Les superflics

Gordon Parks, the prolific black Life magazine photographer, made a true ticking-timebomb of a movie here - one that does not mess around! Based upon the true story of two NYC cops - later dubbed Batman and Robin - who singlehandedly employed radical tactics to clean up their precinct neighborhood of drugs, this is a cop-buddy movie before that term became a repetitive formula. Lightning paced, there is not one unimportant throwaway scene here.

Man, early '70s NYC must have been a terrible place to be a police officer, from the looks of movies like this and "Serpico." These two cops start out as safety-division rookies, busting dealers in plainclothes in their spare time. But instead of receiving applause from the city police department, they receive nothing but resistance and antagonism from their peers. They have to singlehandedly navigate a minefield of police and legal corruption, boneheaded assignments meant to keep them from their work on the streets, ruthless drug kingpins, and a nasty ghetto neighborhood.

Both David Selby and Ron Leibman are fantastic in the leads; part of the entertainment is watching Leibman's eyes darting around crazily in every scene in what is a flawless comic performance, and Selby's acting is low-key and wry. These two make all the comedy aspects of the story work - displaying a palpable frustration mixed with gutsy determination. Director Parks, who was already known for his coverage of controversial subjects in his photography, does not shy away from the grittiness of the story. Rather, the movie is uncompromising in portrayal of the toughness of the world of police and streets criminals that these two men inhabit. Adding to this realism is the fact that the real Hantz and Greenberg acted as technical advisors for the film, and even appear in surreal cameo roles as two fellow officers who ridicule the protagonists. It is a real tribute to the effectiveness of Parks' direction that he manages to perfectly balance this depressing mileu with bright comedy.

Ron Leibman and David Selby are Greenberg and Hantz, two new york city cops, going after the down and dirty, the drug rings around the city. And they are making plenty of enemies. Selby had done Dark Shadows, but this was an early film role for him. Leibman had a pretty big role in Norma Rae. And was married to Linda Lavin for ten years! The rookies want to be detectives fast, so they go looking for people to arrest. Which makes waves for the cops who just want to ride things out until retirement. Gritty city. But everytime they make progress (and arrests) they have to take one or two steps back becaused they have angered one of their own.or it might just be jealousy. Good stuff. Directed by Gordon Parks directed Shaft and Malcolm X, Learning Tree. Written by LH Whittemore.

"The Super Cops" was surprisingly rare on video for a long time, and my first exposure of it was a grey-market copy of the 1982 MGM release on videotape. Allegedly available on laserdisc, also note there was a Super Cops comic book also released at the time. I just received what seems to be a legal release of this film on DVD, from New Star Video. It's still relatively hard to find, but the DVD features a slightly cleaner version of the print that I had previously. The colors in the film are passable, but this film would look far better if it were cleaned up. The DVD features above average cast bios/filmographies of Leibman and, but all in all is a pretty slim packaging. This is the third directoral outing of Gordon Parks, famed photojournalist/renaissance man best known for "Shaft" and "The Learning Tree." It's not his filmic acme, but one would hope that it might become available again as Parks' genius has not yet been fully celebrated.

This film lacks the vitality and edge of "Shaft", something that must have been a budget issue. Nonetheless, it's quick, good-hearted police action based on the L.H. Whittemore book of the same title. Whereas the book covered the late 60's/early 70's NYC crime scene very well, the film comes only halfway in detailing the true story depicted here. The plot is somewhat disjointed, with choppy arrest and pursuit scenes that do not build upon each other. By the end of the movie, one still has the interest in the characters, but no clue exactly how much they've endured. Still, it's a fun ride and good visually if one is familiar with the book. At best, a solid document of the time- a good cop story if nothing more.

The underrated Ron Liebman is excellent in one of the lead roles, cocky and enthusiastic. David Selby is more refined and cool, and many of the police superiors are great as gruff, cranky New York types. This story is begging for another attempt, with more detail and character development. But without the superb 70's environment and post-Serpico interest in police flicks, would it float?

A friend of mine to whom I screened the movie years ago met the great Gordon Parks a few years before Parks' death. He reports that upon mention of The Super Cops, Parks immediately responded, "I like that one!! ...but Shaft was better."

Director Gordon Parks' excellent buddy-cop corruption comedy, with a cast of great genre and character actors - this seems most often compared to Serpico, Dirty Harry and The French Connection from what little I could find on it. But really, it bears more resemblance to The New Centurions and earlier blaxploitation classics in terms of comic tone, racial politics and groovy yet tough protagonists. Curiously, there is a brief but enjoyable gunfight and chase through a building under demolition, making me involuntarily compare scenes and buddy mechanics with Starrett's The Gravy Train of the same year.

Funny that it concerns a couple of unconventional cops nicknamed Batman and Robin, given that the screenwriter worked on the '60s series. Also, the presence of bulldog-eyed genre fave Pat Hingle, who would go on to repeatedly play Commissioner Gordon.

Frazier has great inter-racial sexual tension with the also funny Leibman, and her scream session suggests that she could have had a terrific career in horror. Maybe now that this is getting screened at the New Bev in L.A. by Edgar Wright, one hopes that we could eventually see it surface from MGM for an HD broadcast.

Glad to finally enjoy this movie for the first time uncut and unedited. I must have seen this right after it came to television in the mid-70s; one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. This may have been the first Rob Leibman movie I ever saw. I just wanted to note, one thing that gave me pause when I was younger was that the Pat Corley scenes were odd, something didn't seem right. Knowing him now as the actor famous for his gravely voice it appears to be that they replaced his recorded dialog with a voiceover. Interesting choice, kind of like putting Fran Drescher in a production and dubbing her with Sarah Jessica Parker.