Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Mark Turner In 1971 while working as a police officer Joseph Wambaugh had his first novel published, THE NEW CENTURIONS, to popular and critical praise. His depiction of the average cop on the beat presented a different view than most readers had experienced in the past. Coming from someone living the life it added the authenticity to his books as well. 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). Roy is partnered with long timer Andy Kilvinski (George C. Scott), a cop who knows the streets better than most and handles them in his own fashion. He provides insight to Roy via "Kilvinski's laws", his interpretations of the law that makes things run smooth and rarely upsets the balance of what happens on the street.An example of this is displayed the first night the pair are assigned the paddy wagon to pick up street walkers. Rather than arrest them, book them and then find them on the street again with nothing affected but the time it took to do paperwork, Kilvinski instead buys them a bottle of whiskey, puts them in the wagon and drives them around most of the night. The end result keeps them off the street and requires less bureaucratic bologna. As the film moves forward we witness a chance in Roy as he goes from an officer who took the job in order to pay for college and become a lawyer to an officer who loves the work he does. This come at a cost since it disrupts his marriage to Dorothy (Jane Alexander) who feels he's sold out the plans they had. While patrolling one night Kilvinski goes in to observe a potential robbery taking place leaving Roy to watch and wait for backup. Seeing a couple in a car, he approaches to tell them to move on only to be shot point blank with a shotgun. The couple were part of the robbery.Unaffected by the shooting Roy heals and gets back on the job. As the year mark for the rookies hits he's back on the beat as Kilvinski hits his 25 year mark and mandatory retirement. The two part ways with the intent to get together again but time passes and the odds of that happening decrease until a shocking event happens in Kilvinski's life. Roy is promoted to the vice squad and about the same time Dorothy chooses to leave him taking their daughter Becky with her. Affected by everything taking place around him Roy turns to alcohol both on and off the job. 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 first is the depiction of police as presented by Wambaugh. These are human being with faults just like the rest of us. They are still heroes, men willing to put their lives on the line to protect and serve society. But doing so as a career takes its toll on each of them in different ways. The movie also has that gritty streetwise look to it found in numerous films from the seventies. It's not a glossed over movie set that we get to see here but the mean streets of LA that are on view. The station house isn't the pristine complex so many TV series now use but the beat down grimly painted station that actually exist. The acting here offers solid performances all around. Keach shines as Roy, a man whose life choices change and who is affected by those changes. Scott remains a force to be reckoned with as the most influential character on screen. What happens to him here is sure to stun those not prepared. Rounding out the two other rookies are Scott Wilson as Gus, the wide eyed innocent who learns how difficult things will be early on and Erik Estrada as Serge, completely wasted here in what amounts to a bit part. This genre of film that was so popular in the seventies is a joy to go back and watch now. With movies like THE FRENCH CONNECTION and more coming out on blu-ray they have the chance to be discovered all over again. This one is a great representation of those films. If you're a fan of Wambaugh then this edition of the film will be a welcome one as Twilight Time is offering the film in the cleanest picture ever. They're also offering more extras than usual here including an isolated music track, an audio commentary track with Wilson and film historian Nick Redman, an audio commentary track with film historians Lee Pfeiffer and Paul Scrabo and the original theatrical trailer. And, as with all Twilight Time releases, this version is limited to just 3,000 copies so if you're interested buy yours today.

KissEnglishPasto .............................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FLThis film, aside from its very special status mentioned above, is quite worthwhile and entertaining. It is an excellent George C. Scott vehicle, well-directed, well-scripted and well edited! Like other quality police dramas, it has several intertwined seamlessly integrated story lines, none of which is left unresolved, or most of which are left unresolved, when the end credits begin to roll…depending on your point of view! 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! These "Men In Black" would, undoubtedly, prefer to live in a world where all their on-the- job decision options were delineated by a simple Black or White distinction. The reality of the New Centurions is that they clearly come in every imaginable shade of gray! 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! Keach's enthusiastic and idealistic rookie, Fehler, oozes frustration from every pore, as he perceives the lifeblood of his initial optimism being drained, drop by drop, by the cold, hard cement indifference of L.A.'s Mean Streets! Viewing, impotently, as both his marriage and his upbeat rookie positivism flounder in an ocean of problems, he finds consolation and support in the arms of a sensitive and empathetic nurse, played by Rosalind Cash.…Here is where I will reference the "Unheralded Epic First in Cinema History": I suppose that today, in 2015, in a perfect world, we are not supposed to notice or mention a good number of things because we must be "P.C.", right? But CENTURIONS wasn't made in 2015…It was released in 1972! To the best of my recollection, in the early 70's, whenever we saw a bi- racial on screen couple, which was really not all that frequently to begin with, their racial difference was always a focal point of the relationship. Usually because of the problems they encountered because of this difference from friends, from relatives or parents, from those in authority or simply from others in society! How briskly refreshing that in CENTURIONS they were just a police officer and a nurse who cared very dearly for one another… Absolutely no mention whatsoever of their racial difference! Isn't that exactly the way it should be? The way it is now…??? (Well, almost, anyway!).Hope to get some feedback from someone, anyone on this aspect of the movie… 9* Stars! ENJOY!/DISFRUTELA!

Leofwine_draca 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. It's clear that this film was hugely inspirational, inspiring countless TV shows up to the present day, like the reality show COPS. I just wish the overrated END OF WATCH could have been more like this. Still, I digress: THE NEW CENTURIONS is blessed with an excellent cast that really brings the episodic storyline to life.Headlining the cast is the ever-tough George C. 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. The pair spend their time busting drug dealers, hookers, and armed robbers, all the while interacting with other officers in the precinct. These include an impossibly young Scott Wilson (THE WALKING DEAD), playing alongside Clifton James (LIVE AND LET DIE) and an equally youthful Erik Estrada. THE NEW CENTURIONS is a well made production, and I appreciated the excessively downbeat and pessimistic tone which is no surprise given director Richard Fleischer had recently shot 10 RILLINGTON PLACE.

inspectors71 Joseph Wambaugh has written a lot of great books over the four decades of his literary career. My experience with him started in eighth grade in 1972 when I read The New Centurions, a blisteringly honest and terrifying book about the lives of three rookie patrolman in LA during the early 60s. It was easily the most grown-up book I had ever read (my mom thumbed through it and was appalled at the language; yet she let me finish it) and when I got to see the 1972 movie (butchered on NBC in '73 or '74), I had reread it and knew everything the little old ladies with the scissors had hacked out. 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. Stacy Keach nails Roy Fehler, George C. Scott is a slightly more buff, less urbane Andy Kilvinsky, and Jane Alexander (who is beautiful because she isn't) embodies Fehler's estranged wife, Dorothy). My only complaint is in casting Erik Estrada as Sergio. I know why he was picked--a blonde Hispanic would have confused viewers who had not read the book, but some skilled writing may have gotten the real Sergio across on screen. This is no insult to Estrada. 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. It looks authentic, but the color and depth of the images never really fill the wide screen, dooming it to look like it belongs on the small one.In comparison though, this is a much more successful adaptation of a Wambaugh work than the open-mouthed horror of Robert Aldrich's The Choirboys. 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. Don't get me wrong, TNC is a flawed film, but it is a good one on the whole. I would just, strongly, suggest you read the book--and The Choirboys--first to get the real flavor of one of America's better crime writers (and social critics).