The Choirboys [HD]

Awful Aldrich; great cast wasted
I was fairly incredulous watching this train wreck of a comedy-drama about a group of infantile, incompetent, thoroughly undisciplined cops: legendary director Robert Aldrich ('Kiss Me Deadly,' 'The Flight of the Phoenix,' 'The Dirty Dozen,' 'The Longest Yard,' 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?') adapts a Joe Wambaugh novel featuring a dream team of American character actors (James Woods, Charles Durning, Don Stroud, Vic Tayback, Louis Gossett, Jr., Randy Quaid, etc.). What could go wrong? Everything, apparently. Three quarters of 'The Choirboys' (1977)-- less a cohesive film really than a two-hour string of poorly written (and badly edited) vignettes-- is played for cheap laughs, primarily toilet humor that even the average teenager would find sophomoric, indicating that Aldrich is way out of his element here. Only the last 30 minutes gets serious, complete with cartoonish moralizing to accompany what feels like a hastily tacked-on narrative involving layers of misconduct and...

Not really Wambaugh
Joseph Wambaugh wrote the book this was based upon and allegedly later sued the company to have his name removed from anything associated with the movie because it wasn't true to his writing. I saw this when it first came out in the theaters and liked it, but I was young then and couldn't wait to be come a cop. Now some 34 years later, watching this was just OK. The film focuses more on what police officers did wrong and how screwed up they were than being society's last line of defense against criminals that they truly are.

I'd read Wambaugh's book again.
I would not watch this movie again.
FWIW.

Hard to find old movies
Great movies on the stress relief police go through. . . worth it just for Charles Durning! ! ! ! !

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