We’ve chosen a scene from Serpico that highlights how an alternative point-of-view and protagonist weakness can be incorporated into the social issues screenplay to balance the narrative…
Setting the scene
The scene takes place on pages 98 to 100 and propels the story into the final act. At this point, the pressure is building on New York cop Frank Serpico. He’s a reluctant whistleblower who is exposing corruption in the force and putting himself in danger in the process. By this stage, the investigation he has pushed for is underway but is moving unsatisfactorily. He is increasingly being targeted by his fellow officers and he, rightfully, fears for his safety. The investigators want him to wear a wire, which Serpico knows means he’ll be forced to testify in front of a grand jury. In the scenes immediately before this one, his girlfriend Laurie leaves, and he fails in his attempt to get her back. So, he is emotionally agitated, angry and scared when he meets with investigator Chief Green, the Bronx Commander, in a hotel meeting room.
Script source: https://cinephiliabeyond.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Serpico-1973.06.18.pdf?x39906
Analysis
In a great example of the ‘get in late’ rule of crafting scenes, we enter this one with Green angry at Serpico over his refusal to testify. The main ‘turn’ in the scene is that, by the end, Serpico has realised that to bring things to an end, he needs to go before the grand jury, so changes his mind and agrees to testify.
However, the conversation sets Green at odds with Serpico, who the commander calls a ‘prima donna’. Until now, Serpico has mostly moved within the corrupt world of the NYPD as a lone saviour, encountering nothing but dirty cops on the take, weak men who fear reprisals, and higher-ups who look the other way. This has had the effect of turning Serpico into something of an ‘otherworldly’ character at times; the sole honest cop who can’t believe the extent of criminality among his fellow officers, as he moves from department to department, borough to borough. Conversely, this scene highlights Serpico’s character flaws and weaknesses.
When Serpico tries to justify his position, Green tells him to ‘cut the crap’. Serpico goes on to say that he’s alone and hated. Green counters that, as a Jew, he had to fight his way up in a world of Irish cops, and that he’s been putting cops away for thirty years, which means he’s hated everywhere. When Serpico points out that he’s vulnerable, Green counters that being hated comes with the territory when you go after cops.
In this scene, both men make reasonable points. While Serpico is justified in his paranoia and lack of trust in the system, Green points out that he needs to live in the real world. Serpico is not the only honest man on the force, nor is he the only one who is upholding police integrity. However, weeding out corruption on such a staggering scale is not easy; not least because the city needs its cops to do their job and fellow officers are reluctant to rat on their brethren.
The scene serves to show that while police corruption is clearly wrong, Serpico is not the only one who wants to ‘fix’ the system. Further, his policy of keeping out of it is not going to lead to change. If he’s serious about being part of the solution, he needs to accept that he’s going to be a pariah. As such, the scene is something of a wake-up call for Serpico, who goes into Act Three with renewed momentum.
A similar example of Serpico being called out happens on page 80, when his friend Blair refers to Serpico’s ‘humble pie’ act. This leads into the scene on page 83 when Serpico explodes at Laurie, showing an ugly side to his character.
The takeaways:
1. Make sure you show your main character’s flaws to avoid them becoming ‘holier than thou’.
2. Take every opportunity to highlight the ‘grey areas’ and counterpoints of the issues your script covers to avoid moralising.
A final note about the screenplay:
As you’ll see in the draft linked to below (which we used for our analysis), there are hefty paragraphs of description inserted throughout. As a general rule, description in screenplays should be kept to four lines maximum. Likewise, Serpico’s screenwriters added camera movements that you should not include – that’s the director’s job! The script we’re using is a later draft that was prepared prior to going into production, hence the added details, such as scene numbers.