Les flics ne dorment pas la nuit

"The New Centurions" should have a solid 8.5 rating, rather than just a 7. This is an under- rated film about the general lives of police officers from a Los Angeles Precinct. George C. Scott and Stacy Keach lead the way as two police officers who are initially teamed up for night duty around Los Angeles. Following a few incidents, they get re-assigned different partners until Stacy Keach is transfered to the vice squad and George C. Scott retires from the force. The film wisely avoids any kind of trendy or glamorous approach to Police work. It is just shown for what it is - a dirty job that someone has to do. The police officers aren't shown to be more heroic than the average person but dedicated and good at their jobs. There is some good action along the way but "The New Centurions" works due to the acting, writing and direction. The recent British DVD release has brilliant sound and picture quality.

This film, aside from its very special status mentioned above, is quite worthwhile and entertaining. It is an excellent George C. Scott vehicle, well-directed, well-scripted and well edited!

Like other quality police dramas, it has several intertwined seamlessly integrated storylines, none of which is left unresolved, or most of which are left unresolved, when the end credits begin to roll...depending on your point of view! At times, onscreen events resonant with such realism that it lends a dimension of docudrama to the overall production.

CENTURIONS clearly transmits the boring nature of most of the daily, moment to moment activities that permeates police work, while, at the same time, emphasizing that this aspect of the job must be tempered by a heightened awareness intrinsic to survival owing to the ever-present possible reality of life-threatening scenarios on a one second event horizon! These "Men In Black" would, undoubtedly, prefer to live in a world where all their on-the-job decision options were delineated by a simple Black or White distinction. The reality of the New Centurions is that they clearly come in every imaginable shade of gray! Scott's cynical, scarred, veteran, Kilvinski, nearing retirement, has constructed a reality where his quasi-legal technique of locking up street-walkers in his paddy wagon and driving them around all night to keep the streets "clean and decent" is a necessary evil with which he feels, at least, reasonably comfortable!

Keach's enthusiastic and idealistic rookie, Fehler, oozes frustration from every pore, as he perceives the lifeblood of his initial optimism being drained, drop by drop, by the cold, hard cement indifference of L. A.'s Mean Streets! Viewing, impotently, as both his marriage and his upbeat rookie positivism flounder in an ocean of problems, he finds consolation and support in the arms of a sensitive and empathetic nurse, played by Rosalind Cash.... Here is where I will reference the "Unheralded Epic First in Cinema History": I suppose that today´s world, or in a perfect world.... we are not supposed to notice or mention a good number of things because we must be "P. C.", right?

But CENTURIONS wasn't made in 2024...It was released in 1972! To the best of my recollection, in the early 70's, whenever we saw a bi-racial onscreen couple, which was really not all that frequently to begin with, their racial difference was always a focal point of the relationship. Usually because of the problems they encountered because of this difference from friends, from relatives or parents, from those in authority or simply from others in society! How briskly refreshing that in CENTURIONS they were just a police officer and a nurse who cared very dearly for one another...Absolutely no mention whatsoever of their racial difference! Isn't that exactly the way it should be? The way it is now...?????

(Well, almost, anyway!).

Hope to get some feedback from someone, anyone on this aspect of the movie...9********* Stars!

ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!

I recently bought the Season One DVD set for "Police Story"--the cop show from the 70s that was inspired by Joseph Wambaugh's film "The New Centurions". So far, I've really enjoyed "Police Story"--and am sad that only the first season is on DVD. So, in consolation, I decided to at least see "The New Centurions".

Like "Police Story", "The New Centurions" does not whitewash police work. The language is very earthy, to say the least--especially since it didn't need to worry about television audiences and was rated R. It shows the interesting side as well as the downside--and all through the perspective of a rookie cop, Fehler (Stacy Keach), as you follow his through the years. There is a HUGE price to pay for loving a job like this--as his marriage falls apart and he pretty much gives his life for the department.

I have noticed that other reviewers talk about Fehler's partner, Kilvinski (George C. Scott). He was a HUGE presence in the film, though he's only in about half the film. Apart from that, Fehler had other partners and a variety of experiences that all pushed him almost over the edge. Dealing with drinking, PTSD and more is what makes this cop film quite unusual--and well worth your time. Exceptionally well made and a film that revels in NOT being like cop films of the 30s, 40s and 50s!! Exceptional acting and writing make this a standout film.

George C. Scott is a cool, uniformed policeman who employs his own unique methods of dealing with petty crime – once again, it's the character who knows his beat and knows how to keep it under control…

Faced with the task of rounding up prostitutes in the local Red Light district, Scott is well aware that dragging them into court will result only in nominal fines and a great deal of wasted time… So he packs them into a patrol wagon and drives them around the streets for the rest of the night, thus losing them a night's earnings and at the same time keeping the streets reasonably tidy...

Scott isn't in the least vindictive; he is merely keeping the peace in accordance with his own law… He even takes the trouble to stop the truck and buy them a bottle of Whisky with which to while the night away…

Yet this cop is a fast man with a gun… He is also the kind of policeman who is capable of administering a beating to the wrongdoers

Good little film, about the ins & outs of a group of cops in LA in the early 70's. Good eye for detail, and another fine performance by George C. Scott. This guy was on a roll back then. Having finished up the 60's w/ "Petulia", then "Patton", followed by the excellent gem "The Hospital", it was almost a couldn't miss. True to life depiction, bogged down just a bit by melodrama & cliche'-ridden script. Stacy Keach fine in this as well.