Fort Apache the Bronx (1981)

This is a movie not made for anyone, just for someone who is willing to listen. It's just like human life, it breathes, it walks, it laughs, and it dies. Paul Newman is a great actor, but this is his finest film to me. He plays Officer Murphy, an funny, serious and tired man. He's trying to stop this case of murders going around his town. He's sick of the racism in his precinct ,but never shows it. His partner(Ken Wahl) is getting married at a young age. And He is falling love with a Latino woman(Rachel Ticotin), who has deep skeletons in her closet. This movie plays like short stories involving Murphy, yet it never stays off plot. In a way our life works, the plot is ourself and the stories that inter-vein with us are people we know. Now this is a depressing movie, but it's great as hell and it will strike a serious nerve. How come some movies that are not based on true story, are sometimes the realist story you'll see in your lifetime?

Fmovies: I was a bit taken aback when reading through the external reviews and seeing notable critics like Roger Ebert generally panning this movie. Not that it's a high water mark of film making, but a stylish, gritty, well-constructed movie, certainly.

The one major distracting element is Paul Newman. His performance is not at fault by any standards, in fact he was very good, but in this dark look at inner city dwellers and how they're prisoners of the crime and poverty that surrounds them, one of Hollywood's most notable actors just sticks out like a sore thumb. Again, not through any misstep that Mr. Newman might have made, but just simply because he is who he is: Too big to fit into a movie about little people.

Regardless, the movie is highly recommended for anyone wanting a unique look at inner city blight, the people who live in this setting and the men and women who try to protect them. There is nothing quaint about this movie, it is real and rough.

Fort Apache is flawed, but interesting and atmospheric. Newman's and Asner's accents are a bit dodgy, but the location shooting and moral ambiguity place this 1981 movie firmly in the camp of 1970's police/New Yawk flicks. Rachel Ticotin is a real stunner, in a very early role. A lot of fuss was made over the portrayal of minority groups and the South Bronx generally when Fort Apache was being made, though it seems standard movie fodder now.

Fort Apache the Bronx fmovies. Paul Newman is terrific in a bit of a departure for him. There is a huge and talented cast at work here, and Pam Grier steals the show from everyone else. As a crackhead prostitute, she is completely mesmerizing. Rachel Ticotin also does great work as a drug addict/romantic interest for Newman. She does a scene walking down the street in only a nightgown that is memorable. All in all, this movie is good enough to be worth your time.

This film was one of the best of its kind back in the day.Apparently produced by David Susskind ,some of you may recall him from his talk show on TV in the 70's.I really enjoyed this because the producers stayed clear of any standard cliches you usually find in police dramas. Also being from N.Y., I would readily attest that most of this is about accurate as far as the late 70's drug scene goes.As mayor Beame and his political hacks looked the other way ,and coruption flourished in every precinct in the city ,drug dealers became Druglords and then went on to become Kingpins . Certainly Pam Grier steals the show ,and Paul Newman is excellent as the weary beat cop in the ghetto. I liked Lou Grant as a cop ,but he should have had more to do in this.This film is also a kind of time capsule ,most of the South Bronx where this was shot looks completly different today , mostly renovated and redeveloped perhaps because of the attention this film recieved at the time.

When Paul Newman says about one of the cops in Fort Apache The Bronx that 'he thinks I'm a liberal' he means liberal for the NYPD. I doubt if Paul Newman would have ever voted for Murphy the irreverent uniformed police officer if he ran for public office.

Still Newman has got some real issues to deal with assigned to the infamous Fort Apache or as it is known officially in the film and in real life the 41 Precinct of the South Bronx. That neighborhood came into the public consciousness during a trip through it by President Jimmy Carter in his administration. The lawlessness of the South Bronx area became well known as well.

Newman's been there and seen it all, he's even been a detective for a while, but his irreverent attitude got some guy with juice all bent out of shape with him and calls were made. He takes the neighborhood for what it is, his fellow officers for what they are, and people in general. It's really the right way to live. He respects the blue wall of silence about ratting out his fellow officers for infractions, minor and some major.

The blue wall of silence however isn't a license to murder and when to of his fellow officers throw a young Latino man off an apartment roof during a riot, that's where it has to stop. Still it's not easy to snitch on any fellow officer for any reason.

A big part of the problem is caused by the simultaneous murder of two uniformed officers at the same of an arrival of a new captain in the 41 played by Ed Asner. Asner's one hardnosed by the book type of cop who causes more problems than he cures. It's during a riot that his policies spark that the murder of the young man occurs. A key scene in the film is with Asner and Sully Boyar the captain he's replacing. Reminds me very much of when Humphrey Bogart took over the Caine from Tom Tully.

Newman and Ken Wahl have a nice easy chemistry as the older and younger cops in the squad cars. Their scenes are little more earthy than what you might see on Dragnet or Adam-12, still they make for good viewing. Wahl's a decent young kid as well, sadly mindful of what snitching on fellow officers could do to his career and he's not as far along as Newman towards that pension.

One major flaw of the film is that it doesn't show any of the decent citizens in the area. The bad guys and the rioters are all you see in the area. Even the one somewhat decent character, a Puerto Rican nurse played by Rachel Ticotin who gets involved with Newman, has a heroin habit. The film was rightly criticized by Hispanic groups, something that probably the very liberal Mr. Newman was taken aback with.

A more balanced portrayal of the citizenry of the South Bronx could have made this film a classic.