I rented this because Max turned it into a high school play in Rushmore. As I watched Serpico, I noted that in the 50 dvds I own, and among dozens of other favorite movies, I don't own a single cop movie. I just never find them even slightly imaginative or engaging. I have no interest in each new benchmark for cop movies, and each new attempt quickly devolves into the same two-hour-plus star vehicle with little room for anything but the male lead; Blow, Traffic, The Departed, Prince of the City, Carlitos Way. These are easily as formulaic as chick flicks. I have no idea why Depp, Cheedle, DiCaprio, Williams & Penn are interested in doing these movies, but maybe we can blame it all on Serpico. At the 40 minute mark I was already irreversibly bored.<br /><br />Even as a kid I wondered if there was a better person to perform the role of superhero/goodguy Serpico, rather than Al Pacino with his favored expression; the dead-eyed stare. As Serpico he has a gift of alienating both peers and friends. This movie is a catalog of clichés that made a movie and it's characters seem authentic in the 70s, that now seem pretty hoary. The Boston Strangler is just as dated but a better film. Cop movies easily fall victim to self-righteousness and become sanctimonious in the depiction of good, or equally sanctimonious in indulging the actor playing the villain. Do I care that a cop named Serpico tried to clean up the New York Police force? Sure. Do I care that his story was turned into a very conventional attempt at 'serious' film? Nope. the movie was too lost in various Oscar grabs and sanctimony.