The dividing line between tough cops and mad mobsters is often so slim it could be inscribed on the rim of a steel-jacketed .45 bullet
When Gene Hackman, as Popeye Doyle is hot on the trail of that illegal load of heroin, he lets nothing and nobody get in his way If one stands aside from the sheer excitement of the film and examines it dispassionately, it becomes apparent that here is ruthlessness which, under normal circumstances, would be regarded as the actions of a crazy man
Under the arches of the elevated railroad, the Doyle character drives a car like a character gone berserk; if the number of innocent bystanders sent flying and the total of wrecked cars were calculated, it might have been cheaper and more humane to let the villains and the heroin escape
But it's only movies While the picture's running it is not necessary to wonder whether all this mayhem is morally right or wrong Indeed, it would be a sorry day for the entire thriller industry, both written and screened, if ever we did!
This is a world of fantasy into which the audience is content to follow the action for less than two hours There are the goodies and the baddies; the policeman may act like a baddie, but he's really on the side of the angels
The really tough cop is a comparatively new type of cinematic character When the gangster film was young, so were the policemen That detective of the 1930's, might have knocked a hoodlum or two around in self-defense, but would never have been so careless as to shoot a fellow cop through being too cynical or quick on the trigger The New York film cop, of the 1930's would not have coldly broken a mobster's jaw, as Sterling Hayden did in "The Godfather."
When Gene Hackman, as Popeye Doyle is hot on the trail of that illegal load of heroin, he lets nothing and nobody get in his way If one stands aside from the sheer excitement of the film and examines it dispassionately, it becomes apparent that here is ruthlessness which, under normal circumstances, would be regarded as the actions of a crazy man
Under the arches of the elevated railroad, the Doyle character drives a car like a character gone berserk; if the number of innocent bystanders sent flying and the total of wrecked cars were calculated, it might have been cheaper and more humane to let the villains and the heroin escape
But it's only movies While the picture's running it is not necessary to wonder whether all this mayhem is morally right or wrong Indeed, it would be a sorry day for the entire thriller industry, both written and screened, if ever we did!
This is a world of fantasy into which the audience is content to follow the action for less than two hours There are the goodies and the baddies; the policeman may act like a baddie, but he's really on the side of the angels
The really tough cop is a comparatively new type of cinematic character When the gangster film was young, so were the policemen That detective of the 1930's, might have knocked a hoodlum or two around in self-defense, but would never have been so careless as to shoot a fellow cop through being too cynical or quick on the trigger The New York film cop, of the 1930's would not have coldly broken a mobster's jaw, as Sterling Hayden did in "The Godfather."