***SPOILERS*** A lot like Michael Winner's previous thriller "The Mechanic" the film "Scoripo" has to do with an aging CIA assassin who's now regarded by his superiors as being both obsolete and expendable. There's also the suspicion that he's planing to flee to Moscow and reveal all the secrets of the agency, CIA, that can be very embarrassing to both his bosses in the US Government and his contacts and undercover agents in the USSR.
Cross, Burt Lancaster, has been in the dirty business of political assassinations since WWII. Now in his 50's Cross wants to retire and live out the rest of his life with his wife Sarah, Joanne Linville, in peace and quite without looking over his shoulder every time he's out on the streets.
With Cross' new boss McLoad, John Colicos, suspecting him of treason he sends out cat loving French hit-man Jean Laurier-Alain Delon-or code name Scorpio to do Cross in before, in McLoad opinion, he defects behind the Iron Curtain. It turns out that Laurier was Cross', who thought him every thing he knows about contract killings, protégé in the assassination business as well as being a good friend of his. Laurier is also curtain that Cross is clean and this antagonism towards him by McLoad is personal not professional in that Cross, a man who likes to do things his way, doesn't toady up to him like the rest of the agents he's in charge of.
Suspense filled thriller with Cross on the run as his options for staying alive dwindle down to next to zero. Laurier is very hesitant to knock off Cross in that he feels that, besides being a good friend of his, he's innocent of the charges that McLoad accuses him off. With him trapped in Vienna Cross goes to the only person who can possibly save his life long time friend and adversary Soviet Agent Zarkov, Paul Scofield.
McLoad uses the Cross/Zarkov relationship to try to convince Laurier that his friend Cross is actually a double agent worthy to be gunned down from his treachery to both the USA and Laurier's own country NATO member France. The movie's both thrilling and surprise ending has Laurie find out the truth behind Cross' actions and they have nothing at all to do with his attempted defection to the Soviet Union! But they do in fact have something to do with those that Laurie has been closely associating with! Someone who's a lot closer to Laurie then even he,in his wildest conspiracy paranoia, could possibly imagine!
Like in Winner's 1972 assassin thriller "The Mechanic" the film "Serpico" shows just how thankless the job of a paid assassin really is. In the end Laurier finally realizes that being in the business he's in he has no time for friend and family as well as romantic relationships. In that the only one you can really trust is yourself and, in Lauries case, the street cats that you adopt; and worst of all the agency's retirement plan sucks!
Cross, Burt Lancaster, has been in the dirty business of political assassinations since WWII. Now in his 50's Cross wants to retire and live out the rest of his life with his wife Sarah, Joanne Linville, in peace and quite without looking over his shoulder every time he's out on the streets.
With Cross' new boss McLoad, John Colicos, suspecting him of treason he sends out cat loving French hit-man Jean Laurier-Alain Delon-or code name Scorpio to do Cross in before, in McLoad opinion, he defects behind the Iron Curtain. It turns out that Laurier was Cross', who thought him every thing he knows about contract killings, protégé in the assassination business as well as being a good friend of his. Laurier is also curtain that Cross is clean and this antagonism towards him by McLoad is personal not professional in that Cross, a man who likes to do things his way, doesn't toady up to him like the rest of the agents he's in charge of.
Suspense filled thriller with Cross on the run as his options for staying alive dwindle down to next to zero. Laurier is very hesitant to knock off Cross in that he feels that, besides being a good friend of his, he's innocent of the charges that McLoad accuses him off. With him trapped in Vienna Cross goes to the only person who can possibly save his life long time friend and adversary Soviet Agent Zarkov, Paul Scofield.
McLoad uses the Cross/Zarkov relationship to try to convince Laurier that his friend Cross is actually a double agent worthy to be gunned down from his treachery to both the USA and Laurier's own country NATO member France. The movie's both thrilling and surprise ending has Laurie find out the truth behind Cross' actions and they have nothing at all to do with his attempted defection to the Soviet Union! But they do in fact have something to do with those that Laurie has been closely associating with! Someone who's a lot closer to Laurie then even he,in his wildest conspiracy paranoia, could possibly imagine!
Like in Winner's 1972 assassin thriller "The Mechanic" the film "Serpico" shows just how thankless the job of a paid assassin really is. In the end Laurier finally realizes that being in the business he's in he has no time for friend and family as well as romantic relationships. In that the only one you can really trust is yourself and, in Lauries case, the street cats that you adopt; and worst of all the agency's retirement plan sucks!