Nice effects though.

Charming and brutal

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I was 14 years old when this film was released, and I watched the first 60 minutes of it last night for the 1st time. I wasn't impressed, in fact so far I think it is depressing because the characters and script are so predictable. Everyone from ' Murphy' to 'Dennis Connolly' are predictable, it is almost possible to guess what they are going to say in every scene and in my honest opinion that made what could and should have been a gripping film immensely boring and incrediably difficult to take seriously. I found myself wondering why a highly rated actor like Paul Newman chose to appear in this terrible film? I'm sure he didn't need the money. Paul Newman wasn't a chain smoking irish american cop that objects to being ' paid off' by some pimp, and then jumps into bed with some nurse. That is below the dignity of a man like Paul Newman and so I feel sad that he lowered his standards and took part in this terrible movie.

Almost forgotten nowadays, "Fort Apache, the Bronx" it's an interesting, but somewhat flawed, cop drama about a Police Precinct in the problematic South Bronx located right in the middle of a "war zone" where taking a life became gratuitous and cheap. Hordes of street gangs, hookers, pimps, drug dealers, heroin addicts, winos & bums roams the over-populated slums ready to explode by racial mixtures and a common war against the authority. When 2 rookie cops are killed at cold blood, the newcomer Commissioner demands results and drastic changes in the police procedures starts to appear, it clashes with the ideals of one of the veterans in the Precinct... Released around the same time with the now legendary TV Show "Hill Street Blues", this Daniel Petrie directed movie, shares the same themes about the day-to-day life in a Police Precinct with several sub-plots related to the main one in a gritty, depressing atmosphere of a decadent South Bronx realistically photographed by the camera of John Alcott. On a high note, even if the movie flows at a slow pace, it catch the viewer much because of Paul Newman's excellent performance as the veteran Irish-American cop, Murphy, himself an outsider in the Precinct, a loner who doesn't like to follow rules by the book, but with a sense of fairness & dignity which makes him a respected individual in the streets. Ken Wahl (the underrated star of Philip Kaufman's "The Wanderers") plays his loyal partner, a daring rookie full of freshness with a will to be promoted soon to start a life with his fiancée. The main plot follows, almost in a documentary style, the lives (in and out of service) of the two protagonists offering a character study of both worlds and their relation to the common values of justice, integrity and the healthy balance between authority and the civilians that lives upon the troubled streets. On a lower note, there's too many subplots (some of them cliché-ridden ) that provides unnecessary loose ends & a certain restriction of a 'made for TV' makes this movie experience not at all satisfactory as a more ambitious (& serious) film on the subject matter (needed a Friedkin, Scorsese, De Palma or Cimino on the helm), but still a watchable piece of work for fans of late 70's / early 80's gritty / raw flicks with attitude & a 56 years old Paul Newman in top form.

The beginning of this movie is pretty long. To be honest, until Paul Newman hits on Rachel Ticotin, it's pretty boring. Cops work hard, the streets are riddled with crime, and for the first thirty minutes, that message is drummed into our heads. Then it gets good.Fort Apache, the Bronx isn't a buddy cop movie, and it isn't a romance, and it isn't really a "people are mean" movie. It follows Paul Newman, who's been a cop in the same neighborhood for fourteen years, as he works, struggles, and falls in love. By day, he deals with cop-killers, hookers, pimps, and junkies, and problems in the bureau. He's not the classiest guy in the world, so when he fills his nights with romance, he doesn't exactly pick the classiest girl in the world.I don't normally like older Paul Newman movies, since a lot of them focus on his age rather than anything else. In this film, Newman gives a surprisingly good performance, and a very different one than he usually gives. He lays the accent and commonness of his character on pretty thick, but it works, because pretty soon, you've forgotten that it's Paul Newman. He really becomes the beat cop, not the stereotypical bad boy with an attitude problem that Newman usually plays. I won't spoil anything, but there's one scene towards the end when his character finally "loses it", and it's truly heartbreaking. Newman famously said in real life that "acting is like letting your pants down; you're exposed", and in that scene, you really understand what he means. He's stripped of any acting gimmicks and shows the audience his raw emotions.Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to some violence and disturbing scenes, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

I love this film, it was the second video that I ever rented and it plays like a really gritty version of "Hill Street Blues", (I think they came out the same time). Everything to me, works in this film, it's a real ensemble piece, Ed Asner, Ken Wahl, Danny Aiello and a great turn by a then unknown Rachel Ticoton and although it takes a downbeat turn in the last quarter, the film has an uplifting ending that works really well. It's such a shame that Paul Newman's performance, which has to be one of my favourites, has been forgotten and I would love to see a better DVD version from Fox/HBO in the near future - it certainly deserves better. Cheers, Dan.