jim_skreech Being a huge fan of gritty New York films from the 70s and 80s, I was quite excited to chance upon this film. Starring Robert Duvall, a stalwart of this era, and involving an angry cop in 70s NYC, I had my aims set high. Unfortunately, aside from some nice footage from the era, this felt to be a waste of time.Robert Duvall is a racist, grizzled cop, suspended from the force after a suspect falls off a roof whilst escaping arrest. Following his suspension, his partner Gigi turns up dead in Brooklyn with his throat cut. Turns out that Gigi had been doing some sneaky deals relating to a shipment of arms going to Puerto Rico.Badge 373 was notable for upsetting some of the Puerto Rican community, who had called for the film not to be released. Duvall's character is unpleasant, racist and not at all sympathetic, however, the Puerto Rican characters are mainly made up of hoodrats, petty criminals, crime bosses and junkie hookers, often Caucasians in brown make-up, and none at all redeemable. In the film's defence, the scene where Duvall visits a 'libra Puerto Rico!' rally does give valuable screen time to portray the pressures and frustrations that mainland US Puerto Ricans were facing at that time, and I get the feeling from this that the director did not intend to make a racist film, possibly even sympathetic towards Puerto Ricans, but just made an incredibly clumsy effort at portraying racial relations at that time.Coming from the year that gave us Serpico and The Seven-Ups, Badge 373 also feels very dated, even in comparison to Bullitt or Point Blank some 5 years earlier. The soundtrack and Batman-style fight scenes hark back to family friendly 60s TV shows like Dragnet or The Untouchables, the bus chase scene, for some the highlight of the film was well conceived, but is just goofy in practice, more reminiscent of one of the Smokey And The Bandit films.Badge 373 is a rather embarrassing watch, especially for Duvall who was in his prime as an actor at this time. Strictly only for genre completists.

Wizard-8 The early 1970s was a prime time for police-themed movies, not just in America, but in other countries as well. However, "Badge 373", while probably not the worst of its kind, is for the most part a very forgettable example of the genre. For starters, while Robert Duvall has certainly played tough and ruthless characters well in other movies (see "The Outfit" for an example, which came out the same year), here his performance is kind of half hearted. I think the reason for that may be that the screenplay is really lacking. Certainly it makes Duvall's character kind of one note, but the story aspect is just as bad. While the mystery is easy to follow, it is a really slow investigation. There's quite a bit of padding here, such as a completely unnecessary nighttime chase involving a bus. That action sequence, by the way, is not particularly exciting, nor is any of the other (and limited) action that is in the movie. I'm sure even the few people who saw this movie when it played in theaters found it a dull experience, so I can only imagine what modern day viewers weaned on the hyper kinetic cop thrillers of modern times would think of it. It's hard to believe it received a Blu-ray release a few years ago.

Poseidon-3 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.)

Jon Gillett My views on films are enigmatic sometimes; this is one of those times..!I tend to like 2 completely mutually exclusive types of film; really good enjoyable movies & really bad enjoyable movies. Some can be a bit of both and this is the category I present for "Badge 373". A group of my friends & I enjoy nothing more than film nights which include a wide variety of good and bad films; all ultimately just fodder for us to critique, but features like this one really help break up the monotony of current Hollywood sensibilities and political correctness.I won't bother to re-iterate what has already been posted regarding "plot" etc, but I will add comments to justify why I think it deserves to be included at the very top of the "So bad it's good" selection.To start Robert Duvall...He has two characters in his repertoire "Angry man" (Network,Badge373,etc) & "The thinker" (The Apostle,THX1138). Thankfully he plays his angry man who practically shouts all the time in this..and shout he does; obscenities and racist remarks a given (sexist,racist,homophobic{before most knew the meaning of the word} and practically ever other you can imagine). The dialogue is simply ridiculous and even Duvall must have had many quiet chuckles to himself "memorising" such unforgettable lines as "I hope you're circumcised as survival in prison is measured in terms of inches"! Yep you guessed it; this film was produced pre-certification...Need I say more regarding the dialogue? It really has to be heard to be believed..! I would certainly agree with what other critics have said here..that it is a "Cop-film" born of the times it was made; with the copper portrayed as a hard-as-nails, uncompromising, morally challenged, thug: Who is as bad as the criminals he is chasing down. As has been said; It does not do the fine job that French Connection did, but then can you really compare the two directors (William Friedkin vs Howard Koch)?Do yourself a favour and get hold of a copy if you can; it took me close to 7 years to track down a copy after seeing the trailer on a bootleg VHS of "Cheech & Chong's - Up in smoke". I will now list reasons for your time & effort to source this feature: 1.THE most ludicrous dialogue ever committed to film 2.Hopeless action/fight scenes that don't even look rehearsed(Comic genius) 3.The cop who's story is being filmed acts in a supporting role 4.No films like this will ever be made again(Un-PC) 5.Duvall has THE worst undercover costume ever(Wig & tashe) 6.The main villain is called "Sweet William" 7.It has possibly the most ridiculous chase scene ever with a bus-load of innocent civilians dragged into one mans vendetta & after all the effort to chase him, in order to kill him, they just thump him in the gut and leave him alone!...I could go on forever..."the learning to shoot with his left hand" scenes are pure gold, as is the "Until they kill me" line delivered with possibly the worst Brooklyn/Irish hybrid accent you ever heard.All that's left for me to do is write up the tag line: "A gun in his sock, an iron bar in his belt & no badge!" 5 Star atrocious goodness. Watch this after going down the pub for a few beers & you will laugh yourself silly...I know we did!