The New Centurions (1972)

An idealistic rookie cop joins the L.A.P.D. to make ends meet while finishing law school, and is indoctrinated by a seasoned veteran. As time goes on, he loses his ambitions and family as police work becomes his entire life.

Director:

Richard Fleischer

Writers:

Stirling Silliphant (screenplay), Joseph Wambaugh (novel)

Stars:

George C. Scott, Stacy Keach, Jane Alexander

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
George C. Scott	...	Kilvinski
Stacy Keach	...	Roy
Jane Alexander	...	Dorothy
Scott Wilson	...	Gus
Rosalind Cash	...	Lorrie
Erik Estrada	...	Sergio
Clifton James	...	Whitey
Richard E. Kalk	...	Milton (as Richard Kalk)
James Sikking	...	Sgt. Anders
Beverly Hope Atkinson	...	Alice
Mittie Lawrence	...	Gloria
Isabel Sanford	...	Wilma
Carol Speed	...	Martha
Tracee Lyles	...	Helen
Burke Byrnes	...	Phillips

Storyline

A group of new police recruits takes to patrolling the streets of Los Angeles. Roy Fehler is a law student with a family and has joined the LAPD until he can complete his degree. He's partnered with veteran patrolman Kilvinski and they soon develop a good rapport. On the street the policemen are exposed to the seedier side of life but Kilvinski is a fair cop and a good teacher. Over time however, Fehler comes to love the work and both his family and his studies fall by the wayside. Kilvinsky retires and Fehler loses his way, drinking heavily. Fehler's wife leaves him and he soon hits bottom. Just as he begins to get his life in order, fate intervenes.

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Plot Keywords:

squad car | call box | police call box | lapd | veteran | 

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Taglines:

The Beat -- The Fuzz -- The City of Angels

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Movie Channel [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

9 November 1972 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Los nuevos centuriones

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, Chartoff-Winkler Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) (uncredited)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Stacy Keach, the studio initially opposed having his white character falling in love with a black woman, preferring a Hispanic or mulatto woman instead.

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Quotes

Dorothy: Roy, I'm leaving you.
Roy: When did you decide this?
Dorothy: I don't know. It's been coming on a long time, I guess. I guess after Kilvinski retired and you decided to stay on and go on to vice, I guess that's what did it.
Roy: Yeah, but Dorothy, I'm, I hate this assignment, I'm not gonna be doing this forever.
Dorothy: It doesn't matter, Roy. It doesn't have anything to do with that. And it has nothing to do with you being a policeman anymore. And it's not because I'm a girl who doesn't like to be alone or because I ...
[...]

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Connections

Spoofed in Movie Madness (1982)

User Reviews

The NEW CENTURIONS—An Unheralded Epic First in Cinema History!

.............................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FL

This 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!