The Worst Film Ever

Good movie but grossly overrated

A lot of fun.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Two street cops get killed when crazy streetwalker Charlotte (Pam Grier) simply shoots them point blank. The 41st precinct nicknamed Fort Apache covers the wild untamed South Bronx. Murphy (Paul Newman) and Corelli (Ken Wahl) are partners struggling with the unruly masses. Captain Connolly (Edward Asner) takes over the ineffective precinct.This is not a plot as much as a collection of police stories. It is disjointed and staggers from one section to the next. Their personal lives are pretty weak as well although Newman is pretty good and Wahl holds his own. It just doesn't have the overarching story to keep the movie together other than Charlotte sporadically coming into the picture.

From the actual true lives of several New York police officers, comes the Inspiration for Heywood Gould and this movie called " Fort Apache, the Bronx. " Director Daniel Petrie tried to mirror the harsh living conditions which surround the actual police station which is located in the very heart of the Bronx. Here one eighteen year police veteran (Paul Newman) named Murphy guides his partner Officer Corellie (Ken Wahl) through the work-a-day routine of being a cop on the streets of the neighborhood. It's not an easy task, indeed is a murderous nightmare for them and their fellow policemen when they have to deal with every manner of street criminal from drug addicts, prostitutes, pimps, elusive thieves, murderers and inner corruption within the police force. Their job becomes more difficult when Connolly a by-the-book, no nonsense, Police Captain (Edward Asner) takes charge of the precinct. In addition, Murphy is witness to a murder when one of his own men is charged. Finally, there is the fact that a burned out, strung-out prostitute (Pam Grier) is sought for the cold blooded killing of two rookie policemen. The movie is harsh in it's abject portrayal of the dark, gritty, street life and that includes the troubled lives of the men in blue. This movie which gave rise to films like 'Hill street blues and the streets of New York is very graphic. If you're looking for a true life cop story, this is pretty close. Mild nudity but Recommended ****

I think of this movie as something of a portrait. It paints a picture of life in the 41st Precinct of the NYPD, in the centre of a run down 40 block neighbourhood in the South Bronx, full of drug addicts and prostitutes and pimps and various and sundry other undesirable elements, mixed together with poverty and racial prejudice. In that sense it paints a pretty good picture, although I have to concede that I've never been in the South Bronx, and certainly not in 1981, when this movie was made, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of the portrait, but the movie has a gritty, hard edged realistic feel to it that certainly pulls the viewer in. Saying that this is a portrait, however, points also to the inherent weakness of the movie: it lacks a consistent narrative structure; there really isn't any particular "story" being told. To the extent that there's a plot holding this together it revolves around the killing of two rookie cops, and the desire of the police to track down the killer. That lacks suspense for the viewer, though, because we know from the beginning who the murderer is. It's not a secret. There are other "stories" - but again they have a "portrait" feel to them. There are stories of corrupt cops, the story of Murphy's girlfriend, the killing of the kid who got thrown off the top of the building, the story of Captain Connolly trying to establish some order as the 41st's new commander. The movie sometimes seemed jumpy; it lacked flow.What it did have were good performances from Paul Newman as Murphy and Edward Asner as Connolly, and memorable performances as well from Rachel Ticotin as Murphy's girlfriend Isabella, and Pam Grier as the cop killing prostitute. I remember seeing this movie many years ago when it first was released, and enjoying it very much, and then only recently coming across it again quite by accident (even though I had looked for it from time to time) in a bargain DVD bin at Wal-Mart! It must have done something right to hold my interest for so long, and the strong performances and realistic feel really more than make up for the lack of a consistent storyline. 7/10

I enjoyed it, looking at the Bronx that i remember as a kid. But the characters are all 1 dimensional. The criminals are stupid as hell, Pam Grier is a serial killer for absolutely no reason at all. The heroin dealers are bumbling idiots.There are 2 characters with any depth at all, Newman and his partner. They are developed characters and you root for them, but the story leads you no where.Why is Pam Grier killing cops and everyone else? Just because shes high? The dope dealers take the gun that she used to kill the cops but we never see the cops figure that out.What is the point of the movie? We hear about police corruption but never see it? Why is there so much crime? How can the problem realistically be tackled?I don't know, the movie just took me on a journey to nowhere. Murphy's girl is a dope fiend, but why? Where is her family? How do they react? The movie needed more than it gave me. but i was good enough for me to watch it to the end.