When it comes to police corruption, you cannot get better films than those made in the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s, when cinema finally became free from certain traditional constraints and confident and bold to finally focus on topics that question authority and uncover suspect behaviour on the part of governmental officials and those in power. Elio Petri’s Italian film-masterpiece Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) undoubtedly paved a way for other film-satires and comedies that expose “bad cops”, and the last years of the Civil Rights Movement (1946-1968) was also undoubtedly a major impetus more generally.

However, it is also interesting to note that, apart from Sidney Lumet (1924-2011), who famously made a number of films about police corruption, the then-changed auteur cinema of the 1990s also wanted to challenge many status a quo, and there was also an unprecedented rise in police-related comedies and dramas at that time.

So, below are 10 notable films about corrupt law enforcement officials, a non-exhaustive list that also wants to celebrate, albeit belatedly, the release of Yance Ford’s documentary Power (2024), a powerful piece of work that draws links between present policing in the US and 18th century’s way of handling slaves and country’s borders by those in authority.

I. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is undoubtedly one of the greatest Italian films. This astute film-satire focuses on the Chief of Homicide Section of Rome (Gian Maria Volontè), who kills his mistress and intentionally leaves all the clues behind so that his own unit can expose him as a murderer. Little does he imagine that the internal department’s “loyalty”, deference to superiors, and cover-ups would mean that it is not so easy to be caught when the one who committed the crime is the police himself. Volontè embodied that one desperate man so convincingly that this unlikely-premised plot starts to ring true, and it is particularly intriguing to observe our anti-hero’s general sense of justice pinned against his own psychopathy and feelings of self-preservation.

II. Bad Lieutenant (1992)

One of Abel Ferrara’s finest films, Bad Lieutenant would make anyone uncomfortable and its religious messages, again, per Ferrara (Tommaso (2019), The Funeral), may be misinterpreted, but no one can deny the quality and the conviction emanating from this drama-thriller. This is largely due to the astounding performance by Harvey Keitel who plays a truly bad cop – an unnamed NYPD police lieutenant. This is a kind of a police officer who will be willing to get involved in sex coercion, bribery, drug-taking and whatnot and all on the job, but his world-view is about to change when he is confronted with a nun and a rape-survivor who has a drastically different outlook on what happened to her and what punishment is deserving. Bad Lieutenant is that unflinching look at policing at its most distressing and depressing.

III. Léon: The Professional (1994)

If there is one truly maniacally-bad representative of law enforcement from the 1990s cinema then that award should go to classic-music lover Norman Stansfield in film Leon. Bad is not even the word to describe this psychopath, portrayed with much vigour and awe by the great Gary Oldman. This DEA agent should be in charge of investigations to protect public from drugs, but instead seems to be at the top of a crime pyramid that stores and traffics the said drugs. When he finds out that one of his civilian men may be cutting into his stored drug and making a profit, his vengeance does not stop even at the sight of that man’s innocent children. Poor Mathilda (Nathalie Portman) and her brother come under the crossfire, and it would only take someone like Leon, the super-hitman, to show Stansfield that he has finally met his match.

IV. Touch of Evil (1950)

“Well, Captain, I’m afraid this is finally something you can’t talk your way out of.” This remark in the film is directed at Captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles), who gradually starts to represent the very seed of corruption in one US-Mexico town, where police work and justice seem to be more complicated than anywhere else. Playing against him is Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) who starts to suspect that that this boss of his may indeed be framing innocent people and planting evidence. Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil is that film noir that stood the test of time, portraying one police giant gone bad from sheer weakness and folly, and is also known for its thought-provoking, masterfully-shot opening sequence.

V. Serpico (1973)

In this film, Al Pacino is a newly recruited police officer of the NYPD. Little does he realise on the first day of his job just how corrupt his department is, with officers routinely taking bribes from criminals and doing other untoward things. Serpico (Pacino) is adamant to stand his ground and expose the corruption, but the further he goes to the top of the police pyramid chain, the more he realises that the corruption may actually start at the top. Being very critical about police, Sydney Lumet’s drama is as relevant now as it was in the 1970s, but in other instances it may not have aged that well, especially in its presentation of women. Still, Lumet’s direction, a strong script and Al Pacino’s superb acting make Serpico one of the noteworthy films of the 1970s.

VI. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

The Osage people in this story have suffered a great injustice surrounding their rightful ways to money from land oil, and it all stemmed from an unprecedented and widespread corruption in an Oklahoma region on the part of guardians, judges, lawyers, businessmen and, yes, police officers. The book by David Grann, on which Martin Scorsese based his film, emphasises much more the high level of police corruption in Oklahoma at that time, including murder-cover-ups by police officers, and how Osage people suffered as a result, but the film also makes a number of strong references to it. Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart, one of the victims of this brutality, as well as Robert De Niro as soft-spoken William King Hale, a powerful authority in the region, truly impress in this powerfully-presented film that also unfortunately misinterprets the original true story by giving too much spotlight to Leonardo DiCaprio’s character.

VII. L.A. Confidential (1997)

L.A. Confidential is easily one of the films that defined the 1990s. It was that time in cinema-making when super-complex, dark films were all the rage (Seven, Fight Club, The Usual Suspects), and this work by Curtis Hanson based on James Ellroy’s 1990 novel of the same name, fitted well into this category, as well as revived that forgotten film noir genre. Starring a parade of stars, including Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, and Danny DeVito, the film tells a labyrinthine tale of police corruption and celebrity culture in Hollywood, where three different police officers get caught up in one unsolved case, that of a murder in an all-night-café. From the script to superb camera-work and design, everything “works” in this tale that purports to uncover the trickiest corruption there is – institutional.

VIII. Violent Cop (1989)

First film in the trilogy of police films by Takeshi Kitano, Violent Cop is as violent and gritty as the title suggests. Always disregarding rules and regulations, police detective Azuma (Takeshi Kitano) is definitely “corrupt”, but, as it turns out, his co-workers are even more so. When he is assigned to investigate the murder of a drug dealer, he comes face-to-face with one brutal hitman hired by the yakuza. Will Azuma’s unconventional policing be enough to stop the yakuza – it seems not when even members of his own department are implicated in shady dealings. This is a strong, albeit also relentlessly gritty and brutal, police drama with a vivid central character portrayal, individual scenes that subvert expectations and interesting soundtrack choices (including the rendition of Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No.1).

IX. The Thin Blue Line (1988)

“Prosecutors in Dallas have said for years – any prosecutor can convict a guilty man. It takes a great prosecutor to convict an innocent man” (Melvyn Carson Bruder), says a man in this documentary work about the conviction of one man for a crime he did not commit. In fact, it seems that Randall Dale Adams just found himself at a wrong place at a wrong time when he accepted a ride from teenager Robert Wood. What followed was the 1976 murder of a police officer, and the conviction of Adams, but nothing is as clear cut. Often cited as one of the greatest American documentaries, and directed by the great documentary-maker Errol Morris (The Fog of War, A Brief History of Time), The Thin Blue Line is a smart, infuriating documentary work about one gross miscarriage of justice.

X. Prince of the City (1981)

After Serpico, Sidney Lumet made Prince of the City, a film that got lost somewhat in his filmography, but which warrants a much closer attention. Lumet’s intention was to “balance” his vision of police after his unfavourable take of police procedures in Serpico, and Prince of the City is based on the book of the same name penned by Robert Daley. Here, Danny Ciello (Treat Williams) is a detective-turn-informant seemingly willing to help the prosecutors to uncover corruption within NYPD. But, how “clean” is Ciello himself? The elegantly-written, well-paced script means that there is never a dull moment in this film about police corruption that is now an issue that is not exactly so black-and-white.