Metacritic reviews

A quintessential New York director made this quintessential New York movie in 1973, with Pacino at his best.

Al Pacino delivers a powerful performance in this compelling biopic...of a cop and a city's police force.

A virtuoso performance by Al Pacino and some expert location work by Sidney Lumet add up to a tour de force genre piece. (Review of Original Release)

It is galvanizing because of Al Pacino's splendid performance in the title role and because of the tremendous intensity that Mr. Lumet brings to this sort of subject. (Review of Original Release)

Director Sidney Lumet (working from a screenplay by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler) chooses not to press the superheroic aspect of his protagonist. Serpico is more street-level, tracing a decade of NYPD change--and refusal to change--through an episodic, often elliptical structure.

When all is said and done, Pacino is the riveting presence that makes the movie work and it is difficult to imagine any other actor in the part. (Review of Original Release)

Pacino dominates the entire film. His inner personal torment is vividly detailed. (Review of Original Release)

Ought to look pretty dated. Instead, Sidney Lumet's biopic of Frank Serpico, the virtuous cop who exposed a network of graft in the NYPD, feels depressingly relevant.

Al Pacino takes on police corruption in the gritty Serpico, a film that's entirely dominated and driven by Pacino's empowered performance.

Pacino's performance is bolstered by a screenplay and direction that respects the city-dweller's intelligence, that tells of an eleven-year experience with sophistication and temperance and resists endless opportunities for a wallow. [10 Dec 1973, p.93]