The New Centurions

Plot synopsis:
Three rookie cops, Roy Fehler, Gus Plebesly, and Sergio Duran, report for duty with the Los Angeles police department. Roy is married with a daughter and intends to eventually become a law student. Gus is a father of three. Serge is a native of East L.A., who never expected to end up patrolling its streets.
Each is assigned a veteran partner. Roy's is the greatly experienced Andy Kilvinski, who has been on the force for nearly a quarter-century and has his own unique style of law enforcement. For example, he will drive a group of hookers, who he has supplied with liquor, around the city streets for hours, in a paddy wagon, simply to keep them off the streets for a night.
Gus rides with Whitey Duncan. As they answer a burglary call, at a market, Gus opens fire on a suspicious figure in a dark alley, only to discover, to his horror, that it is the owner of the store.
Roy begins to frustrate his wife, Dorothy, by becoming obsessed with police work, neglecting his family, and dropping out of law school. He likes the life on the street. But during a convenience store holdup, Roy tells a couple in a parked car to move. Because he was careless, he does not realize that they are the get-away crew for the robbers. Without warning, the man shoots Roy with a sawed-off shotgun before escaping, leaving him gravely wounded on the sidewalk.
Gus and Serge discuss their fear of being shot. Serge temporarily partners with Andy, and together they handle a call involving a slum landlord. During this encounter, Andy becomes enraged and threatens the landlord for exploiting the "wetbacks" living in the apartment, in deplorable conditions. Roy gradually recovers and quickly encounters a shootout, but doesn't flinch.
As the rookies mark a year on the job, Andy reaches his 25th anniversary and mandatory retirement. He discusses the difficulties of police work with the younger men.
Roy is assigned to the vice squad, where the job is anything but glamorous—mostly arresting "fruits" for homosexual behavior in public parks. Dorothy has had enough, saying she does not care about him anymore. She leaves for San Francisco (where she meets a real estate agent) and takes their daughter, Becky, with her.
The young cops are delighted to get a visit, at the police station, from Andy, who has retired to Florida but misses police work. He regrets never having spent more time on his personal life. After speaking with Roy one last time, on the telephone, Andy puts his service revolver in his mouth and kills himself.
Depression gets the better of Roy, who begins to drink on the job. He answers a burglary call and the victim turns out to be Lorrie, a nurse who helped him after he got shot. Later on patrol, a prostitute ("Silverpants" driving a Lincoln Continental) speeds off with Roy hanging from the car door. He barely avoids serious injury and Lorrie helps patch him up, but he draws a three-week suspension for being drunk on the job.
Roy begins seeing Lorrie socially and comes to his senses, appreciating the need for personal relationships, remembering what led Andy to end his life.
He goes on a shots fired call, which leads to a car chase, followed by a foot chase. Exhausted after booking the suspects, he is on the way to ending his shift, when he encounters a woman on the street who appeals for help with her threatening husband. Reluctantly, Roy, Gus, and Serge decide to investigate. As Roy takes the back stairs, the husband suddenly appears and, without warning, fires a single shot from a handgun. Roy dies in Gus's arms.

Tags: violence

Review:
Scott is a cool, uniformed policeman who employs his own unique methods of dealing with petty crime  once again, it's the character who knows his beat and knows how to keep it under controlFaced with the task of rounding up prostitutes in the local Red Light district, Scott is well aware that dragging them into court will result only in nominal fines and a great deal of wasted time So he packs them into a patrol wagon and drives them around the streets for the rest of the night, thus losing them a night's earnings and at the same time keeping the streets reasonably tidy...Scott isn't in the least vindictive; he is merely keeping the peace in accordance with his own law He even takes the trouble to stop the truck and buy them a bottle of Whisky with which to while the night away Yet this cop is a fast man with a gun He is also the kind of policeman who is capable of administering a beating to the wrongdoers.
At times, on screen events resonant with such realism that it lends a dimension of docudrama to the overall production.CENTURIONS clearly transmits the boring nature of most of the daily, moment to moment activities that permeates police work, while, at the same time, emphasizing that this aspect of the job must be tempered by a heightened awareness intrinsic to survival owing to the ever-present possible reality of life-threatening scenarios on a one second event horizon!
Scott's cynical, scarred, veteran, Kilvinski, nearing retirement, has constructed a reality where his quasi-legal technique of locking up street- walkers in his paddy wagon and driving them around all night to keep the streets "clean and decent" is a necessary evil with which he feels, at least, reasonably comfortable!
Even with the obligatory mangling for our living room sensibilities, Richard Fleischer's film is a well-acted and gritty TV-looking version of Wambaugh's great, searing novel.For the most part, the casting--THE critical step to putting the book on screen--was dead on.
He's hardly on screen, but this was before the excremental CHIPS, the show that ruined his career while making him a household name, and he is quite good for the few minutes we get him.The problem with The New Centurions is that, since it is designed for mass consumption, it has been rendered more TV cop drama than searing expose of urban policing.
That book was even more dark (how Wambaugh was able to make such a brutal novel so funny is still an amazement to me), but the 1977 movie was about as awful--and unfunny--as you could ever hope to miss.Which, in comparison, makes The New Centurions all the better.
I've seen a lot of films that dug in and tried to paint a clear image of police life, but this story brings a level of realism that is somewhat missing in most cases - it was written by a cop (Joseph Wambaugh)."The New Centurions" is a title that hints at a much deeper perspective into familiar territory.
Rich, rewarding tale of an everyday struggle is told in a rather grim but entertaining fashion by accomplished director Fleischer.Despite solid performances from Keach and Alexander in particular, this is George C.Scott's movie, as the maverick older statesman with nothing but the badge to define his identity.
The highly emotional scene in which Scott telephones Keach and relays the metaphor of the old man and his burglar, resonates throughout the remainder of the film, and beyond.There's not the synergism that you'd expect and if it weren't for the distinction that Scott, Alexander and Wilson as the modest rookie, each bring to their respective characterisations, "The New Centurions" would be just another police story, and this is evidenced to a degree when their characters are no longer in focus.
I recently bought the Season One DVD set for "Police Story"--the cop show from the 70s that was inspired by Joseph Wambaugh's film "The New Centurions".
It shows the interesting side as well as the downside--and all through the perspective of a rookie cop, Fehler (Stacy Keach), as you follow his through the years.
There is a HUGE price to pay for loving a job like this--as his marriage falls apart and he pretty much gives his life for the department.I have noticed that other reviewers talk about Fehler's partner, Kilvinski (George C.
Joseph Wambaugh had a string of best-selling novels in the 1970's, all based on his experiences as a beat cop in the Los Angeles Police Department.
The point of the film is that yes, police work is physically dangerous, but the real threat to the officers' well-being comes from the emotional strain that they have to endure.
The friendship between rookie Roy Fehler (Stacey Keach) and veteran Andy Kilvinski (George C.
This is an under- rated film about the general lives of police officers from a Los Angeles Precinct.
Scott and Stacy Keach lead the way as two police officers who are initially teamed up for night duty around Los Angeles.
There is some good action along the way but "The New Centurions" works due to the acting, writing and direction.
Under- and over- rated at the time ('72), appropriately a good time in America to begin the Wambaugh cop legacy, this film has wonderful moments, but as a film it's a letdown overall.
is the best as always, Scott Wilson in a supporting role is crucially vibrant, and Stacy Keach at the HEIGHT of his wonderful movie beginnings is this Roy character (with great wife and actress Jane Alexander), but the script goes south 1/2 through trying to appeal to everybody, which was unnecessary in the early 70's.
THE NEW CENTURIONS is a trend-setting police procedural thriller based on a best-selling novel that was itself written by a Los Angeles cop.
It's a gritty and grimly realistic portrayal of the unrewarding life of a cop, where murder and alcoholism are just around the corner and the best thing a guy can hope for is not to be killed outright on the street that day.
Scott playing, you guessed it, a real hard-ass of a cop who takes rookie officer Stacy Keach (young, thin, and handsome) under his wing.
Roy Fehler (Stacy Keach), Gus Plebesly (Scott Wilson), and Sergio Duran (Erik Estrada) are rookie police patrolmen.
The book and movie never show incidents of dealing with rich people who threaten to destroy a police officer's career if they are arrested.If police fought for progressive change in America, then they would not have to face high divorce rates, suicide, and drunkenness on and off the job.
I later became a cop myself and other than the setting (Los Angeles) this movie, while flawed, shows a side of policing that people rarely see, or at least then.
Richard Fleischer is arguably one of the most underrated American directors.He tackled almost all the genres and almost always succeeded,except in his last years (roughly from "Ashanti" on).The detective movie was always one of his numerous specialties.It's a long way from the (often remarkable) first works ,such as "the clay pigeon" and "follow me quietly" to the psychological thrillers ("compulsion" ) to the stunning serial killer stories of the early seventies/late sixties "10 Rillington place" and "The Boston strangler"."The new centurions" is something drastically different,which can't be compared to any of Fleischer's previous works in the field.Fleischer's pessimistic side which was in the latent state in "compulsion" or "10 Rillington Place" , surfaces here as ever.It depicts the life of a cop (although George C Scott's name comes first in the cast and credits,he is actually supporting )played by Stacy Keach (a far cry from Mike Hammer;it's curious to notice he sometimes wears a mustache).And it's a life nobody would like to live.Happiness seems to elude him ,his marriage is already on the rocks when the film begins (" a plumber makes more money than both of us ,a cop and a bilingual secretary" says his wife (Jane Alexander));his nights are a very sad routine in which he risks his neck at every corner of the street ;he wants to study law and to get back to college but his job leaves him no time and no energy and he soon gives up.The documentary side and Fleischer's feeling for economy and sparseness precludes all forms of conventional sentimentality : it's sometimes so hard and the characters seem so resigned to their fate that the scene when Jane Alexander bursts into tears near the elevator seems almost like an anomaly;so does Scott's fit of rage when he learns that the owner charges 50 dollars a head for a bed in a slum.The title hints at the Roman Empire when Keach explains to Scott that they are like them,men who are here to protect ,to mount guard and to get a bullet in their hide so the others can go on;and he adds "and it worked...at least for a time in the Empire".SPOILERS There is at least a moment which will haunt you long after watching "the new centurions" :after a phone call to his former colleague,trying to sound casual ,Scott takes his gun and ...his life.
Naive, idealistic rookie cop Roy Fehler (a typically fine performance by the always dependable Stacy Keach) gets shown the ropes by wise maverick veteran policeman Andy Kilvinski (superbly played by the inestimable George C.
Roy's work as a cop takes over his life and causes his marriage to his concerned, but fed-up wife Dorothy (a strong portrayal by Jane Alexander) to fall apart while Kilvinski has trouble adjusting after he retires from the force.
Ably directed by Richard Fleischer, with a sharp and astute episodic script by Stirling Silliphant, an uncompromisingly stark, realistic and unsentimental downbeat tone, grainy, yet fairly polished cinematography by Ralph Woolsey, authentically gritty Los Angeles locations, a funky, syncopated score by Quincy Jones, a devastating grim and depressing ending, a powerful central message about the heavy toll being a police officer takes on a man's soul, and several strikingly vivid individual vignettes (the accidental shooting of an innocent man in a dark alley way, Roy getting blasted in the stomach while on duty, Kilvinski committing suicide in his empty house), this film packs a very potent and lingering punch to the gut.
Scott and Stacy Keach both give wonderful performances in this film.
Joseph Wambaugh was a member of the LAPD and has written many excellent books that really bring police work to life.
Scott is wonderful as the veteran cop who has "seen it all" and is a mentor to young officer Keach.
The New Centurions is directed by Richard Fleischer, has a screenplay by Stirling Silliphant, is based on the novel by Joseph Wambaugh and stars George C.
Scott, Stacy Keach, Jane Alexander and Clifton James.One of the best films about patrolling the beat ever made in my opinion.
Scott is ferocious as Kilvinski the older police officer mentoring a young rookie called Roy Fehler(Stacy Keach).
The film is split into a series of incidents involving Kilvinski and other officers.The New Centurions is a really bleak film that shows the horrific things which police officers have to deal with on a daily basis.
It's not just the dead officers whose photos hang on the station wall who pay a price, all the officers do in one way or another.The film also shows the effect a police officers career can have on their family, they spend more time on the job and sadly their family begins to come second place.
Jane Alexander is excellent as Fehler's wife Dorothy who has to watch the job create quite an impact on their personal life.The entire cast give superb performances with special praise going to Scott.A scene that will stay with me forever is when one of the rookies is chasing a robbery suspect in the dark, somebody runs at him and he shoots them, when he gets closer he sees it's the father of the robbery victim who had come out into the alley to look for the suspect too.
When the officer sees what he has done he breaks down and looks haunted, it's a powerful moment for sure.Grim, gritty and powerful, The New Centurions is a film that deserves to be much more well known today..
Whether it's an exploitive early 70's crime flick with an underlying mainstream influence, or a mainstream cop movie that sporadically delves into a gritty no-nonsense peripheral, THE NEW CENTURIONS is an entertaining piece of cinemaAfter an opening credit montage of rookies – including Stacy Keach's Roy Fehler, Scott Wilson's Gus and Erik Estrada's Sergio – training at the police academy, we skip right to the chase well, almost.
Your typical gruff sergeant (Dolph Sweet) is barking orders to a group of world-weary police officersAnd with a fresh rookie partner in tow, they enter into the dark Noiry streets of downtown Los Angeles.At first, the centerpiece is George C.
Scott's veteran cop Kilvinski, who, with his own implied "laws" aka philosophies of life, provides Roy exposition through random busts including bickering prostitutes and, cutting back and forth from Clifton James's Whitey paired with Gus, and Ed Lauter with former gang member Sergio, domestic dispute calls that wind up humorously reminiscent of a television cop show.But there's a point where CENTURIONS, compared by Kilvinski as a new brand of Roman guard – equally hated and needed by that society like our own – kicks into second gear.
Standout scenes include Scott Wilson's Gus gunning down an innocent man The IN COLD BLOOD actor's shocked/life-altering expression, as well as Estrada's Sergio explaining his backstory as a gang member reluctantly brought back to his hellish home town, make this more character-driven than action-packed.Although noted as a vehicle for the Oscar-winning Scott, remaining the wise mentor till a gloomy retirement, the story truly belongs to Stacy Keach, whose character-arc from an idealistic rookie to a seasoned cop to a reluctant vice squad officer to a hopeless drunk is underlined by the dwindling relationship with his wife and child: the domestic scenes border on melodrama but never take away from the gritty mainline We always promptly return to the streets.
The author gives his best effort in looking beyond the uniform and badge; penetrating into the very souls of the guys who do the job.IN CASTING THE parts of the "Rookie" and the "Old-Timer", we have Stacey Keach and George C.
Likes so many street veterans, Kilvinski has his own rules and methods.BEING THE ANTITHOSIS of this approach, Officer Kehler (Stacey Keach) is educated, polished "by the book".
It is here that he finds his new love in the Nurse, who treats him.NOW BEING SERIOUSLY involved, putting the booze behind him and seemingly straightening out his life, he is fatally shot in the last part of a midnight to morning tour of duty.AUTHOR WAMBAUGH AND the production team managed to squeeze all of the main problems of the police into one story; not living happily after ever..
In 1971 while working as a police officer Joseph Wambaugh had his first novel published, THE NEW CENTURIONS, to popular and critical praise.
This first novel was so popular it didn't take long for Hollywood to grab up the rights and from that this movie was released a year later.The film follows three police academy grads in 1960 beginning with their first assignment and following them for several years, focusing mainly on Roy Fehler (Stacy Keach).
Where it will lead is anyone's guess until the end of the film.There are several things that make this movie work better than most of the genre.
The very first police novel of Joseph Wambaugh is the subject of this film.
Scott is top billed the story is carried through all the way by Stacy Keach.
The old centurions failed and the Roman Empire they protected eventually failed as well.Scott is the old timer ready for retirement and whose last partner is rookie Stacy Keach.
Keach does some time with the Vice Squad and Sikking who is perfect as an ambitious cop looking to rise by running up a score of arrests for victimless crimes.Devotees of police dramas and serious ones will like The New Centurions.
"The New Centurions" was the very first feature film adaptation of a novel by Joseph Wambaugh, a real-life former cop who parlayed his knowledge and experience into great success as a writer.
Keach is an idealistic type supporting his law studies through night shifts as a patrolman, but finds that he really enjoys this line of work, especially as he's mentored by a wise veteran, played by the wonderful George C.
***SPOILERS*** From the pages of Joseph Wambaugh first and best selling novel about the men of the LAPD the movie shows how a job like a policeman can change a person into a mentally unstable individual if he lets it take over his life.
Scott, a 25 year veteran of the LAPD facing retirement and breaking in young rookie cop Roy Fehler played by Stacey Keach with and without, at times during the film, a mustache.
Kilvinski shows young Roy in how to do the job based on "Kivinski's Law" which worked so well for him over the years.
By now the job as a policeman has taken over Roy's life so completely that his wife, taking their daughter along with her, left him leading Roy to drink which didn't make things that much better for him.***SPOILERS*** It's after Roy's partner Andy Kilvinski, who by then retired from the LAPD with 25 years service, came to visit his old precinct-the 25th- that Roy having better things to do like drinking and having an affair with a nurse-Rosalind Cash-who treated him for his injuries more or less fluffed him off.
Scott was a star and it was a cop movie.
The entire film seemed to have the quality that one might expect from an episode of Police Story or one of the other many cop shows that graced the TV screen in the 1970s.
I found the film full of clichés about life as a cop.