Donald Buehler
A romp thru the 70's. One of my best buddies introduced this 70's detective flick to me - and I really enjoyed it. Not knowing who was in it beyond Michael Moriarity and Yaphet Kotto, it was fun naming the future stars of both the little and big screen in this film. HInt: there are at least 5, not including Moriarity and Kotto.The story line is fairly predictable including the "shocking" ending, but there are some great scenes: crippled beggar hitching a ride on a taxi in Times Square (can you say Michael J Fox in Back to The Future?); face to face "mexican standoff" in an small elevator (Reservoir Dogs redux - without all the F words); roof top chase on foot - except in this case a slow limping white boy catches the slim athletic black guy (not gonna happen) - reminiscent of free running opening scene in Casino Royale.And finally in the predictable "hang the cop out to dry" scene Michael Moriarity implicates himself far better than any interrogator ever could! Pretty hilarious!But, all in all, an enjoyable experience. The more I think about it, this was a ground-breaking movie that predates some of the classics we all love - and introduced some great future stars. So let's give some credit to this 70's epic. DonB
sol1218
****SPOILERS*** there's sleazy goings on in the the NYPD in "Report to the Commissioner" with policewoman Patty Butler, Susan Blakley, ending up dead with a bullet in her chest during a wild and deadly shoot-out in her boyfriends drug dealer Thomas "Stick" Henderson, Tony King, loft apartment. It turns out that Officer Butler's killer in non other the NYPD Det. Beaueguard, known as just plain Bo to his friends, Lockery ,Michael Moriarty. Unknown to Officer Butler Det. Lockery was given the task to track her, known to Det. Lockery only as Chicklet, down to protect her undercover status by being told that she's a teenage runaway from the suburbs.Det. Bo Lockery a complete dud as a cop is only on the force because of the early 1970's NYC police youth recruitment drive to get the young people of the city to have something in common with the men in blue as well as Bo's dad being a former and very highly decorated New York City policeman. We soon get to see in a number of flashbacks about this whole crazy and murderous mess and how Det. Lockery mindlessly got himself into it.The events that lead up to the shooting of policewoman Bulter started with Officer Butler herself volunteering to become Stick's women, or live in wife, so she could win over his confidence. This action was done on Butler's part in order to get the goods on Stick as the city's top drug pusher and with that have him put away, and off the streets, for a long long time. It has to be said that at first Butler's boss Let. Hanson, Michael McGuire, wasn't all that crazy for one of his cops, and a woman at that, being shacked up with the dangerous "Stick" Henderson. Still with Offcer Butlers constant insistence, and her record of 283 felony arrests the year before, how could he refuse!To give Officer Butler some kind of cover the NYPD has the totally incompetent Det. Bo Lockery put on her tail without even giving him a photo of Butler or even her name. Det. Lockery miraculously finds her with the help of the legless, and mentally unstable, street panhandler Joey, Bob Balaban, and street wise pimp Billy, Richard Gere! This to the shock and disgust of Det. Lockery's boss back at the police precinct Let. Sedensticker, Vic Taybeck. Lockery tracking Butler in effect blows the whole Henderson/Stick sting operation as well as ends up blowing a hole in Officer Butler's chest killing her.Det. Lockery himself is a piece of work being totally unqualified to be a cop, much less detective. Det. Lockery is also a pain in the a** to his partner the tough and street smart Det. Richard "Crunch" Blackstone,Yaphet Kotto. Det.Blackstone gets so unnerved and discombobulated, especially with Bo's annoyingly syrupy and insipid sing-song voice, in his having to put up with his schmuck of a partner annoying as well as bird brain antics that by the end of the movie he almost ends up drinking himself into a drunken stupor! Finding out just who this Chicklet, really Offcer Butler, is Det. Lockery, like Travis Bickel a year later in the movie "Taxi Driver", becomes absolutely infatuated with her in trying to get Chicklet away from her pimp lover who in reality she's planning to bust. In Lockery trying to set up and bust Stick himself he sneaks into Officer Butler and Stick's loft not knowing exactly what officer Butler, or Chicklet, is supposed to be doing there! With Det. Lockery seeing Chicklet, who's white, romping around practically nude with Stick, who's black, in his boxer shorts was just about all the abuse that he could take which soon leads to the bloody shoot-out that cost Chicklet's or Offic Butler's life.After a chase through the crowded streets of mid-town Manhattan and shootout in the elevator of Saks 5th avenue department store Stick, who was trapped in the elevator with Bo, ends up getting blown away by the NYPD. The police department, in covering it's behind, tries to pin all the blame on the clueless Det. Lockery in Officer Butlers death but has so effectively incriminated itself in being behind Officer Butlers ridicules plan that the NYPD later decided to drop the whole thing. The NYPD gives Det. Lockery another chance as a New York City policeman only to have the now emotionally crippled cop, who didn't know that he was about to be freed, put an end to it all by hanging himself in his prison cell.A sad commentary on how people totally unqualified end up wearing badges and carrying guns because of misguided policies by police departments all over the country. In them trying to be either politically correct or bending the rules and pulling strings in order to get relatives, in this case a son,into the department. All this because someone in their family was once, or still is, a police officer. Bo Lockely was about as qualified to be a cop, much less detective, as 98 pound weakling Woody Allan was qualified, back then in 1975, to fight Muhammad Ali or George Foreman for the Heavyweight Championship of the world. In Lockerys case the unconceivable, him being a policeman, became a sad reality and that reality not only lead to Officer Butler's death but his own as well.
helpless_dancer
A not too likable, idealistic young detective is given an assignment which was unnecessary and therefore led to a tragedy and a shakeup in the police hierarchy. The detective, who was totally useless as a policeman, got all wrapped up emotionally with his assignment and acted completely irrationally when confronted with a dangerous situation. I liked the way the film jumped back and forth in time and depicted life in the department and in the inner city realistically. I didn't care for the way a pad happened to be placed conveniently on the rooftop so the jumpers would have a soft landing. Good drama well worth watching.
HiLander-4
You'll overlook this film unless you really are an Aquarian and remember its original theatrical run. Not as highly regarded as Serpico. or Prince of the City, but just as important as one of the breakthrough films that suggested cops could be the bad guys, or, more accurately," ...there are no good guys, there are no bad guys, there's only you and me and we two disagree..". If, by chance you ever see this on the rental shelf, or late night TV, watch it, and you won't be sorry, even if only to see a chronicle of the times before anti-heroes regularly wore badges."Homicide" (also starring Yaphet Kotto), "Law and Order" (also, originally, starring Michael Moriarity)...even "Hill Street Blues" owe a debt to this gritty, depressing view of the law enforcement establishment.In retrospect, watching this film adds significance to the subsequent work of its company.
