The New Centurions is a 1972 action drama film directed by Richard Fleischer and based on the 1970 novel of the same name by Joseph Wambaugh. It stars George C. Scott, Stacy Keach, Jane Alexander, Scott Wilson, and Rosalind Cash.
Idealistic young student Roy Fehler (Keach) joins the LAPD to pay his way through law school, and finds himself partnered with veteran cop Andy Kilvinsky (Scott). Under Kilvinsky's influence, Roy gradually begins to lose his collegiate ambitions and becomes completely immersed in police work.
List of tropes applying to this film:
- Ate His Gun: Kilvinsky commits suicide this way.
- Drinking on Duty: Roy has become an alcoholic thanks to his job as a police officer, and his new partner catches him drinking from a bottle he's stashed in a police callbox. He points out that he can't rely on a partner who's this trope. Roy later gets a three-week suspension for drinking on the job.
- Driven to Suicide: Kilvinsky commits suicide shortly after he retires.
- Fake-Out Make-Out: Roy sees a robbery taking place inside a store, calls for backup, draws his gun and ducks behind a car for cover, then realizes that there's a couple snuggling each other in the front seat. He rushes over to warn them, only to get shot in the chest with a sawed-off by the couple, who are driving the getaway car.
- Food as Bribe: The police have been ordered to crack down on street prostitution. The veteran cop pulls up in a paddy wagon brandishing a bottle of booze, so the hookers will go along willingly. Once the hookers are too drunk to work the streets, the police let them go.
- Phoney Call: When a Scary Black Man causes trouble, one of the policeman calls for an ambulance for the injuries he's about to receive. He decides to surrender without trouble, and finds it Actually Pretty Funny when he's told the call was a fake.
