THE SUPERCOPS
US, 1973, 94 minutes, Colour.
Ron Leibman, David Selby, Sheila E. Frazier, Pat Hingle, Dan Frazer.
Directed by Gordon Parks Jr.
The Supercops is a small, compact film that is half-brother to Serpico and suffered at the box-office because of this. Hantz and Greenberg, the heroes, are as relentless as Serpico, but have a cavalier derring-do approach to their work - they have to be stalking and catching criminals even in their spare time. They were nick-named Batman and Robin and their apparently true-to-life story is packed full of almost comic-book action. Lithe and short Ron Leibman gives a frenziedly enthusiastic performance. David Selby is tall and bland by comparison. Action-packed, stunts well-staged, it should certainly satisfy fans of crime films and the early 70s police genre.
1. The meaning and tone of the title? Audience expectations for this film? The style of the film and its impact? How well were expectations fulfilled?
2. Was this satisfying police drama? How good was it as a film? The human interest, the action-sequences, the documentary realism?
3. Comment on the use of locations, the colour-photography, the authentic atmosphere of New York, the details of the action-sequences and the continued movement in the film.
4. What was the main impression about America, society, crime, gangsters and their influence and hold, the police, their integrity and their corruption? Did the issues in the film seem authentic or not?
5. What evaluation of police and their work did the film make? What was audience response to police work and its dangers?
6. Comment on the structure of the film: the realistic opening with the real policemen, the reprise of the sequence in the end? The irony of the two sequences when the reality was filled in during the film?
7. How important was the documentary tone of the film: the initial training, the police work, traffic, the officers, the men, the buildings, the dangers and difficulties? Did this add to the film's impression?
8. How do you explain these men in themselves? Were they sympathetic characters? Interesting characters? Could the audience identify with them? Who was the major influence of the two? How strong a personality was Greenberg? So small, his dynamism , his tip-toeing at the beginning, sleeping during class, asking questions, joking, his intense sense of humour? How strong were his ambitions? How serious was he? His qualities as a leader? His influence on Hantz? How placid a man was Hantz, a follower? If he was not friends with Greenberg would he have done the same things? Would Greenberg have done the same things by himself? The strength of their friendship? What drove them? Achievement, combating evil, a sense of right, doing their duty, an obsession?
9. How well did the film illustrate their work? For example, the pusher on Coney Island, the scaling of the building, the sniper, escaping on the wreckers' crashing ball, the encounters with the Hayes brothers?
10. How interesting were the details of official reaction to their work? The ploys officialdom made to thwart them?
11. The irony and humour of their going to the traffic, their work in the courts and the hold-ups, their transfers?
12. The sympathetic official: his fear about bugging, his testing them by the phone call, his continued support? How did he stand out against the other officials?
13. The role of the prostitute in the film? The background of her life, her apartment, Greenberg's assassination? Why did she consent to give contacts and information?
14. The drama of the encounter with the Hayes brothers and the agreement for the drive? The bargaining about the money and the Hayes' expectations of the police? The danger, the finding out of the truth and the murder attempt? Lack of support from the police?
15. How important as a finale was the sequence in the restaurant and the mutual tape-recording? What did this reveal about police methods and corruption?
16. The irony of the ending and their reward for duty? The vales of this film? A good film?
