Review of Badge 373

There is only a certain window of time (around the late 60s to the early 80s) that a police film of this type would have been made with the kind of gritty, deliberately ugly, murky, downbeat sort of verisimilitude that's on display here. Before that, studio craftsmanship and censors would have prevented it and after that the gaudy style of the 80s and then the refusal to accept "under the top" action and effects made it impossible. Here, Duvall plays a paunchy, tough, New York City police detective who is suspended following the questionable death of a suspect who fell from the top of a building during a drug raid. Soon after, his partner is killed and, despite not officially being on the force, Duvall sets out to determine who has murdered the man, who may or may not have been on the take. His investigation takes him into a world of revolutionary Puerto Ricans who are interested in rising up against the oppression of their "rulers," the United States. Meanwhile, his new lady love Bloom is having trouble accepting the dangerous, rough and tumble lifestyle of Duvall. With the occasional aid of his superior Egan (whose real life exploits as a cop provided the basis for this and other stories), Duvall winds his way through a minefield of murder, hate, gunrunning and racial unrest (with antihero Duvall himself portrayed as intolerant of Hispanics and pretty much any other minority.) Duvall, gut on display and frequently disheveled, is excellent in his portrayal of this common, insensitive, driven man. It's a warts and all performance in which he lets loose with any variety of foul language and slurs with little regard for his own vanity. Nonetheless, the audience is on his side because the enemy kills anyone who takes his part. Bloom hasn't got a large role and it isn't really a rewarding one, but she manages to make the most of it. Darrow makes a late film appearance as a criminal kingpin and, for some reason and to his detriment, wears dark glasses for 98% of his screen time, day or night. Egan is hardly a stunning actor, but does help in the way of authenticity as he sprang from this environment prior to working in films. Few other performers make a particular impact as the film is mostly concerned with Duvall and his quest through the mire of a dank NYC, though fans of "The Electric Company" may be interested in seeing Avalos as an arrestee trade epithets with Duvall. The city as presented here mirrors the dreary, dirty New York of so many movies from this era, something that prompted the city to reinvent itself as much as possible and take a turn towards a cleaner and more user-friendly town. Enough can't be said of the bleak, drab atmosphere (offset by the sunny and green surroundings of a cabin that Duvall retreats to after being assaulted.) There's a set piece, involving a wild chase in which Duvall commandeers a public bus in order to escape a gang of thugs, which is audacious and realistic at the same time. The same type of scene would today be shot with frantic editing, overwhelming speed and lots more destruction, though it's far more believable the old way. The script is riddled with (now) politically incorrect putdowns and plentiful foul language (kudos to TCM for recently airing the film unedited, albeit overnight!), which may offend some viewers, but American films were enjoying a new freedom in those and other areas and the envelope was forever being pushed. Hardly a perfect film, it is at least a thought-provoking one. There is a rally included in which real-life activist Luciano presents a diatribe against Puerto Rican oppression and raises some interesting questions (it's a shame, though, that so many people portraying Puerto Ricans in this movie keep pronouncing it the incorrect "Porto" Rico, which is jarring to those who know better.)