BY FRED BLOSSER
Peter
Hyams’ “Busting†(1973) was one of several early 1970s police dramas that
followed the lead of “Dirty Harry,†two years before, in glorifying vigilante
tactics by disgruntled cops. Los Angeles
Detective Michael Keneely (Elliott Gould) tries to entrap a hooker, Jackie
(Cornelia Sharpe), by posing as a prospective john. He and his partner Patrick Farrell (Robert
Blake) trash her apartment without a warrant, looking for her “trick book†of
clients, and arrest her. The
incriminating pages disappear from the journal after it’s processed into an
evidence locker, and a high-powered defense attorney (William Sylvester) has
Jackie’s arrest thrown out of court on grounds that Keneely lacked evidence of
a crime: she had not explicitly propositioned him before he made the
pinch. The detectives learn that
Jackie’s boss is Carl Rizzo (Allen Garfield), a powerful drug and prostitution
kingpin, and they go after one of Rizzo’s heroin runners, Hyatt (Jack Knight)
with equal lack of success, igniting a bloody gunfight in a crowded public
market. Rizzo brags to Keneely that he
is so well connected politically that Keneely and Farrell will never be able to
touch him.
The
two cops are banished to an assignment nabbing “perverts†in the men’s room at the La Brea Tar Pits
Park. Marvel Comics fans take note,
Keneely has an “Ant-Man†comic book at hand to pass the time as he watches from
a stall. I doubt it was paid product
placement. Frustrated, they target Rizzo
on their off-hours with a campaign of harassment, hoping to eventually make a
case while getting under the gangster’s skin. Rizzo is so predatory and arrogant that the viewer, presumably, has no
qualms about Keneely and Farrell nailing him by any means necessary. This was the same Nixon-Era, middle-class
paranoia that “Dirty Harry†manipulated even more cunningly: the fear that
criminals were literally getting away with murder (not to mention rape,
robbery, and varied affronts to public decency) because recent court decisions
had tied the hands of the police.
In
an audio commentary with Elliott Gould for Kino-Lorber’s new Blu-ray release
of “Busting,†film critic Kim Morgan
calls the movie a “wonderful . . . under-looked should-be-‘70s-classic.†“Classic†is debatable; “curiosity pieceâ€
might be a better description for younger audiences who are likely to find the
period ambience of cynicism, grimy squad rooms, seedy peep shows, and strip
bars novel. Be warned, the dialogue is
heavy with offensive terms like “faggot†and “fruit†that may reflect the
homophobic slang of the time but are no longer tolerated at all.
Although
the movie runs a trim 92 minutes, it seems longer: Hyams’ script tends to
wander from scene to scene, never really picking up much momentum except during
the well-filmed chase and shootout at L.A.’s Grand Central Market, and even
that sequence drags at the end. None of
the characters is sharply developed, only Keneely having much in the way of a
background, and that limited to a monolog about how he started out as an
idealistic young cop. Two iconic ‘70s
cult actors are cast in small supporting parts -- Sid Haig as Rizzo’s bodyguard
and Antonio Fargas as an aggressive customer in a gay bar where Keneely and
Farrell are assigned to a drug stakeout -- but neither is given much to
do.
In
his comments on the audio track with Kim Morgan, Gould recalls that Ron Leibman
was originally set to play his partner, but when Leibman didn’t work out
(Gould’s comments on this point are vague), Peter Boyle and Blake were up for
the part. Gould says, “I love both
actors,†but he championed Blake because the actor was “dangerous and
unpredictable.†Ironically, Gould’s
character is the more volatile of the two detectives. The movie might have worked better if the two
leads had been cast to type, Blake as Keneely and Gould as Farrell. Gould’s commentary is droll and
informative. “Oh my God, I don’t remember
this,†he says as Cornelia Sharpe takes off her top in the scene between
Keneely and Jackie in her apartment.
The
1920x1080p image in the Kino-Lorber Blu-ray is about as serviceable as one
could expect from a 40-year-old, mid-budget movie. Other extras besides the commentary tracks
are trailers for “Busting†and two other releases, “The Long Goodbye†and
“Running Scared†(the 1986 Peter Hyams cop-buddy movie with Gregory Hines and
Billy Crystal, not the 2006 film of the same name with the late Paul Walker).
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