Busting (1974) on Netflix
Keneely and Farrel work vice for the Los Angeles police, breaking up prostitution rings. Crime boss Carl Rizzo's protection reaches into the department, and the pair are pushed to other duties.
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- Netflix2.0/5
- IMDb6.4/102,561 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes17%
Trailer
Plot summary
Michael Keneely and Patrick Farrel are detectives on the Los Angeles police vice squad, and they are good at breaking up prostitution and drug operations. Many of those operations belong to crime boss Carl Rizzo, whose influence runs through the city and through the department. Case files are tampered with before trial, colleagues decline to help with routine police work, and the pair are assigned instead to stakeouts at gay bars and public lavatories. When they confront Rizzo, they are beaten during an investigation of one of his prostitutes. With no legal route left, they turn to harassing Rizzo, his establishments and his family.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Busting (1974)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The 1975 television cop series Starsky & Hutch took its main inspiration from Busting, and it too cast Antonio Fargas.
- Busting was criticized for homophobia over its depiction of gay characters and the lead detectives' attitudes toward them. Gay rights activist Arthur Bell, writing in The New York Times, condemned the film's derogatory language and its gay-bar scene, while Hyams said the portrayal was accurate to the real milieu.
- Ron Leibman was cast as Elliott Gould's detective partner in February 1973 but was soon fired from Busting. Gould said he suggested the replacement, and Hyams said the contrast between Leibman and Gould was not the one Robert Blake provided.
- To research Busting, Hyams traveled to New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles and spoke with hookers, pimps, strippers, cops and district attorneys. He said every episode in the film was true.
- After Busting, Robert Blake did not appear in another theatrical release for six years, and in a 1977 interview he called the film a mistake.
