Fort Apache, the Bronx (1981)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Cop work is tough enough without having to work out of one of the toughest precincts in New York City, circa 1981, with crime on the rampage and no end in sight.That's the territory Paul Newman covers as a busted detective turned uniformed patrolman named Murphy in this episodic, occasionally gripping but ultimately unsatisfying film."I've been on this job 18 years," Murphy tells his partner Corelli (Ken Wuhl). "I think every minute of it's written on my face. All the blood, the beatings, the scars...""Fort Apache, The Bronx" isn't just about the scars. There are lighter moments amid the mayhem. Newman gives an interesting, sometimes compelling performance. Now in his mid-50s, he was finally old enough to bust out of his youthful antihero image for the first in a series of jaded 40-something types laid low by the system. This in turn allowed him to enjoy a career renaissance after something of a lull in the 1970s. Murphy's not his best role, but it fits him like a worn leather shoe and points to better parts ahead.Murphy is at the center of a sprawling saga that takes in a double homicide, a street riot, and a woman named Isabella (Rachel Ticotin) who can't break free of the South Bronx even as she seems to Murphy to float above it. She's floating, alright, in a way that stretches credibility in order to keep with the hard-nosed dynamic at work. Ticotin and Newman do play well off each other, enough to give the film some needed light."Fort Apache, The Bronx" has the look and feel right. Shot on location in the South Bronx, director Daniel Petrie and cinematographer John Alcott get maximum production value out of a pretty cheap set. Red light reflects off wet surfaces like splattered blood. Whether you are in Murphy's squad car or a hospital reception room, the oppressive nature of the city is with you in every scene.What you don't have is a strong central story. Writer Heywood Gould presents us instead with a series of vignettes. A transvestite with a Donna Summer fixation wants to jump off a building and needs to be talked down. A purse snatcher in an aviator's cap runs Murphy ragged. A new no-nonsense precinct captain named Connolly (Ed Asner) pushes the wrong buttons trying to catch a cop killer, sending the community into a blue-hating frenzy.None of this is bad material. There are some weak moments, like Murphy clowning around to disarm a knife-wielding maniac. Danny Aiello overplays a one-dimensional role as a bad cop. There are too many hand-rubbing scenes about cops decrying "a world we never made" that feels like wanna-be Joseph Wambaugh.But you also have a film that opens with a slam-bang scene Sam Fuller might have shot, as delivered by Pam Grier in her hot-and-crazy prime. Grier has an interesting story arc that only tangentially connects with Newman's Murphy character but delivers much of the film's bleak message in a gripping and memorable way the rest of the film strains to echo. A lot of New York faces are seen among the cops, crooks, and civilians, like those of Sully Boyar, Paul Gleason, and Cleavant Derricks. Asner is good, too, unlike his fellow real-life liberal Newman playing against his personality as a character who seems to presage Rudy Giuliani and a new New York on the way. If you remember the period like I do, watching this is never a waste of time.Still, the end result is a film that feels like a dry run for better entertainments like the American TV series "Hill Street Blues," which debuted on NBC later the same year of "Fort Apache, The Bronx's" release. Seeing this story play out over a multi-episode arc would have allowed for stretching out promising but under-realized material like the conflict between Murphy and Connolly, two good cops with very different ideas of policing.Instead of taking on the question posed by Connolly's approach, of fighting for the rights of decent people to live in a law-abiding community even if it means busting a few heads, the film settles for a final chase scene and some soft jazz undercut by a memorable image of a rolled-up rug in a junkyard. It's another scene to remember in a movie that has a few of them, even if the overall result feels too rolled up itself.

This is no doubt a complete Hollywood fantasy. "A Big White Lie" This movie was made to portray people of color as savages, but the real savages were the racist, murderous cops who broke every law in the book. The 41st pct. On Simpson Street in the Bronx was a haven for prostitution, drug dealing, extortion, arson, and more. And these were the cops. There have been numerous lawsuits against this movie. If you wish to know the truth about the 41st police station (Fort Apache) then be on the lookout for this book "You only live twice" I assure you that you will be stunned! The book will be released early 2010 but you can view teaser here. Don't support racism, and makes you look racist. http://video.yahoo.com/watch/6667913/17319180 If you support racist movies what does that make you?

I think of this movie as something of a portrait. It paints a picture of life in the 41st Precinct of the NYPD, in the centre of a run down 40 block neighbourhood in the South Bronx, full of drug addicts and prostitutes and pimps and various and sundry other undesirable elements, mixed together with poverty and racial prejudice. In that sense it paints a pretty good picture, although I have to concede that I've never been in the South Bronx, and certainly not in 1981, when this movie was made, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of the portrait, but the movie has a gritty, hard edged realistic feel to it that certainly pulls the viewer in. Saying that this is a portrait, however, points also to the inherent weakness of the movie: it lacks a consistent narrative structure; there really isn't any particular "story" being told. To the extent that there's a plot holding this together it revolves around the killing of two rookie cops, and the desire of the police to track down the killer. That lacks suspense for the viewer, though, because we know from the beginning who the murderer is. It's not a secret. There are other "stories" - but again they have a "portrait" feel to them. There are stories of corrupt cops, the story of Murphy's girlfriend, the killing of the kid who got thrown off the top of the building, the story of Captain Connolly trying to establish some order as the 41st's new commander. The movie sometimes seemed jumpy; it lacked flow.What it did have were good performances from Paul Newman as Murphy and Edward Asner as Connolly, and memorable performances as well from Rachel Ticotin as Murphy's girlfriend Isabella, and Pam Grier as the cop killing prostitute. I remember seeing this movie many years ago when it first was released, and enjoying it very much, and then only recently coming across it again quite by accident (even though I had looked for it from time to time) in a bargain DVD bin at Wal-Mart! It must have done something right to hold my interest for so long, and the strong performances and realistic feel really more than make up for the lack of a consistent storyline. 7/10

For those who didn't know.... This movie was based on the real life experiences of Thomas Mulhearn and Paul Tessitore who are pictured in some of the stills. Murphy (Paul Newman's Character)was inspired by Tom Mulhearn, he is my sister's dad, and he's a pretty interesting guy. I've heard all kinds of funny stories from my mom whom we will refer to as "V", talking about how Rachel Ticotin stole her role (which she claims is based on her given the fact that she's Puerto Rican and that she was with Tom during the writing of the screenplay). Its true that the story behind the drama is always the most interesting.The point of this is... to let you guys know.. that the stuff in that movie, isn't even half of what i've heard really happened, and that those guys it was based on deserve props for being some of New York's Finest. I've heard that, it was a pretty tough neighborhood back then. Tom (part of the inspiration) is alive and well with a beautiful family to speak of. I'm not sure what happened to paul.