Fuzz (1972)

Crappy film

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I am not one who likes police or public safety movies because I cannot relate to Hollywood's false renditions thanks to my experience as a cop in a large city. I can say that this was how police a precinct is with minimal exaggerated humor attached. Police stations may never have that many officers or detectives at one time except at shift change, but there was a scene where almost nobody could could be found at the station which was more realistic. I liked how the movie gave us a lot of different cops, unlike typical movies which show the same one or two cops doing all the work without any collaboration of anyone else. The movie even portrayed police as average boneheads, unlike the unrealistic super brains or Dirty Harry hard-asses usually portrayed in movies. I actually laughed through the movie. I was able to relate more with the cops in this movie than those on "Law and Order" or "CSI".Now the movie was too short to unfold the characters better. I had hoped the cops would actually solve the case and prove they were not "inept" as "The Deaf Man" called them, but that was not to be. All was solved by consequence when all the main perps came together by chance. But, then again, only on TV or in the movies do the police solve all their crimes. I found the movie "Mother, Jugs, and Speed", a cult classic among ambulance people to this day, to be similar in humor.

I thought this was pretty damned neat in 1972.Of course we had yet to be drowned in a morass of Wambaugh clones and a surfeit of Harry Callahan wannabes,and wisecracking cops in grubby squadrooms being re - decorated were relatively thin on the ground.It is unfortunate that films like "Fuzz" when they are considered at all are only seen through eyes that have seen a hundred similar films since and,probably unconsciously,critically assessed to a certain extent within a frame of reference that didn't exist when they were made.I doubt if Nietszche was referring to movies when he said "Life must be lived forwards but can only be understood backwards",but it certainly applies to commenting on "Fuzz". Based on the first "Deaf Man" episode in the 87th precinct stories,it featured Mr Burt Reynolds as Det Steve Carella and Mr.Tom Skerritt as Det Burt(correct spelling) Kling. I always thought the 87th precinct was supposed to be in New York,but the film is set in Boston,later to be very familiar to admirers of Mr Robert B.Parker's estimable Private Detective Spenser. I have never been in a police station in America,but if in 1972 they were not similar to the one in "Fuzz",then they should have been . Far more exciting than our more prosaic Victorian ones in London with their echoes of "The Blue Lamp" and "It always rains on Sundays". I worked in them for 30 years and was always expecting Sidney Tafler or John Slater to be brought in protesting their innocence. I couldn't imagine Burt or Tom exchanging one-liners in the charge room in Walthamstow nick for example,or chasing a milk-bottle thief down Priory Court. Our cells weren't full of whores,pimps,second storey men,hustlers and Murphy artists(whatever they are).We had good old English flashers,blaggers and tealeaves."Fuzz" made The Life in America seem so much more exciting.Mr Yul Brynner takes his foot off the subtlety pedal as the deaf man. It is a pleasingly silly characterisation that sets the tone for most of the film.For Ed McBain readers many of the favourites like Lt Byrnes,Det Brown and Andy Parker will be familiar figures,if not perhaps quite as they imagined them. "Fuzz" and the films that followed it cleared the way for "Hill St Blues" and "N.Y.P.D. Blue",that should not be forgotten.It is not a great film,or even a very good film,but it is far better than its reputation would suggest.

Burt Reynolds has made many films, a couple very good, but most are bad. This is possibly the worst. This was supposed to be a big name feature, but a sloppy script, uninspired acting and directing doom it. Burt's miscasting as Steve Carella is bad enough, but Yul Brynner's arrogant, sneering deaf man is wooden. Raquel is forced to hide her best acting assets (you know what) under winter coats, heavy sweaters and boots. There are good actors in it, but they're given nothing to work with. It doesn't come close to the book it's based on. It's hard to believe that prize-winning author Ed McBain was involved in this mess. Avoid it, which shouldn't be too hard, it's hardly ever on TV, and don't waste your money buying or renting it.

Bryner (whose fun) plays a assassin who threatens to kill all the city leaders one by one. It's up to some 'zany' characters at a crazy police station to stop him.Attempt at bringing the irreverent, anti-establishment, comedy-drama of M*A*S*H to the police squad, is a complete disaster. The 'wacky' humor is both empty and annoying. Throwing in some strained sentiment and jarring action makes it even more baseless.The actors seem to be just walking through their roles and the direction has no energy or vision. The pacing is disjointed without any rhythm or logic. Just about every shot is dark and shadowy. Like it was filmed on a camera with a very bad exposure.The police station just never seems real. The precinct on BARNEY MILLER is more believable. Also having Reynolds and Weston dress as nuns just to catch the bad guy is a perfect example of forced humor.The lowest point involves a unnecessary story thread where Welch goes after a prostitute killer. The final confrontation scene between her and the killer is a complete and pathetic rip off of the similar scene in KLUTE (complete with those chiming piano chords). This alone solidifies it as one of the biggest bombs of all time. If that's not enough you also have Dinah Shore singing "I'll be Seeing You" over the closing credits.The whole thing is just excruciating. Does feature a young up and coming Tom Skerrit. Also has Charles Martin Smith as a punk who sets street bums on fire.