University of Virginia Library

CINEMA

From 'Patton' To 'Dragnet'

By DAVID NOZIGLIA

"The New Centurions" is a
movie about cops, based on a
book written by a cop named
Joseph Wambaugh and adapted
by Stirling Siliphant, a pro
Hollywood writer. It attempts
to run the gamut of every
police experience and every
kind of policeman. In doing so
it runs the gamut between the
sickly sentimental and the
absurd.

The story line follows the
career of Roy Faber (Stacy
Keach) from his days as a
rookie until he becomes a
hardened veteran. His mentor
and idol is Andy Kilvinski
(George C. Scott). Every now
and then we are also shown
excerpts from the careers of
other men, just to give us a
little variety.

Scott does a competent job
as the old warhorse, but he
seems to realize that he has not
been given much to work with,
and does not treat us to the
fire we have seen in his other
movies. Stacy Keach as the
hero of the story must have
been taken right out of some
L.A.P.D. roster.

We are treated to a truly
fine bit of film work if taken as
pure film. If not for the
excellent score by Quincy
Jones, this movie might have
been much improved by
turning off the sound track.
Richard Fleischer has carefully
chosen his shots to give us the
view of Los Angeles he wants.

This was a difficult
assignment for many reasons.
L.A. has been shown on the
TV screen so many times it's a
cliche, but the city is a much
more complex place than we're
led to believe from the opening
shots of "Dragnet". Fleischer
has captured this complexity,
showing us the slums, night
streets, and middle-class
apartments with a clarity,
color, and depth that almost
make it seem real.

Wambaugh, and I suppose
everyone else, was trying to
give the policeman's side. They
want to show us what the lives
of policemen are like, and let
us know that they are human
too. Thus, the men make jokes
about yesterday's crimes at
their briefing, talk about law
school and marriage, and go
through several scenes out of
"Adam-12".

"You do your twenty, you
take your forty percent, and
you relax." When faced with
the ills of society every day of
their lives, this is the solution
of these cops. They talk about
the death of morality in a
topless bar. Thus, they are
human.

But something came
through this movie that makes
us realize just how human
these men are. Near the end of
the film, one of the cops goes
into a rage and nearly totals a
car with a stick while his two
friends watch. Then, he steps
back, smiles, and says "I feel
great!"

So would any of us. The
cops in this movie are
unrestricted by anything other
than court orders and other
cops. The courts are treated
with contempt, and other cops,
well. . .these men regularly
break the law in the name of
enforcing it.

"The New Centurions" does
succeed in showing us the lives
and powers of policemen, and
that is more frightening than
reassuring.

(Now at the University)