Fort Apache the Bronx

source: Fort Apache the Bronx

Fort Apache the Bronx

This is a movie not made for anyone, just for someone who is willing to listen. It's just like human life, it breathes, it walks, it laughs, and it dies. Paul Newman is a great actor, but this is his finest film to me. He plays Officer Murphy, an funny, serious and tired man. He's trying to stop this case of murders going around his town. He's sick of the racism in his precinct ,but never shows it. His partner(Ken Wahl) is getting married at a young age. And He is falling love with a Latino woman(Rachel Ticotin), who has deep skeletons in her closet. This movie plays like short stories involving Murphy, yet it never stays off plot. In a way our life works, the plot is ourself and the stories that inter-vein with us are people we know. Now this is a depressing movie, but it's great as hell and it will strike a serious nerve. How come some movies that are not based on true story, are sometimes the realist story you'll see in your lifetime?

Fort Apache is flawed, but interesting and atmospheric. Newman's and Asner's accents are a bit dodgy, but the location shooting and moral ambiguity place this 1981 movie firmly in the camp of 1970's police/New Yawk flicks. Rachel Ticotin is a real stunner, in a very early role. A lot of fuss was made over the portrayal of minority groups and the South Bronx generally when Fort Apache was being made, though it seems standard movie fodder now.

Paul Newman is terrific in a bit of a departure for him. There is a huge and talented cast at work here, and Pam Grier steals the show from everyone else. As a crackhead prostitute, she is completely mesmerizing. Rachel Ticotin also does great work as a drug addict/romantic interest for Newman. She does a scene walking down the street in only a nightgown that is memorable. All in all, this movie is good enough to be worth your time.

Pretty good police drama that has Paul Newman as a restless yet devoted veteran patrolman who has to put up with the everyday ordeals in the very bleak, rough urban South Bronx neighborhood as he, his young, self-confident partner (Ken Wahl), and the rest of the unit deal with their new captain (Ed Anser), who is absolutely determined to crack down on crime in the area and winds up igniting a riot with infuriated residents. Besides the acting which is respectable to say the least, the cinematography marvelous shot by the late John Alcott and Jonathan Tunick's sharp, quirky musical score gives the film much more appeal.