"The New Centurions" should have a solid 8.5 rating, rather than just a 7. This is an under- rated film about the general lives of police officers from a Los Angeles Precinct. George C. Scott and Stacy Keach lead the way as two police officers who are initially teamed up for night duty around Los Angeles. Following a few incidents, they get re-assigned different partners until Stacy Keach is transfered to the vice squad and George C. Scott retires from the force. The film wisely avoids any kind of trendy or glamorous approach to Police work. It is just shown for what it is - a dirty job that someone has to do. The police officers aren't shown to be more heroic than the average person but dedicated and good at their jobs. There is some good action along the way but "The New Centurions" works due to the acting, writing and direction. The recent British DVD release has brilliant sound and picture quality.

***SPOILERS*** From the pages of Joseph Wambaugh first and best selling novel about the men of the LAPD the movie shows how a job like a policeman can change a person into a mentally unstable individual if he lets it take over his life. There's' patrolman Andy Kilvinski, George C. Scott, a 25 year veteran of the LAPD facing retirement and breaking in young rookie cop Roy Fehler played by Stacey Keach with and without, at times during the film, a mustache. Kilvinski shows young Roy in how to do the job based on "Kivinski's Law" which worked so well for him over the years. At first only looking to be a cop until he finishes law school and become a full fledged shyster/lawyer Roy soon becomes married to his job and forgets law school as well as his wife Dorothy, Jane Alexander, who the job of being a policeman replaced.While at a stake-out that Roy get shot by peace loving two hippies, whom he caught making out in the backseat of a car, that hospitalized him from six months with a near fatal stomach wound. Back at work and with a new attitude Roy seemed to have lost his ability to do his job without his partner the wise old Andy Kilvinski guiding him in his work. By now the job as a policeman has taken over Roy's life so completely that his wife, taking their daughter along with her, left him leading Roy to drink which didn't make things that much better for him.***SPOILERS*** It's after Roy's partner Andy Kilvinski, who by then retired from the LAPD with 25 years service, came to visit his old precinct-the 25th- that Roy having better things to do like drinking and having an affair with a nurse-Rosalind Cash-who treated him for his injuries more or less fluffed him off. That feeling of rejection ended up turning Kilvinski, left alone and deserted by the men he worked with, to put a gun to his mouth and blow his brains out! Roy now on a guilt trip in feeling responsible for Kilvinski's suicide in a strange way gets his wish by getting killed on the job, by a local psycho, so he won't have to end up dying alone, by his own hand, with no one giving a cr*p if he was alive or dead like his friend and partner Andy Kilvinski. Realistic movie about police that was overlooked by the public and critics back then but has now become somewhat of a minor film noir classic.

George C. Scott is a cool, uniformed policeman who employs his own unique methods of dealing with petty crime – once again, it's the character who knows his beat and knows how to keep it under control…Faced with the task of rounding up prostitutes in the local Red Light district, Scott is well aware that dragging them into court will result only in nominal fines and a great deal of wasted time… So he packs them into a patrol wagon and drives them around the streets for the rest of the night, thus losing them a night's earnings and at the same time keeping the streets reasonably tidy...Scott isn't in the least vindictive; he is merely keeping the peace in accordance with his own law… He even takes the trouble to stop the truck and buy them a bottle of Whisky with which to while the night away… Yet this cop is a fast man with a gun… He is also the kind of policeman who is capable of administering a beating to the wrongdoers

Under- and over- rated at the time ('72), appropriately a good time in America to begin the Wambaugh cop legacy, this film has wonderful moments, but as a film it's a letdown overall. George C. is the best as always, Scott Wilson in a supporting role is crucially vibrant, and Stacy Keach at the HEIGHT of his wonderful movie beginnings is this Roy character (with great wife and actress Jane Alexander), but the script goes south 1/2 through trying to appeal to everybody, which was unnecessary in the early 70's. Keach (so great in BREWSTER McCLOUD, HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, JUDGE ROY BEAN, FAT CITY, etc. .etc.) did a great job with crumby lines, trying to be (in his words)..super-cop). A decent well-made whatever. Scott's final scene = free acting lession to punks. A 5 out of 10. Best performance = G.C. Scott. Worth the time; don't expect art and you'll see some cool stuff..Rosalind Cash, you know.