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Save the Tiger

Save the Tiger is a 1973 American drama film about moral conflict in contemporary America directed by John G. Avildsen, and starring Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman, Thayer David, Lara Parker, and Liv Lindeland. The screenplay was written years prior by Steve Shagan, who novelized his screenplay in 1972 while trying to sell the script to a studio.

Lemmon won the 1974 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Harry Stoner (making him the first of six actors to win Oscars for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor), an executive in the garment industry who struggles with the complexity of modern life versus the simplicity of his youth.

Plot
Harry Stoner lives in high style in a Beverly Hills mansion with a Spanish-speaking maid. Traumatized by combat in WWII, and overwhelmed by his business and life pressures, he is obsessed with his baseball-loving youth. Awakening in a scream for the second time that week, and acting out pre-war Brooklyn Dodgers baseball games in the bedroom − including a wild pitching windup he nostalgically recalls − his wife, Janet (Patricia Smith) urges him to call a Dr. Frankfurter for a hypnosis session. He's explained to her that every morning he wakes up costs him $200 − what with the mortgage, daughter's Swiss school, pool cleaner, tree surgeon, etc. − and that they have to somehow finance a new line of female fashion at work, after doing "ballet with the books" the previous year to stay afloat (triggering a possible audit).

Driving to the office in his new Lincoln Continental, he picks up a young free-spirited hitchhiker on Sunset Strip, Myra (Laurie Heineman) − last of the flower-power hippies. She asks him if he wants to "ball"; he thanks her for asking but declines because he's late to work.

Stoner co-owns a financially-struggling Los Angeles apparel company, Capri Casuals. He and his partner, Phil Greene (Jack Gilford) have kept it from collapsing by fraudulent accounting and are possibly facing an audit. Today is the day of their big fashion show for their out-of-town buyers and Stoner and Greene argue intensely about what to do to pay for the new fashion line. The bank will only give them 50% on sales and they will need another like amount within 60 days.

Dismissing all legal ways to come up with the money, while asking Greene if he really wants to be out on the street looking for a job at his age, Stoner poses the possibility of torching their Long Beach factory for the insurance payout. An important client arrives by trains from Ohio, expecting service by a local prostitute, Margo (Lara Parker), which Stoner has arranged for him in the past. The client suffers an arterial occlusion while cavorting with her and a French-speaking assistant, and is taken by ambulance for emergency treatment with heart specialists. Still shaky from dealing with his client's medical emergency, Stoner takes the stage at the premiere of his company's new line, only to be overcome by war memories as he imagines seeing injured soldiers in the audience. Explaining that the Capri in his company name is the island in Italy where he was treated for his war injuries in a barely coherent ramble, he's saved by the event's emcee. The line is a success with buyers but all express concern about Stoner. Sid Fivush (Ned Glass), a financier with the mob, offers emergency financing backstage at 200%.

Stoner and Greene furtively meet the arsonist Charlie Robbins (Thayer David) in the balcony of a blue movie theater, passing him an envelope containing a $2,500 cash retainer and keys and address for the factory he is to burn down. He will check out the property that evening and they'll meet again at the theater the next morning. On the way out of the theater Stoner is asked to sign a petition to save the world's tigers. Stoner ends the day picking up Myra again, who is still hitchhiking, and spending the night with her where she's house sitting. Again he refuses sex and his behavior, including an incoherent rant, causes Myra concern.

At their meeting the next day Robbins informs them their warehouse is too far out of compliance on fire safety regulations, the insurance company would never pay out on a fire. The only way would be for him to start the fire in another business on the ground floor, owned by someone Stoner and Greene know, and funnel the flames into their second-floor space above. Stoner agrees to this without Greene, whom he asks Robbins to forget completely if things go wrong.

Stoner comes upon boys playing baseball in a field. The ball is hit to his left field fence. He enters the field to return it and winds up dramatically to pitch, sending the ball far over the backstop. The kids ask him why he did that. "So you could see it one time," Stoner replies, remaining on the field with a smile on his face. A kid looks at him and shouts, "You can't play with us, Mister!"

Production
The movie was written by Steve Shagan and directed by John G. Avildsen. Lemmon was determined to make the movie, despite its limited commercial prospects, and so he waived his usual salary and worked for scale. The movie was filmed in sequence after three weeks of rehearsal in Los Angeles. There is also a novel version of Save the Tiger, by Shagan: the title comes from a campaign to save tigers from extinction for which Stoner signs a petition.

Reception
The movie failed financially at the box office, but critics and viewers who saw it liked the performance of Lemmon as Stoner. Critic John Simon wrote Save the Tiger 'is a film with good, serious intentions, and thus a somewhat touching failure'.

New York Times critic Vincent Canby called it "not a very good movie but it's a rather brave one, a serious-minded examination of some of the least interesting aspects of the failed American dream".

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 28 reviews, and an average rating of 7.2/10. The consensus summarizes: "Jack Lemmon's outstanding performance helps Save the Tiger grab early '70s American anxiety firmly by the tail".

title: Save the Tiger


text:
Talk:Julia (1977 film)

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Last Tango in Paris

Last Tango in Paris (Ultimo tango a Parigi; Le Dernier Tango à Paris) is a 1972 erotic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The film stars Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and Jean-Pierre Léaud, and portrays a recently widowed American who begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.

The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on 14 October 1972 and grossed $36 million in its U.S. theatrical release, making it the seventh highest-grossing film of 1973. The film's raw portrayal of rape and emotional turmoil led to international controversy and drew various levels of government censorship in different jurisdictions. Upon release in the United States, the MPAA gave the film an X rating. United Artists Classics released an R-rated cut in 1981. In 1997, after the film became part of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library, the film was reclassified as NC-17.

Plot
Paul, a middle-aged American hotel owner mourning the suicide of his wife Rosa, meets a young, engaged Parisian woman named Jeanne at an apartment that both are interested in renting. Paul takes the apartment after they begin an anonymous sexual relationship there. He insists that they not share any personal information, even given names, much to Jeanne's dismay. At one point in their relationship, he rapes her. Despite this, she tells him that she tries to leave him, but can't bring herself to do it. The affair continues for some time until Paul decides to leave Jeanne, after which she arrives at the apartment and finds that he has packed up and left without warning.

Paul later meets Jeanne on the street and says he wants to renew the relationship. He tells her of the recent tragedy of his wife. As he tells his life story, they walk into a tango bar, where he continues telling her about himself. The loss of anonymity disillusions Jeanne about their relationship. She tells Paul she does not want to see him again. Paul, not wanting to let Jeanne go, chases her through the streets of Paris. While running, she continually yells at him to go away and tells him that their relationship is over. Despite her threats to call the police, he chases her all the way back to her building and forces his way into her apartment. He mocks her for running away from him, followed by him saying he loves her and wants to know her name.

Jeanne takes a gun from a drawer. She tells Paul her name and shoots him. Paul staggers out onto the balcony, mortally wounded, and collapses. As Paul dies, Jeanne, dazed, mutters to herself that he was just a stranger who tried to rape her and she did not know who he was, as if in a rehearsal preparing herself for questioning by the police.

Cast

 * Marlon Brando as Paul, an American expatriate and hotel owner
 * Maria Schneider as Jeanne, a young Parisian woman
 * Jean-Pierre Léaud as Thomas, a film director and Jeanne's fiancé
 * Maria Michi as Rosa's mother
 * Massimo Girotti as Marcel, Rosa's former lover
 * Giovanna Galletti as the prostitute, an old acquaintance of Rosa
 * Catherine Allégret as Catherine, a maid at Paul and Rosa's hotel
 * Gitt Magrini as Jeanne's mother
 * Luce Marquand as Olympia, Jeanne's former childhood nurse
 * Dan Diament as the TV sound engineer
 * Catherine Sola as the script girl
 * Mauro Marchetti as the TV cameraman
 * Peter Schommer as the TV assistant cameraman
 * Catherine Breillat as Mouchette, a dressmaker
 * Marie-Hélène Breillat as Monique, a dressmaker
 * Darling Légitimus as the Concierge
 * Veronica Lazăr as Rosa, Paul's deceased wife
 * Armand Abplanalp as the prostitute's client
 * Rachel Kesterber as Christine
 * Ramón Mendizábal as the Tango orchestra leader
 * Mimi Pinson as the President of Tango jury
 * Gérard Lepennec as the tall furniture mover
 * Stéphane Koziak as the short furniture mover
 * Michel Delahaye (scenes deleted) as the Bible salesman
 * Laura Betti (scenes deleted) as Miss Blandish
 * Jean-Luc Bideau (scenes deleted) as the Barge Captain
 * Gianni Pulone (scenes deleted)
 * Franca Sciutto (scenes deleted)

Production
Bernardo Bertolucci developed the film from his sexual fantasies: "He once dreamed of seeing a beautiful nameless woman on the street and having sex with her without ever knowing who she was". The screenplay was by Bertolucci, Franco Arcalli, and Agnès Varda (additional dialogue). It was later adapted as a novel by Robert Alley. The film was directed by Bertolucci with cinematography by Vittorio Storaro.

Bertolucci originally intended to cast Dominique Sanda, who developed the idea with him, and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Trintignant refused and, when Brando accepted, Sanda was pregnant and decided not to do the film. Brando received a percentage of the gross for the film and was estimated to have earned $3 million.

Maria Schneider stated in 2001 that her role in the original script was intended to be played by a boy.

An art lover, Bertolucci drew inspiration from the works of the Irish-born British artist Francis Bacon for the opening sequence of cast and crew credits. According to American artist Andy Warhol, the Last Tango film was based on Warhol's own Blue Movie film released a few years earlier in 1969.

After the film's release, criminal proceedings were brought in Italy against the film for "esasperato pansessualismo fine a se stesso" ("aggravated, gratuitous pansexualism"). The final judgment of the Court of Appeal (Cassazione) delivered on 29 January 1976 ordered that the film be seized by the censorship commission and that all copies be destroyed. Scriptwriter Franco Arcalli, producer Alberto Grimaldi, director Bernardo Bertolucci, and Marlon Brando were each given suspended sentences of two months imprisonment.

Rape scene
The film contains a scene in which Paul anally rapes Jeanne using butter as a lubricant. While the rape is simulated, Schneider has said the scene still had a tremendously negative effect on her. In a 2006 interview, Schneider said that the scene was not in the script and that "when they told me, I had a burst of anger. Woo! I threw everything. And nobody can force someone to do something not in the script. But I didn't know that. I was too young." In 2007, Schneider recounted feelings of sexual humiliation pertaining to the rape scene:

"They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry. I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn't know that. Marlon said to me: 'Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie', but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take."

In 2011, Bertolucci denied that he "stole her youth" (she was 19 at the time of filming), and commented, "The girl wasn't mature enough to understand what was going on." Schneider remained friends with Brando until his death in 2004, but never made up with Bertolucci. She also claimed that Brando and Bertolucci "made a fortune" from the film while she made very little money.

Schneider died in 2011. In February 2013, Bertolucci spoke about the film's effect on Schneider on the Dutch television show College Tour. In the interview, Bertolucci clarified that although the rape scene was in the script, the detail of using butter as a lubricant was improvised the day of shooting and Schneider did not know about the use of the butter beforehand. Bertolucci said that "I feel guilty, but I don't regret it."

In September 2013, Bertolucci spoke again about the scene at a retrospective at the Cinémathèque Française, claiming that the scene was in the script but the use of butter was not. Bertolucci said that he and Brando "decided not to say anything to Maria to get a more realistic response".

In November 2016, a slightly different version of the 2013 College Tour interview was uploaded to YouTube by the Spanish non-profit El Mundo de Alycia on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, accompanied by a statement concluding that the scene "abused [Schneider] psychologically and, who knows if also, physically..." This gained attention when Yahoo! Movies writer Tom Butler wrote an article about it prompting several celebrities to condemn the film and Bertolucci and a number of newspapers picked up on the story, reporting that Bertolucci had confessed to Schneider being raped on set, prompting Bertolucci to release a statement, clarifying that a simulation and not an actual intercourse took place.

Bertolucci also shot a scene which showed Brando's genitals, but in 1973 explained, "I had so identified myself with Brando that I cut it out of shame for myself. To show him naked would have been like showing me naked." Schneider declared in an interview that "Marlon said he felt raped and manipulated by it and he was 48. And he was Marlon Brando!". Like Schneider, Brando confirmed that the sex was simulated. Brando refused to speak to Bertolucci for 15 years after the production was completed. Bertolucci said:

"I was thinking that it was like a dialogue where he was really answering my questions in a way. When at the end of the movie, when he saw it, I discovered that he realized what we were doing, that he was delivering so much of his own experience. And he was very upset with me, and I told him, 'Listen, you are a grown-up. Older than me. Didn't you realize what you were doing?' And he didn't talk to me for years."

Francis Bacon influence
The film's opening credits include two paintings by Francis Bacon: Double Portrait of Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach and Study for a Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne. The hues used in the film were inspired by the paintings of Bacon. During pre-production, Bertolucci frequently visited an exhibit of Bacon's paintings at the Grand Palais in Paris; he said that the light and colour in Bacon's paintings reminded him of Paris in the winter, when

"the lights of the stores are on, and there is a very beautiful contrast between the leaden gray of the wintry sky and the warmth of the show windows...the light in the paintings was the major source of inspiration for the style we were looking for."

Bacon's painting style often depicted human skin like raw meat and the painter's inspiration included meat hanging in a butcher shops window and human skin diseases.

Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro had previously worked with Bertolucci on The Conformist and often used an azure hue in the film. Storaro later told a reporter that

"after The Conformist I had a moment of crisis; I was asking myself: what can come after azure?...I did not have the slightest idea that an orange film could be born. We needed another kind of emotion...It was the case of Last Tango."

For Last Tango in Paris, Bertolucci and Storaro took inspiration from Bacon's paintings by using "rich oranges, light and cool grays, icy whites, and occasional reds combine[d] with Bertolucci's own tasteful choices of soft browns, blond browns, and delicate whites with bluish and pink shadings".

Bertolucci took Marlon Brando to the Bacon exhibit and told Brando that he "wanted him to compare himself with Bacon's human figures because I felt that, like them, Marlon's face and body were characterized by a strange and infernal plasticity. I wanted Paul to be like the figures that obsessively return in Bacon: faces eaten by something coming from the inside."

Brando's lines
As was his practice in previous films, Brando refused to memorize his lines for many of the scenes. Instead, he wrote his lines on cue cards and posted them around the set, leaving Bertolucci with the problem of keeping them out of the picture frame. During his long monologue over the body of his wife, for example, Brando's dramatic lifting of his eyes upward is not spontaneous dramatic acting but a search for his next cue card. Brando asked Bertolucci if he could "write lines on Maria's rear end", which the director rejected.

Soundtrack
The film score was composed by Gato Barbieri, arranged and conducted by Oliver Nelson, and the soundtrack album was released on the United Artists label. AllMusic's Richie Unterberger noted "Although some of the smoky sax solos get a little uncomfortably close to 1970s fusion cliché, Gato Barbieri's score to Bertolucci's 1972 classic is an overall triumph. Suspenseful jazz, melancholy orchestration, and actual tangos fit the film's air of erotic longing, melancholy despair, and doomed fate". The soundtrack includes "Six Penny Ride" by Trevor Duncan (1924-2005).

Track listing
All compositions by Gato Barbieri.
 * 1) "Last Tango in Paris - Tango" – 3:23
 * 2) "Jeanne" – 2:34
 * 3) "Girl in Black - Tango (Para mi Negra)" – 2:06
 * 4) "Last Tango in Paris - Ballad" – 3:43
 * 5) "Fake Ophelia" – 2:57
 * 6) "Picture in the Rain" – 1:51
 * 7) "Return - Tango (La Vuelta)" – 3:04
 * 8) "It's Over" – 3:15
 * 9) "Goodbye (Un Largo Adios)" – 2:32
 * 10) "Why Did She Choose You?" – 3:00
 * 11) "Last Tango in Paris - Jazz Waltz" – 5:44

Personnel

 * Gato Barbieri – tenor saxophone, flute, vocal
 * Franco D'Andrea – piano
 * Franco Goldani, Wolmer Beltrani – accordion
 * Jean-François Jenny-Clark, Giovanni Tommaso – bass
 * Pierino Munari – drums
 * Afonso Vieira – percussion, berimbau
 * Ivanir "Mandrake" do Nascimento – percussion, tambourine
 * Orchestra arranged and conducted by Oliver Nelson

Reception
The film premiered as the closing film at the New York Film Festival on 14 October 1972, with high demand and enormous public controversy. The film did not have any press screenings due to concerns that the film was being shown against Italian law after the Italian censors had not passed the film. The lack of screenings increased demand for the film with some offering $100 to buy a ticket.

The film opened in late 1972 in France, where filmgoers stood in two-hour queues for the first month of its run at the seven cinemas where it was screened. It gained unanimous positive reviews in every major French publication. To circumvent Spanish state censorship, thousands of Spaniards travelled hundreds of kilometers to reach French cinemas in Biarritz and Perpignan where Tango was playing. Following that, it was released in the United States, Great Britain, and other venues.

The film generated considerable controversy because of its subject and graphic portrayal of sex. Schneider provided frank interviews in the wake of Tango's controversy, claiming she had slept with 50 men and 20 women, that she was "bisexual completely", and that she had used heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. She also said of Bertolucci, "He's quite clever and more free and very young. Everybody was digging what he was doing, and we were all very close."

During the publicity for the film's release, Bertolucci said Schneider developed an "Oedipal [sic] fixation with Brando". Schneider said Brando sent her flowers after they first met, and "from then on he was like a daddy". In a later interview, Schneider denied this, saying, "Brando tried to be very paternalistic with me, but it really wasn't any father-daughter relationship." However, in 2007, she said that "for me, he was more like a father figure and I a daughter."

In Italy, the film was released on 15 December 1972, grossing an unprecedented $100,000 in six days. One week later, however, police seized all copies on the order of a prosecutor, who defined the film as "self-serving pornography", and its director was put on trial for "obscenity". Following first degree and appeal trials, the fate of the film was sealed on 26 January 1976 by the Italian Supreme Court, which sentenced all copies to be destroyed (though some were preserved by the National Film Library). Bertolucci was served with a four-month suspended sentence in prison and had his civil rights revoked for five years, depriving him of voting rights. It grossed 7 billion lire ($3.9 million) in its initial release in Italy. It was re-released in 1987 where it grossed an additional 5 billion lire ($2.7 million). In 2000, it was listed as the second-highest grossing Italian film in Italy adjusted for inflation.

Response in United States
The film opened February 1, 1973 at the Trans-Lux East in New York City with a $5 ticket price and advance sales of $100,000, grossing $41,280 in its first week. The media frenzy surrounding the film generated intense popular interest as well as moral condemnation, and the film was featured in cover stories in both Time and Newsweek magazines. Playboy published a photo spread of Brando and Schneider "cavorting in the nude". Time wrote,

"Any moviegoers who are not shocked, titillated, disgusted, fascinated, delighted or angered by this early scene in Bernardo Bertolucci's new movie, Last Tango in Paris, should be patient. There is more to come. Much more."

The Village Voice reported walkouts by board members and "vomiting by well-dressed wives". Columnist William F. Buckley and ABC's Harry Reasoner denounced the film as "pornography disguised as art".

After local government officials failed to ban the film in Montclair, New Jersey, theatergoers had to push through a mob of 200 outraged residents, who hurled epithets like "perverts" and "homos" at the attendees. Later, a bomb threat temporarily halted the showing. The New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women denounced the film as a tool of "male domination".

The film's scandal centred mostly on an anal rape scene, featuring Paul's use of butter as a lubricant. According to Schneider, the scene was not in the original script, but was Brando's idea. Other critics focused on when the character Paul asks Jeanne to insert her fingers in his anus, then asks her to prove her devotion to him by, among other things, having sex with a pig. Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the film's sexual content as the artistic expression of the "era of Norman Mailer and Germaine Greer" and was upset about the high ticket price.

Film critic Pauline Kael endorsed the film, writing that "Tango has altered the face of an art form. This is a movie people will be arguing about for as long as there are movies." She called it "the most powerfully erotic movie ever made, and it may turn out to be the most liberating movie ever made." United Artists reprinted the whole of Kael's rave as a double-page advertisement in the Sunday New York Times. Kael's review of Last Tango in Paris is regarded as the most influential piece of her career.

Many feminist film critics disliked the film. In a 1974 review in Jump Cut, E. Ann Kaplan criticized it for featuring "a one-sided relationship seen mostly through Paul's eyes." In Women and Their Sexuality in the New Film, (1974) one of the first explicitly feminist books on film, Joan Mellen complains about a similar issue, that Jeanne constantly gives way to Paul, "the man who is made more interesting in every way." However, a few did enjoy it, such as Molly Haskell, who responded to feminist criticism in From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (1974) by noting that women more than men seemed to respond to the film, and that female sexual fantasies can include "rape, sadism, submission, liberation, and anonymous sex."

The American critic Roger Ebert repeatedly described Kael’s review as "the most famous movie review ever published", and he added the film to his "Great Movies" collection. American director Robert Altman expressed unqualified praise: "I walked out of the screening and said to myself, 'How dare I make another film?' My personal and artistic life will never be the same."

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected 44 reviews and gave the film an approval rating of 82%, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Naturalistic but evocative, Last Tango in Paris is a vivid exploration of pain, love, and sex featuring a typically towering Marlon Brando performance."

In 2004, director Martin Scorsese compared this "towering Brando performance" to the actor's turn as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954) and noted that "[w]hen you watch his work in ... Last Tango in Paris, you’re watching the purest poetry imaginable, in dynamic motion".

Ethan Hawke considered Brando's work a seminal moment in the movement of performance. Praising both the star and the director of the film, Hawke told Richard Linklater and Louis Black that, "Brando upped [On the Waterfront] with Last Tango." Pauline Kael, in her aforementioned review, had echoed the same sentiments by saying, "On the screen Brando is our genius as [Norman] Mailer is our genius in literature … Paul feels so 'real' and the character is brought so close that a new dimension in screen acting has been reached."

Richard Brody of The New Yorker praised the personal nature of Brando's role, commenting in his review of Listen to Me Marlon (2015) that, "'When Brando said what he himself had to say, it was indeed of a unique value. That's why the best of Brando is when he's closest to himself, as in ... Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris, from 1972. It isn’t only his words that are better than those of the screenwriters; his persona, his character, is greater than those that are scripted.'" In 2019, actor Brad Pitt said the film from the past he'd most like to have starred in is Last Tango in Paris, "Brando. That one hurts." Premiere had named Brando's performance the 27th-greatest film performance of all time in April 2006.

The film was given a nationwide release on February 7, 1973, and grossed $36 million in the United States and Canada, the seventh highest-grossing film of 1973.

Other international responses
British censors reduced the duration of the sodomy sequence before permitting the film to be released in the United Kingdom, though it is not cut in later releases. Mary Whitehouse, a Christian morality campaigner, expressed outrage that the film had been certified "X" rather than banned outright, and Labour MP Maurice Edelman denounced the classification as "a licence to degrade".

The film was censored in Spain during the Franco regime and was not released until December 1977. Chile banned the film entirely for nearly thirty years under its military government, and the film was similarly suppressed in Portugal, until the Carnation Revolution in 1974, when its première became an example of the freedom democracy allows. The same happened in Brazil during the period of military dictatorship when the film was censored, until it was finally released in 1979. Other countries that banned it include Argentina, South Korea, Singapore, and Venezuela.

In Australia, the film was released uncut with an R certificate by the Australian Classification Board on 1 February 1973. It received a VHS release by Warner Home Video with the same classification on 1 January 1987, forbidding sale or hire to anyone under the age of 18.

In Canada, the film was banned by the Nova Scotia Board of Censors, leading to the landmark 1978 Supreme Court of Canada split decision in Nova Scotia (Board of Censors) v McNeil, which upheld the provinces' right to censor films.

Accolades
Brando received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Bertolucci was nominated for Best Director.

In 2002, the film ranked #48 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions.

title: Last Tango in Paris


text:
The Last Detail

The Last Detail is a 1973 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby, from a screenplay by Robert Towne, based on the 1970 novel of the same name by Darryl Ponicsan. The film stars Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, Randy Quaid, Clifton James, and Carol Kane. It follows two career sailors assigned to escort a young emotionally withdrawn recruit from their Virginia base to Portsmouth Naval Prison in Maine.

The Last Detail was theatrically released in the United States by Columbia Pictures on December 12, 1973. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances of Nicholson and Quaid, as well as Towne's screenplay. It was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, three Academy Awards, and four British Academy Film Awards (winning two).

Plot
In Norfolk, Virginia, Navy lifers Signalman First Class Billy "Badass" Buddusky and Gunner's Mate First Class Richard "Mule" Mulhall are assigned a shore patrol detail escorting 18-year-old seaman Larry Meadows to Portsmouth Naval Prison near Kittery, Maine. Meadows has been court-martialed, dishonorably discharged, and sentenced to eight years in the brig for attempted robbery of $40 from a charity donation box, which happened to be run by the wife of the Norfolk Naval Base Commander.

Badass and Mule are given one week to accompany Meadows to the brig. Despite their initial resentment of the detail and Meadows' habit of stealing, they come to like the young man, who is timid, naive, and resigned to his fate. Out of sympathy for what they feel is Meadows' unjust sentence and wanting to show him a good time, the pair make stops along their route to provide bon-voyage adventures for the young man.

The group's activities include bar-hopping, brawling with Marines, and other misadventures. They stay overnight at a hotel, drinking and watching TV after missing their train. Badass teaches Meadows some flag semaphore signals and tries to get the young prisoner to stick up for himself by provoking him into a fight, but is unsuccessful. The following morning, they take a detour to Camden, New Jersey to see Meadows' mother, but she is not home and the house is in a state of disarray with empty liquor bottles lying around.

In New York City, the men encounter a group of chanting Nichiren Buddhists who teach Meadows how to pray. One of the Buddhists invites the trio to a house party, where she offers to help Meadows flee his imprisonment and find refuge in Canada. Meadows declines, reasoning he does not want to cause trouble for his "best friends". Badass tries to seduce a woman at the party by talking about the romance of the sea, but she shows little interest. Mule makes awkward conversation about serving in the Navy with the liberal party guests.

In Boston, Badass and Mule take Meadows to a brothel so he can lose his virginity. When alone with a young prostitute, Meadows immediately ejaculates, but Mule and Badass pay for Meadows to have a second chance. While waiting, Badass and Mule make conversation about their lives outside of the Navy. Badass reveals a previous marriage dissolved because his wife wanted him to be a TV repairman. Mule has not married and is still supporting his mother. The next morning, Meadows tells the two men that despite the prostitute's profession, he thinks she might have had romantic feelings for him.

Just as they are about to leave for Portsmouth, Meadows makes a final request for a picnic. The senior sailors buy some hot dogs and attempt a frigid barbecue in the snow at a local park, where Badass confides in Mule about his concern for Meadows and the potential abuse that he will face in prison. Meadows suddenly bolts in a last-ditch effort to run away but falls down and is caught by the two men, who subdue and pummel him.

Badass and Mule take Meadows to the brig, where he is marched off to be processed without a word. The young duty officer, a Marine first lieutenant wearing an Annapolis ring, notices Meadows' injuries and berates Badass and Mule. The sailors are asked if Meadows tried to resist or fight, which they deny. The officer gives them a hard time, noticing that their orders were never signed by the master-at-arms in Norfolk, and claiming that as far the Navy is concerned, the orders are still in Norfolk. The officer says the pair are in deep trouble but relents when they demand to speak to his boss, the Executive Officer. On the way out, Badass admonishes the officer for forgetting to keep his copy of the paperwork. With the detail complete, the pair stride away from the prison complaining about the officer's incompetence. Both hope their orders will have come through when they get back to Norfolk.

Cast

 * Jack Nicholson as Signalman 1st Class Billy L. "Badass" Buddusky
 * Otis Young as Gunner's Mate 1st Class Richard "Mule" Mulhall
 * Randy Quaid as Seaman Laurence M. "Larry" Meadows
 * Clifton James as M.A.A.
 * Carol Kane as Young Whore
 * Michael Moriarty as First Lieutenant Marine Duty Officer
 * Nancy Allen as Nancy
 * Gilda Radner as Nichiren Shoshu Member
 * Jim Hohn as Nichiren Shoshu Member
 * Luana Anders as Donna
 * Kathleen Miller as Annette
 * Gerry Salsberg as Henry
 * Pat Hamilton as Madame
 * Don McGovern as The Bartender

Production
Producer Gerry Ayres had bought the rights to Darryl Ponicsan's novel in 1969. After returning from the set of Drive, He Said, Robert Towne began adapting the novel. The screenwriter tailored the script for close friends Jack Nicholson and Rupert Crosse. In adapting the novel, Towne removed Buddusky's "closet intellectualism and his beautiful wife". The screenwriter also changed the ending so that Buddusky lives instead of dying as he does in the book. Ayres convinced Columbia Pictures to produce the film based on his consultant's credit on Bonnie & Clyde but had difficulty getting it made because of the studio's concern about the bad language in Towne's script. Peter Guber recalled, "The first seven minutes, there were 342 'fucks'". The head of Columbia asked Towne to reduce the number of curse words to which the writer responded, "This is the way people talk when they're powerless to act; they bitch". Towne refused to tone down the language and the project remained in limbo until Nicholson, by then a bankable star, got involved.

Ayres sent the script to Robert Altman and then Hal Ashby. Ayres remembers, "I thought that this was a picture that required a skewed perspective, and that's what Hal had". Ashby was coming off the disappointing commercial and critical failure of Harold and Maude and was in pre-production on Three Cornered Circle at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer when Jack Nicholson told him about The Last Detail, his upcoming film at Columbia. The director had been sent the script in the fall of 1971, with a reader's report calling it "lengthy and unimaginative", but he personally found it very appealing.

He wanted to do it but it conflicted with his schedule for Three Cornered Circle. Ashby pulled out of his deal with MGM, and Nicholson suggested that they team up on Last Detail. Columbia did not like Ashby because he had a reputation of distrusting authority and made little effort to communicate with executives. The $2.3 million budget was low enough for him to get approved.

Casting
Nicholson was set to play Buddusky; additional casting focused mainly on the roles of Mule and Meadows. Bud Cort met with Ashby and begged to play Meadows, but the director felt that he was not right for the role. Robert Englund also auditioned for the role of Meadows. Casting director Lynn Stalmaster gave Ashby a final selection of actors, and the two that stood out were Randy Quaid and John Travolta. As originally written, the character of Meadows was a "helpless little guy", but Ashby wanted to cast Quaid, who was 6'4". He had offbeat and vulnerable qualities that Ashby wanted. Towne remembers thinking, "There's a real poignancy to this huge guy's helplessness that's great. I thought it was a fantastic choice, and I'd never thought of it." Rupert Crosse was cast as Mule. Gilda Radner was cast in her first screen role, speaking one line as a member of Nichiren Shoshu.

Pre-production
The project stalled for 18 months while Nicholson made The King of Marvin Gardens. Guber told Ayres that he could get Burt Reynolds, Jim Brown, and David Cassidy and a new writer, and he would approve production immediately. Ayres rejected this proposal, and the studio agreed to wait because they were afraid that the producer would take the film to another studio. Ashby and Ayres read navy publications and interviewed current and ex-servicemen who helped them correct minor errors in the script. The director wanted to shoot on location at the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, and the brig at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but was unable to get permission from the United States Navy. However, the Canadian Navy was willing to cooperate and in mid-August 1972, Ashby and his casting director Stalmaster traveled to Toronto, Ontario to look at a naval base and meet with actors. The base suited their needs and Ashby met Carol Kane, whom he would cast in a small role. Opening scenes of the film were not shot at a Canadian Naval Base, but rather at CFB Borden, a major training base for the Canadian Air Force & Army.

Ashby was busted for possession of marijuana while scouting locations in Canada. This almost changed the studio's mind about backing the project, but the director's drug bust was not widely reported and Nicholson remained fiercely loyal to him, which was a deciding factor. Just as the film was about to go into production, Crosse was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Ashby postponed principal photography for a week to allow Crosse to deal with the news and decide if he still wanted to do the film. The actor decided not to do the film, and Ashby and Stalmaster scrambled to find a replacement. They cast Otis Young.

Principal photography
Ashby decided to shoot the film chronologically in order to help the inexperienced Quaid and recently cast Young ease into their characters. With the exception of Toronto doubling as Norfolk, the production shot on location, making the same journey as the three main characters. Early on, Quaid was very nervous and wanted to make a good impression. Ashby kept a close eye on the actor but allowed him to develop into the role. Haskell Wexler was supposed to shoot The Last Detail, but he could not get a union card for an East Coast production. Ashby asked Nestor Almendros and Gordon Willis but they were both unavailable.

The script originally called for the three sailors to cavort on the steps of the Supreme Court. But Chief Justice Warren E. Burger denied permission, reportedly in retaliation for Nicholson's public criticism of Richard Nixon, who appointed Burger to his position.

Ashby promoted Michael Chapman, his camera operator on The Landlord, to director of photography. They worked together to create a specific look for the film that involved using natural light to create a realistic, documentary style. Ashby let Nicholson look through the camera's viewfinder as a shot was being set up so he knew the parameters of a given scene and how much freedom he had within the frame. The actor said, "Hal is the first director to let me go, to let me find my own level".

Post-production
The day after principal photography was completed, Ashby had his editor send what he had cut together so far. Ashby was shocked at the results and fired the editor, becoming afraid he would have to edit the film himself. Ayres recommended bringing in Robert C. Jones, one of the fastest editors in the business, who had been nominated for an Academy Award for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Jones put the film back into rushes and six weeks later had a first cut ready that ran four hours. Ashby was very impressed with his abilities and trusted him completely. Jones cut the film with Ashby at the filmmaker's home. The process took an unusually long time, as the director agonized over all the footage he had shot. Ashby would ignore phone calls from Columbia, and eventually executives higher and higher up the corporate ladder tried to contact him. Ashby was in London, meeting with Peter Sellers about doing Being There when he received a phone call from Jones, who told him that Columbia was fed up with the time it was taking for the film to be assembled. The head of the studio's editing department called Jones to say that a representative was coming to take the film. Jones refused to give up the film, and Ashby called the studio and managed to calm down the officials. Towne occasionally visited Ashby's house to check in and did not like the pacing of the film. According to Towne, Ashby "left his dramatizing to the editing room, and the effect was a thinning out of the script". During the editing process, Columbia hated the jump cuts Ashby employed. The studio was also concerned about the number of expletives. It needed a commercial hit as they were in major financial trouble. By August 1973, the final cut of The Last Detail was completed and submitted to the MPAA, which gave it an R rating.

Columbia was still not happy with the film and asked for 26 lines to be cut that had the word "fuck" in them. The theatrical release of The Last Detail was delayed for six months while Columbia fought over the profanity issue. The film contained 65 uses of "fuck" overall and at the time of its release, broke the record for most uses of the word in a motion picture. Ashby persuaded Columbia to let him preview the film to see how the public would react. It was shown in San Francisco, and the screening was a huge success.

Box office
Ayres persuaded Columbia to submit The Last Detail to the Cannes Film Festival. After Nicholson won Best Actor there, the studio finally gave the film a theatrical release. The film opened at the Bruin Theater in Westwood, Los Angeles for a special 11-day Academy Award qualifying engagement where it grossed $46,369. A wide release was planned for the spring of 1974. The film was not a box office success, despite Oscar nominations for Nicholson, Quaid, and Towne by the time of the wide opening. The film would go on to earn $5 million in rentals at the North American box office.

Home media
It was initially released on VHS and Betamax videocassettes, and Laserdisc and Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) Videodiscs, then later on DVD. Sony Pictures released The Last Detail on DVD in the United States on December 14, 1999. It was first made available on Blu-ray disc as a limited edition by boutique label Twilight Time in the United States on January 19, 2016 with two special features, an isolated score track and a theatrical trailer. The film was released in the UK by Powerhouse Films initially as a limited dual format edition set on February 27, 2017. Supplemental features include two cuts of the movie, original trailer; promotional materials; new interview with director of photography Michael Chapman; and a booklet.

Critical response
The film received very positive reviews. In The New York Times, Vincent Canby said Nicholson's performance was "by far the best thing he's ever done". Variety magazine also praised Nicholson, saying he was "outstanding at the head of a superb cast". Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film four stars out of four, writing that Nicholson "continues his impressive string of performances" and that the screenplay "is both funny and wise. It captures all the silliness, stupidity, and veiled warmth of men in groups." He ranked it second (behind Day for Night) on his list of the best films of the year. Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "a superior piece of film-making whose superlative acting, corrosive joking and dead-accurate feeling for time and milieu may well transcend its messages of hopelessness and innocence lost. But it is a downer, ferociously so."

In contrast, Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote in a generally negative review that "it's conceivable that this trim, foreshortened adaptation would have worked, if only the direction had been sharper. Unfortunately, Ashby has directed as if he were a novice, unsure of camera placement and lighting and undecided about what pace the story needs and what feelings it should evoke." Andrew Sarris, however, praised Ashby's "sensitive, precise direction". Time magazine's Richard Schickel wrote: "There is an unpretentious realism in Towne's script, and director Ashby handles his camera with a simplicity reminiscent of the way American directors treated lower-depths material in the '30s".

It was shown as part of the Cannes Classics section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Paul Tatara largely credited Towne's "profane, heartbreaking script" for the film's "small details, colorful language, and utterly believable character development, which cumulatively pack a real emotional wallop."

Awards and nominations
The Last Detail was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival and Nicholson was awarded Best Actor. It was also nominated for three Academy Awards – Jack Nicholson for Best Actor, Randy Quaid for Best Supporting Actor, and Robert Towne for Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, with none of them winning. In addition, The Last Detail was nominated for two Golden Globes Awards – Nicholson for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and Quaid for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. Nicholson also won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role in the film. Nicholson won the Best Actor awards from the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle. However, he was disappointed that he failed to win an Oscar for his performance. "I like the idea of winning at Cannes with The Last Detail, but not getting our own Academy Award hurt real bad. I did it in that movie, that was my best role".

Unofficial sequel
In 2006, filmmaker Richard Linklater expressed an interest in adapting Last Flag Flying, a sequel to The Last Detail, into a film. In the novel, Buddusky runs a bar and is reunited with Larry Meadows after his son is killed in the Iraq War. Linklater's adaptation, which he co-wrote with Ponicsan, was released in November 2017 and stars Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne, and Steve Carell.

title: The Last Detail


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Silk Stalkings

Silk Stalkings is an American crime drama television series that premiered on CBS on November 7, 1991, as part of the network's late-night Crimetime After Primetime programming package. Broadcast for two seasons until CBS ended the Crimetime experiment in June 1993, the remaining six seasons ran exclusively on USA Network until the series finale on April 18, 1999. The show was creator Stephen J. Cannell's longest-running series. Its title is a wordplay on "silk stockings".

The series portrays the daily lives of two detectives who solve sexually-based crimes of passion ("silk stalkings") among the ultra-rich of Palm Beach, Florida. Most episodes were shot in San Diego, California, while some were filmed in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Chris and Rita
From 1991 to 1995, the lead characters were played by Rob Estes and Mitzi Kapture, as detectives Christopher Lorenzo and Rita Lee Lance, respectively. The story lines were told in a partially first-person perspective focusing on Lance, who would speak in voiceovers throughout the episodes. Early in the series, Ben Vereen played Rita's boss, Captain Hutchinson ("Hutch"). Vereen was compelled to retire from the show during the second season due to an off-screen accident, but he returned for a few guest appearances. His successor was Lt. Hudson, played by Robert Gossett, who stayed on until the third season. Chris and Rita's new boss, who would stay with the show for its duration, was Charlie Brill as Captain Harry Lipschitz. Brill went on to appear in the most episodes of any actor, 129, ahead of Kapture's 101 and Estes' 100. He was promoted to the opening credits starting with season six (none of the previous captains in the series had achieved this).

Brill's real-life wife Mitzi McCall played Lipschitz's free-spirited wife Frannie on the series, and the two provided some occasional comic relief amid the dramatic tension of the storylines. They also appeared in the second season playing completely different characters. Working prominently with Lorenzo and Lance was assistant district attorney George Donovan (William Anton). Various recurring characters came and went, notably Dennis Paladino as mob boss Donnie "Dogs" DiBarto (DiBelco in his first appearance); John Byner as Cotton Dunn, a cunning but likable con artist; Scott Atkins as Officer Perry, a rookie cop; Kim Morgan Greene as Melissa Cassidy, a late-night radio talk-show host, sex therapist, and old flame of Chris's; Danny Gans as Roger, a coroner who frequently (and unsuccessfully) tried to get Rita to go out with him; Marie Marshall as Solange, a local photographer with a faux French accent who crossed paths with Chris and Rita in the second season; and Lucy Lin, who played forensic expert Dr. Noriko Weinstein. Actress Freda Foh Shen took over Lin's role in later episodes. In the first season, Rita was shown to suffer from occasionally intense headaches, which were caused by a blood bubble in her brain. Rita opted not to have surgery to fix this because it was deemed too high-risk. However, as the series went on, this condition was gradually phased out of the plot and was never mentioned again. In the second episode of the first season, Going to Babylon, it was revealed that Rita's real name is Rita Lee Fontana. Her father, Donald was a wealthy businessman who lost his fortune in a series of bad business dealings involving a corrupt fellow businessman when she was six years old. Donald fell into a state of severe depression and alcoholism which eventually culminated in him committing suicide. Rita was adopted by Don and Sue Lance and she took their name in gratitude for the kindness and love they showed her growing up. Rita and Chris would go on to arrest the man responsible for her father's bankruptcy in that same episode.

Estes and Kapture were equal co-stars. The opening credits alternated, one week showing Estes first and then Kapture, the following week showing Kapture first and then Estes. The opening montage of quick cuts had "teasers" that suggested the sexy and violent subject matter of the show, but were not taken from any of the show's actual episodes. According to Stephen Cannell, in a DVD extra, they were developed initially as a promotion, filmed and assembled by Ralph Hemecker in a single day of filming, and featuring a leggy blonde actress/model whom Cannell said was named Avalon Jones. In the first two episodes of the series, Kapture was shown first, and then Estes; they alternated after that, except for Kapture's final episode, in which she (and not Estes) appeared in the opening montage, followed by the two new co-stars.

Two off-screen events in the summer of 1995 were pivotal to the show and were worked into the storyline. Both actors were ready to leave the series, Estes to pursue other acting opportunities and Kapture to take time off for her first child.

Estes had first flirted with departure at the end of the third season (spring of 1994). The season ended in a cliffhanger episode, "Dark Heart", with Chris being shot by an obsessed woman, played by Crystal Chappell. Chris was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance as the closing credits rolled. After negotiations, Estes decided to renew his contract, and the fourth season (fall 1994) began with Chris' recovery from his near-fatal wounds in a two-part episode, "Natural Selection", that was later released on VHS as a two-hour film.

In the fifth season (fall 1995), Chris and Rita's mutual attraction finally moved from friendship to love in a two-part episode in November, called "Partners". Nick Kokotakis, as detective Michael Price, was introduced during that episode. Rita, who was promoted to lieutenant, was soon confirmed to be pregnant (as was Kapture in real life), and Chris and Rita were married in an early December episode titled "Till Death Do Us Part". The next week's episode, "The Last Kiss Goodnight", ended with Chris being shot and killed in the line of duty.

Kapture appeared in one more episode, "Dead Asleep". This episode's credits featured Kapture but not Estes (for the only time in the series), as well as Kokotakis and Tyler Layton, who was introduced in the previous episode as Chris's new partner, detective Holly Rawlins. Most of the episode, which began with Rita, Harry and Frannie Lipschitz, Price, Rawlins, and Donovan at Chris' burial, was spent focusing on Michael and Holly's first case. At the end of the show, the grief-stricken Rita spends one final scene talking to Chris at his gravesite and saying goodbye to Lipschitz, and leaves the force for parts unknown.

Tom and Cassy
With Estes and Kapture gone from the show, Kokotakis and Layton took over the lead roles. Fans of the show did not embrace the new characters, and they were replaced after that half-season by Chris Potter and Janet Gunn. Gunn, who starred in the Crimetime After Primetime series Dark Justice as Kelly Cochrane in 1992 and '93, previously played a secretary arrested for murder in season 3.

Unlike the transition that was played out between Chris and Rita and Michael and Holly, no on-screen explanation was given for Michael and Holly's departure, and fans of the series sometimes refer to them as the "lost cast". ADA George Donovan was also written out of the series at the end of season five, leaving Harry and Frannie Lipschitz as the lone holdovers from the Lance and Lorenzo episodes.

The detectives moved into an upgraded precinct in season seven.

The romantic chemistry between Potter and Gunn's characters, Tom Ryan and Cassandra St. John, respectively (who, according to the story line, had been married to and divorced from one another before their arrival on the series), revived interest in the show and it rebounded in the ratings. After three additional seasons, USA cancelled the series in 1999. The final episode of the final season, in spring 1999, placing Tom's career and relationship with Cassy on the rocks, was a cliffhanger with no resolution.

Cast

 * Main

In the opening title cards, the two stars (Kapture/Estes, Kokotakis/Layton, and Potter/Gunn) alternate star billing on each episode:
 * Mitzi Kapture as Sgt. Rita Lee Lance (seasons 1–5)
 * Rob Estes as Sgt. Chris Lorenzo (seasons 1–5)
 * Charlie Brill as Capt. Harry Lipschitz (seasons 3–5 recurring, seasons 6–8 starring)
 * Nick Kokotakis as Det. Michael Price (season 5)
 * Tyler Layton as Det. Holly Rawlins (season 5)
 * Chris Potter as Det. Sgt. Tom Ryan (seasons 6–8)
 * Janet Gunn as Det. Sgt. Cassandra "Cassy" St. John (seasons 6–8)
 * Recurring

 * Ben Vereen as Capt. Ben "Hutch" Hutchinson (seasons 1–3)
 * William Anton as Assistant D.A. George Donovan (seasons 1–5)
 * Robert Gossett as Lt. Hudson (seasons 2–3)
 * Mitzi McCall as Frannie Lipschitz (season 4–8)

Home media
Anchor Bay Entertainment released the first five seasons of Silk Stalkings on DVD in Region 1 between 2004 and 2006. , these releases have been discontinued and are out of print.

On October 14, 2009, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to several Stephen J. Cannell series including Silk Stalkings. Season 1 was re-released on DVD on March 9, 2010.

On October 22, 2013, Mill Creek Entertainment released seasons six, seven, and eight together in one collection entitled: Silk Stalkings - Seasons 6, 7 and 8: The Ryan and St. John Cases.

On January 13, 2023, Visual Entertainment released Silk Stalkings - The Complete Collection, which contains all 8 seasons of the series together in one collection for the very first time.

title: Silk Stalkings


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Serpico

Serpico is a 1973 American biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino in the title role. The screenplay was adapted by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler from the book of the same name written by Peter Maas with the assistance of its subject, Frank Serpico. The story details Serpico's struggle with corruption within the New York City Police Department during his eleven years of service, and his work as a whistleblower that led to the investigation by the Knapp Commission.

Producer Dino De Laurentiis purchased the rights from Maas. Agent Martin Bregman joined the film as co-producer. Bregman suggested Pacino for the main part, and John G. Avildsen was hired to direct the film. Pacino met with Serpico to prepare for the role early in the summer of 1973. After Avildsen was dismissed, Lumet was hired as his replacement. On a short notice, he selected the shooting locations and organized the scenes; the production was filmed in July and August.

Upon its release, Serpico became a critical and commercial success. At the same time, the film drew criticism from police officers. It received nominations at the Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards. Pacino earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, while Salt and Wexler received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Plot
NYPD Officer Frank Serpico is rushed to the hospital, having been shot in the face. Chief Sidney Green fears that Serpico was shot by another cop. The rest of the film is shown as a long flashback.

Serpico graduates from the police academy with big ideas for improving the police force's community relations. He dresses like an actual civilian instead of wearing the department's standard plainclothes dress, which is easily recognizable. While he is chasing a burglar, other officers fail to recognize him as one of their own, and shoot at him. He realizes that deviating from protocols can be dangerous.

Serpico reports an attempted bribe to a high-ranking investigator, who chuckles and advises him to keep the money. Serpico soon learns that corruption is rampant in the police department. Forced to accompany officers as they collect payoffs from criminals and small businesses, Serpico refuses to accept his share of the money. He makes several attempts to alert superiors to the corruption but is rebuffed every time. Other officers learn that he is reporting them, and he begins to fear for his life.

Serpico and his well-connected friend Blair go to the mayor's assistant, who promises a real investigation and support but is stymied by political pressure. Ostracized, frustrated, and fearful, Serpico sinks into depression, which ruins his relationship with his girlfriend. He begins brutalizing well-connected suspects who had been bribing other officers and thought themselves protected. Finally, Serpico informs Captain McClain that he has reported his experiences to oversight agencies outside the police force. Furious, McClain tells the other officers.

Blair uses his connections to arrange a personal interview with the district attorney, who tells Serpico that if he testifies to a grand jury, a major investigation will follow. The DA limits his questions and prevents Serpico from revealing the ubiquity of corruption in the police force. Serpico and Blair take their story to The New York Times. After his allegations are printed, his superiors retaliate by assigning him to a dangerous narcotics squad in Brooklyn.

During a raid on a drug trafficker's apartment, Serpico's partners hold back at a critical moment and Serpico gets shot in the face. After a long, painful recovery, he testifies before the Knapp Commission, a government inquiry into NYPD corruption. An epilogue states that Frank Serpico resigned from the NYPD on June 15, 1972, was awarded the NYPD Medal of Honor for "conspicuous bravery in action", and moved to Switzerland.

Cast
In addition, F. Murray Abraham appears in an uncredited role as the team lead of Serpico's four man unit, setting Serpico up to be shot in the face at a drug bust. Judd Hirsch appears as one of the cops in the hospital, also uncredited.

Background
After Frank Serpico recovered from being shot, he helped Peter Maas write Serpico. Detective David Durk, who also appeared in front of the Knapp Commission, planned to sell the rights of their story for a film adaptation. Early negotiations included Paul Newman in the role of Durk, and Robert Redford as Serpico. Serpico distanced himself from the project, as he felt that he would be merely portrayed as a sidekick. Script writer John Gregory Dunne turned down the project, as he felt "there was no story". Director Sam Peckinpah, as well as Newman and Redford left the project.

After the success of several of his films in the 1960s, and the first years of the 1970s, producer Dino De Laurentiis decided to move from Italy to the United States. The change in financing laws further regulated the Italian film industry, and the producer settled in New York City. Following their collaboration on The Valachi Papers, De Laurentiis purchased the rights to Maas's book. Maas received US$400,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) and participation in the film, while the rights for his work were secured before the March 1973 publication of the book. Initially, De Laurentiis' found resistance to the project from Paramount Pictures. The studio considered that "enough cop movies" had been made. In turn, De Laurentiis was supported by Charles Bluhdorn, president of Gulf+Western who wanted the film to be made. De Laurentiis later declared that "no American producer would have had the courage" to depict police corruption in a motion picture.

Maas's agent, Sam Cohn, was approached by agent Martin Bregman. Bregman expressed his interest to also produce the film after reading an article in New York magazine about the book. Bregman proposed one of his signed actors, Al Pacino to play the lead. Waldo Salt was chosen to write the screenplay adaptation. The first draft did not impress Maas, De Laurentiis or Bregman. Bregman felt that the result was "very political", and that the story did not reflect what the producers desired to portray on the film. Bregman and Maas then directed Salt to the parts of the book they envisioned to be reflected on the screenplay. The second draft was considered a substantial improvement by the production team. Bregman took the treatment to Pacino, who initially did not find the film interesting. Salt then visited Pacino with the re-worked script, that convinced him to consider the part. A meeting with Serpico, Maas and Pacino was then arranged for the actor to meet the subject of the film. Upon meeting him, Pacino was fully convinced to accept the part. John G. Avildsen was then chosen to direct the film.

Salt's work did not satisfy Avildsen, who threatened to leave the project unless he could bring Norman Wexler to write the screenplay. They had previously worked together in Avildsen's Joe. Both then traveled to Switzerland, to visit Serpico at home, and work the details. Time to work on the production was constricted due to Pacino's commitment to The Godfather Part II. Further disagreement arose between Avildsen and Bregman regarding the script, and then the selection of the filming locations. Upon finding resistance to his plans, Avildsen threatened Bregman of quitting multiple times. An aggravated Bregman then called for a meeting with the production team, in order to cause the director to quit in front of witnesses. Avildsen had insisted on a meeting with Bregman and De Laurentiis to shoot a scene in the real home of Serpico's parents for authenticity. The producers felt that the structure could not accommodate the production team and equipment efficiently. The escalating tension on the meeting resulted in De Laurentiis firing Avildsen, and the director quit in return. Avildsen's account for the reason of his dismissal was that he refused to cast Bregman's then-girlfriend (and later wife) Cornelia Sharpe as Leslie. Avildsen would later declare that he should have treated the situation "with more finesse". Sidney Lumet was then hired to complete the job for his reputation as an effective director under a tight schedule.

Pacino was shortly distracted from the project by an offer to play the lead in Lenny, but ultimately he turned it down. To prepare for Serpico, he rode with police officers for a night, but he decided it was not enough. A method actor, he felt that he needed to spend time with Serpico. Pacino and Serpico met several times in Montauk, New York, where the actor rented a house for the summer season. Pacino was moved by Serpico's conviction to reform the NYPD, and became more committed to the project. In character, Pacino often walked through areas of the city that were considered dangerous at the time. While waiting in traffic, he attempted to arrest a truck driver, as he was enraged by the exhaust fumes. He was refused service at a Manhattan restaurant for the appearance he kept for the film.

Production
Lumet organized the 107 speaking parts that took place in 104 different locations. The longest scenes took up two-and-a-half pages of the screenplay, while the average was one page. A budget of $3.3 million (equivalent to $ million in ) was assigned. Two weeks of rehearsal were held. Pacino had learned Salt's screenplay, and he agreed with Lumet that Wexler's revised version improved the structure, but that the dialogue was impoverished. Lumet allowed the actors to improvise certain dialogues, and he also allowed their creative input for the scenes. The cast selected dialogues from both scripts as the filming progressed. Though he had already a good knowledge of New York locations, Lumet considered the work "physically brutal, and emotionally tough". The principal photography on Serpico began in early July 1973. The film was planned to be released before Christmas, with four-and-a-half months for the crew to complete the movie. Filming took place in July and August. The story of the film encompassed 11 years, from 1960 through 1971.

To accommodate the scenes around Pacino's facial hair, the film was shot in reverse. Pacino started with long beard and hair. He was shaved to a mustache, and then eventually his hair was cut, and he was clean-shaven for the beginning of the film. Lumet decided each day if Pacino was to be further shaven, and the crew prepared fake beards in case they were required. Winter conditions were simulated, as the team had to defoliate trees and cut shrubs. Special make-up was used to absorb the sweat, and to keep the actors' skin dry. The cast wore winter coats, and their skin was made to look bluish, while their breath had to be visible. The director followed Serpico's desire for the winter to look "cold and heavy", and the summer "idyllic and hazy". The team had difficulty to find locations suitable for the scenes set in the 1960s, since graffiti did not become common until 1970. Lumet shot up to 35 different setups daily. The team had to move three times a day on an average. Each location had to be cleared of cars that did not belong to the particular period, and extras could not feature long hair, or non-period wardrobe. Hairdressers were present with the crew. Multiple locations in the city including Harlem, South Bronx, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and Astoria, Queens were used. Lewisohn Stadium was featured shortly before its demolition. The party scene was shot at Sidney Kingsley's Fifth Avenue loft. The NYPD cooperated with the director, and allowed him to film in four active police stations.

Serpico's apartment had to be built by the crew. It featured a fixed ceiling, and movable walls. As with Serpico's original apartment, it was located in Greenwich Village. Through lighting, Lumet and cinematographer Arthur Ornitz chose to maintain a "warm look" on the location. Different techniques were used to reflect moods, and the changes that the character went through the years. Lumet focused on portraying Serpico's struggle to balance his work and personal life, and his increased isolation and alienation, as his efforts produced slow results. The director decided to portray him "darker and darker". As the film progressed, the cast costumes became darker in color, until the courtroom scene, where all the actors wore dark tones. Lumet told Charles Champlin: "I was trying to negate color, to make a picture in color that was not colorful". Meanwhile, he wanted Serpico's fellow officers to be "men with charm, who were all the more evil for being human and understandable". Lumet finished shooting the film in 51 days, on budget.

The film was edited by Dede Allen. Allen received the scenes from Lumet directly after they were shot. She had a limit of 48 hours to finish her work for its delivery to the sound department. Lumet did not want to add a score to the picture, but he decided he would do it before De Laurentiis commissioned one. He learned that Mikis Theodorakis was released from prison in Greece. He was able to locate him in Paris, as the composer quickly left his country of origin. Theodorakis accepted Lumet's offer, and flew to New York City the next day. He met with the director, who played the movie for him the day of his arrival. Theodorakis agreed that it should not have a soundtrack, but he offered a composition of his to add to the film. Theodorakis had arranged a tour of the United States with a Greek orchestra and told Lumet that he could not be present for the spotting session. Lumet offered the help of Bob James, who would sit with the director for the spotting. To inform of the progress of the sessions and possible changes on the arrangements, James flew to the cities where Theodorakis appeared in order to work the details together.

Release
The film was released on December 5, 1973 in New York, and on December 18 in Los Angeles. The opening week in New York garnered $123,000. Serpico was released nationwide on February 6, 1974. The film was a critical and commercial success. It grossed $29.8 million in the United States and Canada generating $14.6 million in theatrical rentals. It earned theatrical rentals worldwide of $23.4 million.

Serpico attended the premiere of the film, but he did not finish watching it. Serpico felt "distant" from the end results. On an interview with Pauline Kael for The New Yorker, he concluded that it "didn't give a sense of the frustration you feel when you're not able to do anything". According to Lumet's account, he met Serpico shortly before the production. The director asked him to stay clear of the set, to not make Pacino "self-conscious" regarding his portrayal. Serpico watched the film in its entirety for the first time in 2010. In a later interview, he declared that Lumet barred him from the set after he interrupted the shooting of a scene that in real life "never happened". Serpico also criticized the dismissal of Avildsen by the production team. Serpico and Avildsen remained friends, and shared a property on Long Island for three years in the 1980s. New York City Police Commissioner Michael Codd stated that the film "tends to imply that Serpico was the only honest cop in the whole department". Detective Durk was not pleased with Serpico. Durk, who was depicted in the character of Bob Blair, felt that the movie would deter other policemen to denounce corruption. On an interview with The New York Times, he considered that the movie was unfair to honest police officers. Durk stated that the end of the film conveyed that "the cost of honesty is martyrdom", and Serpico's departure for Switzerland showed him "wounded and frustrated". Meanwhile, Bronx district attorney Burton B. Roberts declared that it "bears absolutely no relationship to the truth". Lumet defended his artistic license on the portrayal of the story, as he felt he desired to make a film that "people believed in". Bregman dismissed the critics, as he felt that the real names were not relevant for viewers in cities outside New York. Maas dismissed Durk's claims regarding honest policemen and asked "where were they?"

Premiere reception
The New York Times felt that the film was "galvanizing" for Pacino's performance, and by the "tremendous intensity" of Lumet's direction. The publication considered the film at the same time "disquieting" for its use of fictional names, as the reviewer felt that it diminished the role of Durk. Meanwhile, it called Theodorakis's soundtrack "redundant and dumb". The New York Daily News delivered a favorable review of the film. It rated it four stars out of five, and called it "a triumph of intelligence, compassion and style". A follow-up critic by the publication deemed Pacino's acting a "masterful performance", as the reviewer remarked "he walks like a cop. He talks like a cop. He even seems to think as a cop". The review also praised Lumet and his "talent for achieving social realism". The Record considered it "one of the finest films of the year". While it felt that the portrayal of Serpico was "too righteous and obsessive", the review favored Pacino, but felt that his performance was "sometimes a little too intense". It praised the photography of New York City as authentic, and credited Ornitz and Allen's work for it. The Village Voice wrote a mixed review. It criticized the focus of the film on Serpico, and the minor role the screenplay writers gave to the character that represented Durk. The reviewer considered that Serpico was "worth seeing" for Pacino's performance. Variety deemed Pacino's acting "outstanding", and Lumet's a combination of "gritty action and thought-provoking comment". For Newhouse News Services it was an "exciting movie", but the review remarked that it was "weakened" by its focus on Serpico. The news agency attributed the minimization of the other characters to avoid "possible lawsuits". The Los Angeles Times acclaimed Serpico. Charles Champlin called Pacino "one of the handful of genuine star actors in American films". Salt and Wexler's screenplay was hailed as "almost documentary reality", and its treatment of the main character "a complex and evolving portrait". The reviewer also remarked that the romances and break-ups were presented with "unhackneyed honesty". The contributions of the supporting cast were well noted. Champlin felt that Allen's work was considered to be "high on the list" for an Academy Award nomination and deemed Theodorakis' music "effective".

Wide release reception
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars, noting its treatment of corruption as its "principal strength and weakness" and adding that Serpico "loses the perspective" that "corruption ... begins and ends with individuals making active and passive decisions". The Philadelphia Inquirer celebrated the film's critic of police corruption, despite its "embellishments and omissions" on the story. Pacino's performance was called "riveting", and the piece praised the "sharply individualized characterizations" by Tony Roberts, Jack Kehoe, John Randolph, Biff McGuire, Barbara Eda-Young and Cornelia Sharpe. Meanwhile, also for Philadelphia Inquirer, investigative journalist Greg Walter lamented its portrayal of police officers as "snarling, insipid ass(es)". Walter felt that Maas' book was "coldly objective", but that the director's work delivered characters that were "one-dimensional caricatures". The Boston Globe welcomed Lumet's "melodramatic efficiency". The publication considered the story "heavily repetitious", but favored its "quick pace". It regarded Ornitz's camerawork as "the right documentary look", while it lamented Theodorakis' score as "disruptive" and "out of character". Esquire further criticized Theodorakis, as the reviewer opined that his "composing voice ought to be silenced". Meanwhile, the piece praised Allen's work.

The Miami Herald hailed the use of "street talk" instead of the "language of actors and actresses" by Salt, Wexler and Maas. It praised Lumet and Ornitz's photography that "generate the smells, sounds and styles of the city". It considered Pacino's acting "predictably excellent", and it favored Theodorakis' music. The Detroit Free Press suggested that Serpico would be a breakthrough role for Pacino as an actor, and called his work "fascinating". The newspaper defined the film as an "encouraging morality tale". Meanwhile, San Francisco Examiner observed Pacino's acting to be "a brilliant, solidly thought out performance". The publication added that the supporting cast's contributions "never satisfactorily fleshed out". Regarding Lumet, the reviewer felt that he directed the film with "skill and vigor". The Cincinnati Enquirer attributed the commercial success of the film to Pacino's acting, and to the film's depiction of "hard, cold, grit and grime reality".

For The Evening Sun reviewer Lou Cedrone expressed his doubts about Durk's "gratis talk of defamation of the police image". Cedrone considered that Durk "comes off very nicely" on the film, and defended Lumet's choice to "emphasize the action rather than the definition". Meanwhile, it viewed the use of "Neapolitan" music as "foolish perhaps, but not touching". It declared Pacino's contribution "a magnificent performance". The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found Serpico to be "meticulously crafted, intelligently written, unflinchingly honest". The publication noted the "fidelity" with which the director captured New York, and that the city "becomes more than just a background". It summed Pacino's acting as "naturalistic, flawlessly convincing". The Honolulu Advertiser attributed Pacino's "brilliant portrayal" to turn an "ordinary cop movie" into "extraordinary". The review favored Lumet, the writers and the supporting cast.

The Austin American-Statesman highlighted realism in producing a "fascinating film". The Fort Worth Star-Telegram celebrated Pacino's "towering performance". Roberts' performance was noted as a "standout". Sharpe and Eda Young's appearances as Serpico's love interests were deemed to be "played with restrained excellence". The newspaper opined that the film was "15 minutes too long", but that viewers would not "realize the length until you're outside looking at your watch". The Kansas City Star detailed the criticism the film received from police officers, and Serpico's discontent with the production. The piece noted that despite the fictional additions, Serpico was a "superrealistic dramatization". Meanwhile, Wexler and Salt were praised for the authentic use of profanity in the dialogues. The Times opened its review applauding Serpico's denunciation of police corruption, while it pointed that the film "exceeds (the) expectations" of the viewers for it to be "powerfully dramatic". Lumet's "accurate eye for surroundings" was remarked, and the reviewer hailed Pacino and the supporting cast.

Later reviews
On the review aggregator Metacritic the movie garnered a score of 87 out of 100, based on 7 reviews from mainstream critics. The result indicated "universal acclaim". Rotten Tomatoes rated it 93% "Fresh" with an average score of 8.1/10, based on reviews from 55 critics. The consensus reads, "An engrossing, immediate depiction of early '70s New York, Serpico is elevated by Al Pacino's ferocious performance."

AllMovie gave Serpico five stars out of five. The review described the situation in the United States following the Watergate scandal, and how the "bureaucratic depravity touched a cultural nerve". It welcomed the film's "documentary-style realism". The A.V. Club received it positively, the reviewer felt that Serpico expressed "artful, character-driven slices of life". In its later review, The Village Voice declared that the "Watergate-era time capsule of hippie fashions" that the film presented "ought to look pretty dated", but that the story "feels depressingly relevant".

A 2023 article found that "the movie, like the life of its hero, remains a clear public good". The article commented that a film about a cop facing impossible, potentially fatal, obstacles for simply doing his job on the level "feels impossible in the Hollywood of today".

Legacy
On September 21, 1975, Serpico was premiered on television on The ABC Sunday Night Movie. It was released on VHS in 1991, and on DVD in 2002. The film was then made available in Blu-ray in 2013. Masters of Cinema released Serpico in the United Kingdom on Blu-ray in 2014. It contained three video documentaries about the film, a photo gallery with an audio commentary by Lumet and a forty-four page booklet.

A television series based on Maas's book and the motion picture was broadcast on NBC between September 1976 and January 1977, with David Birney as Serpico. Fourteen episodes were broadcast, and one was never aired. The series was preceded by a pilot film, Serpico: The Deadly Game, which was broadcast in April 1976.

The main character in the 1976 Italian film The Cop in Blue Jeans was inspired by Serpico. In the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, a poster of Serpico is featured in the room of its main character, Tony Manero. The film is referenced in 1994's Natural Born Killers by the character Dwight McClusky. The poster of the film is featured in the room of the main character of 1997's Boogie Nights. Serpico was mentioned in the 1995 film Get Shorty. In a 2004 Corner Gas episode, "The Taxman", local cops Davis and Karen talk about the film and Karen tries to rent it at the video store. In a 2007 episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "Bums: Making a Mess All Over the City", Charlie imitates Pacino’s performance after the gang buys an out of commission police car. The film was referenced in a 2016 episode of El ministerio del tiempo as the reason for the nickname of one of its main characters, "Pacino". Among other police films, Serpico influenced the Hong Kong action cinema.

Accolades
The film received Academy Awards nominations for Best Actor (Al Pacino) and Best Adapted Screenplay. The script won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Theodorakis was nominated for both the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. Sidney Lumet was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Direction and the Directors Guild of America Award. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. Pacino won his first Golden Globe award for Best Actor in 1974. For his performance, he also received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Pacino's role as Frank Serpico ranked at number forty on the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains. Meanwhile, Serpico also ranked at number eighty-four on AFI's AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers, a list of America's most inspiring films.

title: Serpico


text:
Talk:Rōnin

Disambiguation
This page really should be a disambiguation. There are now three "Ronin" articles on Wikipedia.

Does the "Ronin the Hacker" section really belong here? -- Schultz.Ryan

Why not the definition "Students who flucked the college education". Is it too cultural? --TakuyaMurata

Is this a Japanese cultural item? If so, then sure, it's fine to include it, but please mark it as a Japanese term. When I deleted it, I thought it was somebody being funny. -- Zoe

>Rōnin could also be that which is referred to as a rurouni which is a samurai who lost his path or is alone a wanderer at best or a rōshi (浪士).

"rurouni" is fiction term.Rurouni Kenshin onry term.Nobuhiro Watsuki's coinage(mintage).

 * Wave man vs. Tide man. In the article, the kanji character means flowing with the tide. So Ronin literally means a wanderer.

If it wasn't a historically used term, though, it should probably be deleted. If there aren't any objections, I think I'm going to do that. Idekii 02:21, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

I have now deleted it. Idekii 03:49, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

すみません。本文に書きたかったことを日本語で書きます。

「浪人」の正式な呼び方は「過年度生」です。これは「過年度卒業生」、「過年度卒業者」、「既卒者」という言葉で呼ばれることもあります。（ただし、「既卒者」だけは他の意味に使われる場合もあります）

「浪人」という言葉は、日本人のほとんどが、武士・学生の両方の意味で知っています。しかし、「過年度生」という言葉は、教育に詳しい人でなければ知っていない場合が多いです。

「過年度生」という言葉の意味は、「過去の年度に卒業した生徒」です。つまり「学校をすでに卒業した人」という意味です。

「浪人」は入学試験で不合格になった人だけを意味します。しかし「過年度生」は、不合格になった人も含めますが、その他にも、病気やケガのために療養（お休み）していた人なども含めます。

My Kanji skills aren't perfect but I will help translate. What this person is saying is when refering to ronin students it should be noted ronin in this context is colloquial. Also ronin can be used for anyone who has lost or quit their job. and can also be used on a person who is sick or on medical leave from work(jokingly?). --WNS 08:40, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

 * I (liberally) translated the above bit for reference; the gist is in bold:

 * I would have liked to contribute to the article, but instead I will write in Japanese here.

 * The formal expression for "rounin" is "former [high-school] graduate" (過年度生 lit. "past-year-student", note it doesn't mention "high school" but I used it in the translation to convey the probably derogatory meaning of someone whose crown achievement is having completed a lower level of education). This is sometimes also called "previous-year alumnus", "previous-year graduate", "already-graduated-person" (loose translations), etc. (Please note that the latter, "already-graduated-person" (既卒者), is the only one which happens to be also used in a different sense.) (does not specify which different sense)

 * For a Japanese speaker, the word "rounin" can be used to mean "warrior", or to mean "student". If that same speaker is uneducated, however, he may not be familiar with the expression "former [high-school] graduate" (過年度生).

 * The expression "former [high-school] graduate" is used for "a student who graduated in a past school year". In other words, "a person who has already graduated from school".

 * The expression "rounin" is only used for a person who failed to pass the entrance examination. By contrast, "former [high-school] graduate" can have the same meaning, but it can also designate people who failed to enroll for other reasons, such as illness or injury. 92.114.207.115 (talk) 23:40, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

This sentence doesn't make any sense: "the suicide rates of modern-day ronin are significantly higher than their contemporaries."

"modern-day" and "contemporary" are synonymous. I suspect that "contemporaries" should be changed, but I don't have the original source, so I don't know if the sentence would be true...of course, the source should be sited, anyway... 208.17.208.253 13:17, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I have deleted Rurouni Kenshin from the article because the character was not a wondering Samurai, but just a wondering swordsman, former assassin, that mastered a style of sword play called the "Hetan Mitsurugi style". Kenshin was never born into a samurai class nor did he ever belong to any shogunate. --Will

May I ask on what grounds is rounin translated as "wave man"? 浪 also means "wandering" (http://nuthatch.com/kanji/demo/6d6a.html), which definitely seems more appropriate. To substantiate this, here is another example: 浮浪者 ("vagrant"), which also uses 浪. 92.114.207.115 (talk) 23:43, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

Added pictures
I decided to add two pictures to the article. They make the page look pretty nice now. --Kross 07:29, May 16, 2005 (UTC)

 * The one from Forty-seven Ronin was my first picture on Wikipedia, fifty-one weeks ago. It does make good sense on Ronin too. Fg2 08:14, May 16, 2005 (UTC)

3 Dec. 2005 What is a wondering samurai?

 * I was "wondering" the same thing myself, (It's a typo, silly!) --Roninbk 13:28, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

ronin in ancient periods
The word 浪人 rōnin came from 浮浪人 furōnin, furō meaning "floating on waves" or "drifting with waves". The sentence "The word ronin literally means "wave man" - one who is tossed about, as on the waves in the sea." is a good explanation of this, but adding the word "furo" might help readers understand better?

I am afraid that "serf" might not be a proper word to be used here. Farmers were bound to the assigned lands, but they were not transfered with the lands as was the case for serfs, I suppose? --LittleTree 13:17, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Ronin Warriors
LoL its not a "Anime Influenced cartoon" its made by Sunrise the animation arm of the Japanese toy giant Bandai Ronin Warriors is a legitimate shonen anime produced in japan. --68.160.181.246 20:58, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

This is very true. Ronin Warriors is the western name of the anime "Yoroiden Samurai Torupa," or "Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers." It is not an anime-influenced cartoon but a legitimate anime in its own right, which makes the article inaccurate in that particular entry. Trisar 01:57, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

interesting piece
Quote from editor above who deleted ''Rurouni Kenshin from the article because the character was not a wondering Samurai, but just a wondering swordsman, former assassin, that mastered a style of sword play called the "Hetan Mitsurugi style". Kenshin was never born into a samurai class nor did he ever belong to any shogunate.'' This is so interesting - can it be placed somewhere? Is there an article on Rurouni? Also, the word "drifter" exists in English though it doesn't have positive meaning, but "freelance" comes close. A mercenary is a freelance soldier - is that Ronin? Julia Rossi 04:20, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Etymology: Contradiction
The introducing paragraph provide completely different information:

I'm sorry not to have resources to find a solution. I can only warn you.--Quinceps 00:58, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Chinese/ Kanji 浪人 means a "drifter" or a "wanderer". The verb in Chinese is "流浪" = to drift or to wander. 86.180.152.25 (talk) 00:20, 5 September 2014 (UTC)

This page uses biased language unbecoming of a scholarly article
for example: "Ronin were the epitome of self-determination; independent men who dictated their own path in life, answering only to themselves and making decisions as they saw fit. It is easy to understand why some hated them for this." "Epitome" and "easy to understand" are opinions subject to the views of each individual. Also "some" in the last sentence is very ambiguous, some could be three people or three hundred thousand. —Preceding unsigned comment added by User: (talk • contribs)

Oibara seppuku
Isn't this usually referred to as 'junshi', which was eventually banned, in 1664 according to one source. 5 May 2007

For reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junshi

also "hara kiri" traslated means 'stomach cutting' so its meaning could vary if you are going to use it in this context then at least the kanji should be shown as well: 腹切り sence its a reverse of the proper kanji for ritual suicide(seppuku)切腹 --WNS  08:10, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Status and history
The separate sections each appear to provide information on both status and history. Could they be improved upon without combining the sections?--Kenneth M Burke 01:57, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Why the line above the 'o'?
Any reason for the special 'o'? Gil_mo (talk) 09:07, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
 * The macron over the 'o' is a convention of the modern Hepburn system of writing Japanese words using letters of the Latin alphabet and in this case denotes a slightly longer long-o sound. Boneyard90 (talk) 02:15, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Rōnin