“Badge 373” (1973)
Released two years after “The French Connection,” and quite obviously inspired by it (to the point that it was even based on the exploits of the same gruff New York City detective that Gene Hackman‘s Popeye Doyle was inspired by), “Badge 373” doesn’t quite pack the same punch but it’s still an admirable thriller that tries to capture much of the city’s social and racial unrest within a nifty murder mystery. In the opening sequence, Robert Duvall‘s detective is involved in a raid on a disco, which results in a young Puerto Rican man falling to his death from the roof of the club. Duvall is kicked off the force, but drawn back into intrigue when his ex-partner is murdered in what appears to be a professional hit. Making things considerably more complicated is that the mystery leads him back into the world of Puerto Ricans in New York City (a world that includes drugs, gunrunners, and revolutionaries). The movie has a tendency to ramble (at 116 minutes, it’s way too long, with whole sections that could have been easily trimmed), but it’s also pretty groovy (complemented wonderfully by J.J. Jackson‘s infectiously jazzy score), anchored by a truly great and almost uncomfortably intense performance by Robert Duvall. Directed by TV director and film producer Howard W. Koch, at the time of its release, cries of racism were leveled against the movie, which aren’t entirely unfounded, but it’s still a compelling page-turner of a film, and if you’ve ever wanted to watch Duvall drive a bus full of people into an army/navy surplus store, then this is the movie for you. [B]
“Executive Action” (1973)
Only in the 1970s could a studio (albeit small one) green light and make a film about a JFK conspiracy theory that posits that a right wing faction with military and industrial interests had the President killed. And no, we’re not talking Oliver Stone‘s “JFK” that turns Warren Report crusader Jim Garrison into a truth seeking hero and seems optimistic by comparison. In a modern-day movie, this film would center on protagonists trying to stop an assassination in a what-if scenario. But in the dark and cynical “Executive Action,” the leads of the movie are all villains who carry out the assassination of John F. Kennedy without even one moralistic note to sugarcoat their actions. An unsentimental, cold, matter-of-fact type procedural, “Executive Action” depicts a right wing cadre — shady industrial, political and former U.S. intelligence figures — who simply cannot sit back and abide the President pulling out of Vietnam and backing the Civil Rights Movement. David Miller’s film doesn’t depict the men as patriots, just cold, ruthless politicians whose dissatisfaction with the current administration won’t abate. Starring Burt Lancaster as a black ops specialist and Robert Ryan as the mastermind behind the plot you’ve got to wonder what kind of actors would agree to star in such a picture if it was made today (Ed Lauter and other character actors co-star; Will Geer plays a conspirator who looks like Colonel Sanders). Much more apolitical than you’d think, while the right-wing agenda is clearly at work, its hardly a GOP smear film and more like the typically paranoid ‘70s thriller. Still, released on November 7, 1973, almost two weeks before the tenth anniversary of the JFK Assassination, the film hit theaters amid major political outrage and controversy and was pulled after only a few weeks (and wouldn’t hit home video until at least a decade later). “Executive Action” isn’t completely convincing, and sometimes is a tad dry, but it’s a decently entertaining and engaging thriller despite having no one to sympathize with or root for and no actors terrifically compelling aside from Lancaster, doing serviceable, but hardly essential work. [B-]
“The Laughing Policeman” (1973)
One of the great overlooked thrillers of the ’70s, “The Laughing Policeman” is a loose adaptation of a best-selling Swedish novel of the same name (by authors/lovers Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö). It’s a just-the-facts-ma’am thriller starring a grim-faced Walter Matthau as a detective investigating the death of his partner, who was murdered in a seemingly random massacre on a bus. Of course, it’s not at all random, and it takes a whole bunch of detectives (including his new partner, played by a heavily mustachioed Bruce Dern, and a charismatic Louis Gossett Jr.) to figure out exactly what the fuck happened. Directed by underrated journeyman filmmaker Stuart Rosenberg, “The Laughing Policeman” is dazzling in its simplicity. The first thirty minutes of the movie consist of only the bus murder set piece and the aftermath, which includes everything from the little Asian man calling in the crime to the toetags being wrapped around the bodies. Other times Rosenberg leaves the main investigation to follow other cops for no other reason than additional atmosphere (like Gossett Jr., who throws a pimp on the ground and then yells, “You better be reaching for a sandwich because whatever it is, you’re gonna have to eat it!”), or stages sequences where dialogue overlaps to an almost Robert Altman-degree. Even the final confrontation has an air of documentary-style plainspokenness. (Less admirable is the film’s sometimes queasy attitude towards sexuality and – specifically – women. At one point Matthau slaps around his dead partner’s girlfriend because she took some racy photos and he repeatedly refers to a gay character as a “fruiter.”) Still, it’s easy to imagine that director David Fincher was inspired by the film’s San Francisco setting and no-nonsense approach when making his own cut-and-dried masterpiece, “Zodiac.” [B]