The New Centurions

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william d I saw this movie for the first time about fifty years ago. I didn't like it a whole lot back then, and my opinion didn't change the second time around. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review lanfranco c It is an hard job to be a Cop ! Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Os Novos Centuriões (1972) #MovieReview 3,5 â­?ï¸? O filme apresenta novos recrutas com policiais mais velhos e experientes e a rotina das ruas de Los Angeles, assim como os dramas familiares. George C. Scott muito bem e trilha de Quincy Jones. Muito bom! Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review ashley h The New Centurions is a disappointing film. It is about an idealistic rookie cop who joins the LAPD to make ends meet while finishing law school. George C. Scott and Stacy Keach give terrible performances. The screenplay is badly written. Richard Fleischer did a horrible job directing this movie. I was not impressing with this motion picture. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review deke p saw it in theater in '72. Barely remember it. Was a pretty big movie, way back then. Back then i wdn't have believed i wd ever be saying: can't believe this is a young Stacey Keach. G.C. Scott always great. And LAPD ! Still, as i recall, the story was kind of a downer, and i'm not eager to see it again. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Before The New Centurions most cop films and TV shows presented an idealized, propagandistic vision of law enforcement. Officers like Joe Friday had an unwavering moral compass, but their morality was simplistic, very black and white. The New Centurions added the grey area to the police drama. These officers are human. They make mistakes which affect the lives of others as well as their own. The job takes them on incredible highs and new lows. Stacey Keach plays Roy Fehler, the rookie cop who is partnered with the veteran Officer Kilvinski, played masterfully by George C. Scott. Fehler is working as a cop while he puts himself through college though not after long he's dropped his classes and has taken quite a liking to police work. Eventually the job takes its toll on Fehler, both physically and emotionally. On the surface The New Centurions looks like many other cop stories - the idealistic rookie teamed with the grizzled veteran - but the relationship on screen isn't typical; never at any point do I recall George C. Scott saying, "I'm too old for this shit." There are many instances that feel like clichéd trappings that are soon destroyed with unexpected developments. Whether the characters on the screen or the audience, the film explicitly reminds you that complacency can have deadly consequences. In one key scene, Kilvinski takes a stand against a slumlord. He takes the side of a group of illegal immigrants over the word of the slumlord because the immigrants are honest, hard-working people unlike the slumlord. If this scene were to play out on an episode of Dragnet or Adam-12, the immigrants would likely be detained and the slumlord given a stern talking-to. Kilvinski has his defined vision of right and wrong. He doesn't allow "it's the law" to dictate his morality like a Joe Friday. It is moments like this that elevate The New Centurions above many other police dramas. Based upon the novel by former LAPD officer Joseph Wambaugh, the script by Stirling Silliphant* (In the Heat of the Night) allows the characters to grow on screen and never holds up the progression of the story. The story wisely avoids any kind of centralized villain. There's no big drug ring to break up, no kingpin to take down. Instead the writers and director Richard Fleischer (Soylent Green) allow the individual situations add up to wear on the characters as a whole. That setup allows the story to explore various societal issues like immigration, prostitution, race relations, drug use, and more without feeling contrived. The New Centurions is a classic cop drama that has yet to get its just praise outside of its greatest admirers within the LAPD. *Not to be confused with the Dr. Seuss character. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The New Centurions

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