Fort Apache, The Bronx

In 1981 Paul Newman made Fort Apache, The Bronx, a standard cop drama that was in the tradition of much better films about the seamy side of police work, such as Serpico. Newman starred as Murphy, a long-tenured patrolman, who manages to be both cynical about the crime-infested precinct where he works, yet still has a shred of humanity.

The film, directed by Daniel Petrie, is episodic in nature, with a couple of plot threads. One deals with Ed Asner as the new captain who wants to clean up the precinct with his by the book ways, even though he's told by those who know the area that his ideas won't work. The other has Pam Grier as a hooker who is killing people, though his thread is not well developed and wrapped up unsatisfactorily.

Newman is engaging, as always, but the film has a made-for-TV quality, and is further dragged down by some wooden acting by Ken Wahl, as Newman's clothes-horse partner, and Rachel Ticotin, as a nurse who becomes Newman's girlfriend.

The title of the film suggests that the precinct house is like a fortress surrounded by enemy territory, and the filmmakers took some heat from community leaders from the Bronx. The producers responded by inserting a title card at the beginning stating they were not suggesting that everyone who lived in the South Bronx was a criminal.