Les superflics

Two rookie cops join forces to try and make a difference fighting crime on the streets of New York. They quickly learn they must also fight the corruption and bureaucracy in their own police department.

Entertaining and offbeat crime drama from Gordon Parks which served as his first follow-up feature after directing the two successful Shaft films with Richard Roundtree. Like that series, Super Cops is given a big lift by some great on-location shooting in New York City which really captures the gritty look and feel of 1970's street life.

It also benefits from two likable performances from Ron Leibman and David Selby as the rookie duo "affectionately" nick-named Batman and Robin by the locals. The rest of the cast is a solid mix of familiar faces from the crime and blaxploitation films from that era. Standing out is Pat Hingle as a gruff inspector trying to bring down the boys and Sheila Fraser - fresh off her appearance in the Super Fly films - as a prostitute.

The screenplay is based on the real life exploits of NY police officers David Greenburg and Robert Hantz (who both have cameos in the film) and frequently veers between comedy and drama - albeit somewhat unevenly. It is still held together by the engaging story and the smart direction of Parks.

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.

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.

This is based on the true story of two rookie NYC cops whose exploits earned them the nicknames "Batman" and "Robin" in the 70s. Ron Leibman stars as David Greenberg (Batman) and David Selby stars as Robert Hantz (Robin). These two rock the boat right away by making drug arrests on their days off. Naturally, this doesn't sit well with the other crooked cops who don't like to be made to look bad. The duo find themselves in all sorts of scenarios from stopping hit men out to kill them (true story) to beating up a purse snatcher who turns out to be a high ranking cop (not so true story). Directed by Gordon Parks and written by Lorenzo Semple Jr., THE SUPER COPS never really finds the right footing. With hard hitting cop dramas like DIRTY HARRY, THE FRENCH CONNECTION and SERPICO coming out in the previous years, it is kinda hard to imagine how audiences reacted to this. The cops are played as goofballs with Ron Liebman, a dead ringer for John Astin, being truly annoying. At the same time, there is some hard hitting stuff about corrupt police and the system. Interestingly, the film opens with footage of the two real cops receiving commendations from a character portray as crooked (by Pat Hingle) in the film. Even more interesting, the two cops apparently both fell on the wrong side of the law several years after this film was made.

After watching and enjoying "Super Cops" I read a bit about it and found that BOTH cops portrayed in the film were involved in some illegal activities....including prison time. So, while the movie might be true, it's also possible that the pair's exploits might be exaggerated a bit.

The story is not surprising, as it came out not too long after "Serpico", another film VERY critical of the NYPD and widespread corruption within the force. Both would make a nice double-feature.

The story is about two brand new cops, Officers Greenberg and Hantz. The pair are extremely eager, often working during their off hours. Oddly, in the film the pair are often yelled at or threatened with termination or an Internal Affairs investigation despite their many, many arrests. According to the film, this is because so many of the policemen are on the take or hate that the pair are so successful that it makes them look bad.

The story is most enjoyable and the film well made. I only wish the story had talked more about the pair's work AFTER the first few months they were on the force.