Badge 373 (1973)

It is a performances centric movie

Crappy film

Brilliant and touching

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The early 1970s was a prime time for police-themed movies, not just in America, but in other countries as well. However, "Badge 373", while probably not the worst of its kind, is for the most part a very forgettable example of the genre. For starters, while Robert Duvall has certainly played tough and ruthless characters well in other movies (see "The Outfit" for an example, which came out the same year), here his performance is kind of half hearted. I think the reason for that may be that the screenplay is really lacking. Certainly it makes Duvall's character kind of one note, but the story aspect is just as bad. While the mystery is easy to follow, it is a really slow investigation. There's quite a bit of padding here, such as a completely unnecessary nighttime chase involving a bus. That action sequence, by the way, is not particularly exciting, nor is any of the other (and limited) action that is in the movie. I'm sure even the few people who saw this movie when it played in theaters found it a dull experience, so I can only imagine what modern day viewers weaned on the hyper kinetic cop thrillers of modern times would think of it. It's hard to believe it received a Blu-ray release a few years ago.

In watching Badge 373 I can't believe that Pete Hamill normally a trenchant observer of New York's social and political scene could write such a mediocre film. If you're an action junkie you'll like it and if you're not politically correct you'll love it.Hamill really let his own views get the better of him here. The dirty little secret about the Independista movement in Puerto Rico is how little support it does command. If you were to take this film as gospel you would believe that the entire South Bronx was a hotbed of revolutionary activity.In a film that was inspired by real life New York detective Eddie Eagan, the inspiration also for Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle in The French Connection, Robert Duvall during a police raid chased a junkie suspect up to a roof where he fell in trying to apprehend him. Of course there were accusations that Duvall helped him along. It wasn't true, but the accusations were enough to force a suspension and departmental inquiry. Truth also be told Duvall hasn't got the kindest feeling toward the Latino community and they know it.While he's on suspension and working as a bartender, Duvall's partner Louis Cosentino is killed and Duvall though he's suspended and carries no badge or gun decides to investigate on his own. Quite frankly there was no reason not to let the NYPD handle the shooting of one of their own. But Duvall misses the action and wants blood.He gains access to information through bluff and bluster without the badge, but he sure has reason to regret not carrying some kind of piece before the film is over. He's lucky to survive and remedy what he should have done in the first place. John Wayne in McQ was smart enough to hire out to a friend's private investigation firm so he would have cover to carry a weapon, why didn't Duvall think of that?And then the idiot compounds it all by involving poor Verna Bloom, a waitress he's been keeping company with in his pursuit of arch criminal Henry Darrow. Duvall gets her killed quite unnecessarily. Bloom and Darrow give the best performances in Badge 373.I can't believe that Eddie Eagan himself gave some kind of official imprimatur by appearing in this. I suppose he might have owed Pete Hamill a favor. Duvall was coming off his Academy Award nominated performance in The Godfather and Badge 373 was quite a comedown. It had potential to be better, but I think only action junkies will really like this film.

There is only a certain window of time (around the late 60s to the early 80s) that a police film of this type would have been made with the kind of gritty, deliberately ugly, murky, downbeat sort of verisimilitude that's on display here. Before that, studio craftsmanship and censors would have prevented it and after that the gaudy style of the 80s and then the refusal to accept "under the top" action and effects made it impossible. Here, Duvall plays a paunchy, tough, New York City police detective who is suspended following the questionable death of a suspect who fell from the top of a building during a drug raid. Soon after, his partner is killed and, despite not officially being on the force, Duvall sets out to determine who has murdered the man, who may or may not have been on the take. His investigation takes him into a world of revolutionary Puerto Ricans who are interested in rising up against the oppression of their "rulers," the United States. Meanwhile, his new lady love Bloom is having trouble accepting the dangerous, rough and tumble lifestyle of Duvall. With the occasional aid of his superior Egan (whose real life exploits as a cop provided the basis for this and other stories), Duvall winds his way through a minefield of murder, hate, gunrunning and racial unrest (with antihero Duvall himself portrayed as intolerant of Hispanics and pretty much any other minority.) Duvall, gut on display and frequently disheveled, is excellent in his portrayal of this common, insensitive, driven man. It's a warts and all performance in which he lets loose with any variety of foul language and slurs with little regard for his own vanity. Nonetheless, the audience is on his side because the enemy kills anyone who takes his part. Bloom hasn't got a large role and it isn't really a rewarding one, but she manages to make the most of it. Darrow makes a late film appearance as a criminal kingpin and, for some reason and to his detriment, wears dark glasses for 98% of his screen time, day or night. Egan is hardly a stunning actor, but does help in the way of authenticity as he sprang from this environment prior to working in films. Few other performers make a particular impact as the film is mostly concerned with Duvall and his quest through the mire of a dank NYC, though fans of "The Electric Company" may be interested in seeing Avalos as an arrestee trade epithets with Duvall. The city as presented here mirrors the dreary, dirty New York of so many movies from this era, something that prompted the city to reinvent itself as much as possible and take a turn towards a cleaner and more user-friendly town. Enough can't be said of the bleak, drab atmosphere (offset by the sunny and green surroundings of a cabin that Duvall retreats to after being assaulted.) There's a set piece, involving a wild chase in which Duvall commandeers a public bus in order to escape a gang of thugs, which is audacious and realistic at the same time. The same type of scene would today be shot with frantic editing, overwhelming speed and lots more destruction, though it's far more believable the old way. The script is riddled with (now) politically incorrect putdowns and plentiful foul language (kudos to TCM for recently airing the film unedited, albeit overnight!), which may offend some viewers, but American films were enjoying a new freedom in those and other areas and the envelope was forever being pushed. Hardly a perfect film, it is at least a thought-provoking one. There is a rally included in which real-life activist Luciano presents a diatribe against Puerto Rican oppression and raises some interesting questions (it's a shame, though, that so many people portraying Puerto Ricans in this movie keep pronouncing it the incorrect "Porto" Rico, which is jarring to those who know better.)

At some stage during the movie, all cop "on the edge" dramas have to have the obligatory 'give me your badge and your gun' scene. - When Badge 373 started with this, I just knew I was in for a good time. Duvall is magnificent as Eddie Ryan - cop on a mission - and from the "Chocolate covered speedway" remark to the bus chase - he is simply the epitome of "TOUGH COP".