Report to the Commissioner (1975)

A lot of fun.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

While "Report to the Commissioner" isn't a perfect movie, there is always a kernel of interest to keep viewers interested enough to watch to the very end. The first half I will admit is weaker than the second half - actor Michael Moriarty seems too wimpish and naive to be a police officer, and the plot moves along very slowly. But even during this weaker first half, the movie offers a fascinating slice of life of what New York City was like in the early 1970s; you can really feel the grit and atmosphere. Patient viewers will be rewarded with a lively second half. There are a couple of well directed pursuit sequences, and the whole elevator sequence is quite riveting. And the ending, while somewhat predictable, does pack a punch. Fans of cynical 1970s cop movies will enjoy this best, though it's also rewarding to others, provided they possess a reasonable amount of patience.

Yeah. You gotta see this film. No, I mean like you gotta. Like now. So go do it, alright? Or else we got nothing', talk about.Yeah, OK, I know, ain't the greatest film going', far from it, fact.But hey, you like them late 60's - early 70's Land Arks they called cars? Everybody does, right? I know I do. Most my buddies do, too. I drove 'em. And you did, too. Huge Chryslers with massive Big-Block 383's with 'Purple Cams'. Awesome Plymouths rigged out with 440 Interceptors, headers, and dead quiet Imperial Mufflers that could stomp any one these dreary green electro-turkeys what they drive today. These cars were big, fast, mean, and required a state the size, Idaho, there, pull a '180 at speed but so what? They were long, comfy, and powerful because they weren't smog motor dogs like them late 70s - early 80s rats, were they? Nor did cars in "Report to the Commissioner" need computer geek tricks to get out of their own way, the way these 'hybrids' that resemble elephant suppositories do today, right? They'd kick the snot out of any four-cylinder phony what thought he was hot stuff, couldn't they? That's why you see 'em, this film, isn't it? You know it.And, hey, you like Industrial Archaeology? Is Urban Exploration your secret passion? You get off, spooking around inside boarded-up factories, power plants, and nut houses? Then you gonna dig this film. Why? Because it was shot during the depressed 70s when Manhattan hit the skids that them Coward-Piven commies greased up for them, special. Decrevalent old buildings with bricks in need of pointing and windows that cried out for glazing were crowned by wooden water tanks that seeped rusty ooze, across whose roofs cops shot it out with thugs.Junkies abounded. They drooled. They yammered. They accosted citizens who took out their aggressions on double-amputees who scurried about on roller-creepers. This in turn whelped to an entire genre of ghoulish Gahan Wilson cartoons.Yaphet Kotto, the son of a Crown Prince of Cameroon - don't take my word for it, go look it up on this site, already, what, I got to do your homework too, crying out loud? - commands this film in which a young Michael Moriarity plays the reluctant detective.And the Precinct House? Oh, you're one these kids, here, thinks 'The Job' is about cops who dress up in sexy leotards, whisper at one another in sterile luxury CSI suites while computers solve their cases?Yeah. Well, think again. Wake up, smell the Kerosene, there, Poochie.Real Precinct houses stunk like B.O., cigar smoke, junkie-sweat, cordite, and stuff ya can't write about here - use your imagination, if video games haven't erased it by now. Cops typed reports on ancient clattering Underwoods, using two fingers to do so, as arrestees who stunk like Hoagies bounced around inside cages next, the cops' desks, and caterwauled like moonstruck werewolves.Dispatchers called cops on real VHF and UHF analog radios, not today's commie-punk '800 megahertz trunked digital' kluges that crash every time some Park Avenue socialite passes gas in the drawing room. From where I lived, Point Judith, Rhode Island, you could hear NYPD calls two hundred miles away. How'd I do that? 'cause my friend John S_____. up the road, Wakefield, was doin' it since Joseph Petrosino walked a beat that's how, and he showed me. You got any more questions? Yeah. You gotta see this film. After readin' this, I think you maybe now understan' a little better how come, right? Am I right?Paul Vincent ZecchinoManasota Key, Florida08 November, 2009

I had read this book many years ago, and was captivated by the story based on true events. The story was exceptional, and told a tragic story of corruption and dishonesty within the New York Police Force.The movie, however, thoroughly disappointed me. The decision to cast Michael Moriarty as the young, out-of-his-element cop was a mistake. His over-the-top whining, childish character totally ruined this for me. I couldn't believe this guy would have ever been allowed out of the police academy. A decent opportunity to portray a gripping, true-life episode, goes down the drain with a very questionnable casting decision.What made this doubly disappointing was the excellent performances from the rest of the cast, and the gritty, realistic look of a grimy New York, and the slimy characters slithering around under the surface.

You'll overlook this film unless you really are an Aquarian and remember its original theatrical run. Not as highly regarded as Serpico. or Prince of the City, but just as important as one of the breakthrough films that suggested cops could be the bad guys, or, more accurately," ...there are no good guys, there are no bad guys, there's only you and me and we two disagree..". If, by chance you ever see this on the rental shelf, or late night TV, watch it, and you won't be sorry, even if only to see a chronicle of the times before anti-heroes regularly wore badges."Homicide" (also starring Yaphet Kotto), "Law and Order" (also, originally, starring Michael Moriarity)...even "Hill Street Blues" owe a debt to this gritty, depressing view of the law enforcement establishment.In retrospect, watching this film adds significance to the subsequent work of its company.