comedy (with good laughs), half crime drama which mirrors the insane killings prevalent in the U.S. and elsewhere. While the film is not to be taken too seriously, the day-to-day picture of the average city station is probably much like this - except
for having Raquel Welch on the staff. Entertaining.

1. The tone of the title, significance, slang? Expectations about the police, the M.A.S.H. treatment of the police? Fulfilment of expectations?

2. The conventions of the police thriller in the 70s; the serious French Connection style, the critique of the police? The heroes? The T.V. series? The comic slant on all these serious genres?

3. The interest in the plot, realism, comic symbolism, satire, the blend of all? The police, though comic, presented as really heroic? The way of life in the precinct headquarters? The prevalence of crime, ways of detection, solving cases?

4. Comment on the way of life in the precinct filmed: the painters and the confusion, the phone, the rooms and offices, messages and the way they were delivered, Meyer and his approach, Steve Carella, Bert Kling? Their talents, the way they operated, comic style, attention to detail? The introduction of Eileen McHenry? into this particular world? The feminist approach? Raquel Welch and her style as policewoman?

5. The attention to the police at work: Eileen and the trapping of the rapist and her attack on him and his attack on her? Ways of trailing? The humour of the sequence with the couple in the sleeping bag and the two dressed as nuns? The chase? The interviews, still dressed as nuns?

6. The portrayal of the world of the small crooks like La Breska? His picking up the money? The plan to rob the store?

7. The world of the higher class criminal: the deaf man and his entourage, Rochelle? His plans and their execution? A sinister yet comic figure?

8. The details of the messages, the threats? The shooting of the first victim? The car explosion and the human sequence preceding it? The plan of introducing the electricians to go into the Jefferson household?

9. The build-up to the accidental confrontation in the store: the deaf man and his celebrating, La Breska, the tip-off to the police and their waiting?

10. The humorous and ironic shoot-out, the police in the middle, one group killing the other? The chase? The sad irony of the burning of the deaf man as a drunk by the two youths? Carella's treatment of the two youths?

11. The satisfactory ending for the police and the irony of the deaf man's hand emerging from the water?

12. The comic picture of a mad world, right and wrong within it, human foibles and limitations, human coping, success and failure? The end with the continued threat? A satisfying blend of slapstick and satire or not?