This frame capture is from a DVD Beaver review of a new French Bluray of Sidney Lumet‘s Serpico. I don’t know the yeller, but the guy taking the heat is Al Pacino. I’m trying to think of the last time I’ve been howled and pointed at like this, but it’s been a while. Possibly decades, I mean. It’s really hard to think when emotions are cranked up to this level.

Below is a N.Y. Times video essay about a visit with the real Frank Serpico, who wandered around Europe after his NYPD experience (’60 to ’71), returned to New York in 1980 and finally wound up in a small town in upstate New York. His Wiki bio says he “studies and lectures on occasion to students at universities and police academies and sharing experiences with police officers who are currently in similar situations.

Also from the Wiki bio: “When it was decided to make the movie about his life called Serpico, Al Pacino invited Serpico to stay with him at a house that Pacino had rented in Montauk, New York. When Pacino asked why he had stepped forward, Serpico replied: “Well, Al, I don’t know. I guess I would have to say it would be because…if I didn’t, who would I be when I listened to a piece of music?”