This supposedly fact-based movie released amidst a glut of early 70s cop budder caper movies is interesting for the talent involved and its inaccessibility for years, but it's a bit of a disappointment. There were more realistic films in this idiom at the time, and some more purely escapist. But "Super Cops" tries to play it both ways, asking us to accept what must be a drastically simplified/truncated version of its (already self-glorifying in real life) heroes' exploits as a credible portrait of rogue cops overcoming police (as well as criminal) corruption, but also delivering that content in a frequently cartoonish tenor. Whatever the real events were (it's hard to know just how truthful the off-screen protagonists were, particularly as they got convinced of various crimes themselves and quit the police force soon after this was released), the action isn't believable. Nor does the film make the leap into satire, as some have claimed.
It's all slickly handled by director Gordon Parks, but the mix never gels. The support cast full of familiar faces plays interchangeable authority and neighborhood figures; Ron Liebman is antic to the brink of annoyance (he seems to think the film is more of a joke than it thinks itself), while David Selby is contrastingly so low-key he seems almost disinterested. I like both those actors, but the movie insists we accept them as an irresistible team without the chemistry or the plot stakes really making that concept click. Mostly the film is of interest as a glimpse of mid-70s NYC locations, all presumably now very much torn down and/or cleaned up.
It's all slickly handled by director Gordon Parks, but the mix never gels. The support cast full of familiar faces plays interchangeable authority and neighborhood figures; Ron Liebman is antic to the brink of annoyance (he seems to think the film is more of a joke than it thinks itself), while David Selby is contrastingly so low-key he seems almost disinterested. I like both those actors, but the movie insists we accept them as an irresistible team without the chemistry or the plot stakes really making that concept click. Mostly the film is of interest as a glimpse of mid-70s NYC locations, all presumably now very much torn down and/or cleaned up.