What is Serpico about?
New York cop Frank Serpico blows the whistle on the rampant corruption in the force only to have his comrades turn against him.
Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)
No. Brace yourself.
An honest New York cop exposes widespread corruption, facing betrayal from his own department.
Earnest and suspenseful. A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is devastating. Based on true events.
Streaming on Kanopy (free), Hoopla (free) and YouTube (free).
Serpico parents guide
It stays inside its R, with moderate sex and nudity, and strong violence.
- Scare
- Not scary
- Jump scares
- None noted
- Gore
- Light gore
- Some blood or injury, briefly.
- Violence
- Strong violence
- Violence is frequent or intense.
- Sex and nudity
- Moderate
- Moderate means a sex scene or nudity on screen, even brief, or sexual violence that is described or implied but never shown.
- Language
- Strong
- Frequent strong profanity or slurs.
How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Three questions
- How gory is Serpico?
- Light gore and strong violence.
- What is Serpico rated, and is it OK for kids?
- Rated R, and it earns it: moderate sex and nudity, strong violence, and frequent strong language. Not one for kids.
Cast and crew
Directed bySidney Lumet
StarringAl Pacino, John Randolph, Jack Kehoe, Biff McGuire, Barbara Eda-Young, Cornelia Sharpe
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Serpico is on our True crime, 1970s, Crime on Kanopy, Drama on Hoopla and Crime on Hoopla lists.
More like this feeling
Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.
- “a movie that will make me cry”
- “a thriller with a twist, no spoilers”
- “funny but not stupid, under two hours”
Lists with the same feel: Tearjerkers.
Five more like Serpico
Say the mood. Five picks with where they stream, right here.
Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.