On the heels of the Tribeca Film Festival, a documentary film, Frank Serpico, is being shown in one of NYC’s progressive movie theatres. I plan to see it. It is being billed as the first time his story is told in his own words. He is 80 now, or just shy, depending on his birthdate. It’s been seven years since he surfaced in my foreground, and that is when I read the NY Times piece about his life in upstate New York, the one room cabin he lives in, alone, on his 50 acres of land, a life described as “monastic.” I remember thinking lonely. Doubtless, not to him. He long ago proved to be an exceptional man, taking on the Police Department as one of them in the 1970’s, refusing to walk the crooked line, the malignant loyalty, standing his ground, not so as to kill, but as to embody integrity and hope. It dawned on me that his ability to live an isolated, small-scale life is likely what enabled him to take such a principled, dangerous stand. The article did mention his rep as a sharp dresser though I’m not sure if the woods have curbed that.
Integrity makes little money. No, I’ll amend that. Integrity makes little money compared to greed and immorality. Hordes of people seem to do well without it, integrity I mean. But we can’t really say how well they sleep or what its like for the person laying next to them at night or if their partners instead prefer a different bed. We can’t predict if their lives will take a sharp sudden turn over a literal or figurative cliff, or what Judgment Day, if we believe in it, will offer. Nor can we know the sick, creepy, tortuous pockets inside them that money cannot fill.
We do know who suffers from this moral bankruptcy and thievery, who always pays, the disempowered, and we know what we will or will not do about it, what ground we stand on.
I am eager to hear Frank Serpico’s reflections, a hero without a single, confetti drenched parade in his honor. But then what could measure this man’s spirit?
Update: The movie was at the IFC for nine days, the last two days, one showing a day at 10:20 p.m. It has the feel of get out of NYC before sunset, before too many people could hear him speak. I’m on the lookout for its return to the area or on PBS. It’s a must, welcoming into our space the energy of inspiration and integrity.