When one of the victims turns out to be Martin's former partner, Martin finds that the bus murders are related to an old unsolved case from his past...
The Laughing Policeman feels like a time capsule of the early seventies cop thriller, in terms of its politics, its aesthetics and genre conventions.
In terms of filmmaking, the film shares The French Connection's focus on the process of investigation, with a fly-on-the-wall view of police culture, and interactions with the community. The film also features a lot of overlapping dialogue, reminiscent of Robert Altman.
It’s a little obvious to pick out similarities to Bullitt, but it was the movie that ignited the convention of a car chase as a major action sequence. The French Connection, The Seven Ups and a bunch of other movies would not exist without it.
Compared with those films, The Laughing Policeman’s chase is not particularly dynamic, but it is still a major piece of the third act setpiece.
Socio-politically, the film is a good signpost for how recent law changes are taken for granted.
Here, the cops grumble about civil liberties, Miranda rights (which was decided in the sixties), and how they cannot prosecute someone for homosexuality.
In this respect the film feels closer to Dirty Harry, and thematically the film makes for an interesting midpoint between the neo-western mythologising of the Eastwood movie and the more documentarian style of William Friedkin’s The French Connection.
The Laughing Policeman is not quite Dirty Harry in a William Friedman skin - for one thing it lacks its narrative and moral simplicity - but there is a greater focus on gunplay and the violence of the weapons, from the opening massacre to an extended standoff between the cops and a lone gunman who is believed to be the bus suspect.
It is hard not to watch the opening sequence of this film - in which an unknown assailant murders the bus passengers - and not be reminded of the opening assassination in the Dirty Harry sequel The Magnum Force (also released in 1973).
In another attempt at authenticity, the main characters reference (then) recent real-life snipers Charles Whitman and Mark Essex, drawing a connection with the bus killer.
Another influence the movie shares with its contemporaries is noir - Matthau’s Martin is an uber-loner, constantly at work even when he is home. And to drive the point home, his house is empty - his family are either out or isolated in their rooms.
His investigation leads down into the city’s underbelly, with an undercurrent of sexual perversity that feels indebted to the noir of the past.
Interestingly, Martin’s new partner Carlson (Bruce Dern) feels like a spin on Dirty Harry - a violent man who is more willing to flout the rules, a position the film seems to endorse. Both characters play by their own rules, but their means are night and day from each other. It is an interesting juxtaposition, using the genre’s past to confront its brasher, more action-oriented present, but the movie does not quite know how to explore it.
This points to the biggest problem with The Laughing Policeman - it loses steam about halfway through and there is a lack of resolution to the finale. It is not fatal but there is something missing from Matthau and Dern solving the case.
The film seems to be banking on their building relationship, but it feels like there is connective tissue missing.
It does not help that the antagonist is a remote figure who is only present via the cops’ verbal interactions until about twenty minutes from the ending. He also has no dialogue or direct interactions with our heroes.
It is no masterpiece but The Laughing Policeman is a fun watch - and makes for an interesting example of a genre in transition.
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