Serpico

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Year:	1973
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Sidney Lumet
Genre:	True life corruption drama
Starring:	Al Pacino, John Randolph, Biff McGuire
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070666/
Tagline:	Many of his fellow officers considered him the most dangerous man alive - An honest cop.
Favourite line:	"You stupid fuck! You didn't know me? You fired without a warning, without a fucking brain in your head? Oh, shit. If I buy one, motherfucker, I ain't buying it from you."

Al Pacino in amazing form.

Al plays real life cop Frank Serpico, a man of rock solid moral fibre who absolutely refuses to become embroiled in the corruption that is expected from a New York cop.
The way it works - the crooks are shaken down, their money is taken, and the cops share the spoils, to the tune of near enough $1000 a month, a huge amount 30 odd years ago. His refusal to accept the corrupt cash leads him to be distrusted by his fellow cops. His superiors use him to try to uncover what is actually happening, then fail to back him up when it comes to crunch time, the reason being that many of them are neck deep in the shite they are supplying the shovels for.

Intelligent, thought provoking, upsetting, and still relevant thirty plus years later.
Watch it.