---
title: "Fort Apache, the Bronx"
year: 1981
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/fort-apache-the-bronx"
fi1m_id: "fort-apache-the-bronx"
imdb_id: "tt0082402"
tmdb_id: 23668
wikidata_id: "Q760926"
fi1m_score: 56
critics_score: 50
critics_reviews: 5
published: "2026-10-04T17:19:55.754508+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-04T17:20:53.017690+00:00"
region: "MY"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Fort Apache, the Bronx (1981)

Directed by Daniel Petrie · 2h 05m · Crime, Drama, Action

## Identity

Fort Apache, the Bronx

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/fort-apache-the-bronx
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** fort-apache-the-bronx
- **IMDb ID:** tt0082402
- **TMDB ID:** 23668
- **Wikidata ID:** Q760926
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082402/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/23668, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q760926

**Fi1m score: 56** · Critics 50 (early) from 5 reviews

*In a sentence:* Paul Newman walks the beat for two hours and the story never turns up to be arrested

> Daniel Petrie sets Paul Newman loose in the burnt-out South Bronx and gets a fine, tired, decent performance out of him. What he does not get is a story: the film is a string of shifts, some of them shocking, none of them adding up to a case.

## Synopsis

The South Bronx, 1981. The 41st Precinct is so far behind enemy lines that the men who work there call it Fort Apache. Two rookie officers sit in a patrol car; a woman in a red dress, Charlotte (Pam Grier), walks up, smiles, and shoots them both dead. Murphy (Paul Newman), a veteran patrolman past being surprised by anything, and his partner Corelli (Ken Wahl) answer the call. A new commander, Connolly (Ed Asner), means to clean up the precinct and the streets with it, starting with mass arrests. Murphy, who knows the neighbourhood, thinks that will set it alight. Between shifts he delivers a baby in a tenement flat and starts seeing Isabella (Rachel Ticotin), a hospital nurse. Morgan (Danny Aiello) watches from the squad room.

## Review

*Fort Apache, the Bronx* has a place, a man and no plot, and it takes about half an hour to notice that the third thing is missing. Daniel Petrie directs from a script by Heywood Gould, working from a story by Pete Tessitore and Thomas Mulhearn, and what they have made is a week in the life of a precinct rather than a film about anything that happens in it. The opening tells you otherwise. Two rookies in a patrol car, a woman in a red dress, two shots, and the camera does not flinch. We were shaken by it, and we were ready for a picture that would be about those two dead boys. It is not, or not for long.

Paul Newman is the reason to sit through the rest. He plays Murphy as a man who has stopped expecting the job to make sense and keeps himself upright with jokes, most of them at his own expense. He is best when the film gives him a room and a problem: a flat with no electricity and a girl in labour on the floor, a man with a knife on a tenement stair who needs talking down rather than shooting. Newman does these scenes quietly, with his hands, and he never once asks us to admire him. It is a performance built out of fatigue, and it is one of the least vain things he did.

Pam Grier gets the other great piece of acting and about ten minutes to do it in. Her Charlotte kills with a kind of lightness, humming, half-smiling, and the film is at its most frightening whenever she drifts into frame. Then it loses interest in her. The murders that open the picture should be its spine; instead they float to the edge and are dealt with almost as an afterthought.

John Alcott shoots the Bronx in flat winter light, grey sky over empty lots, bricks and burnt timber where streets used to be, and he resists making any of it beautiful. That is the right choice and it holds the film together more than the script does. Ben Edwards gives the station house chipped green paint, a wire cage and a desk sergeant buried in paper, and John Boxer keeps Newman in a windcheater that looks slept in. Jonathan Tunick scores it sparingly, and most of the time the sirens do the work.

The trouble is shape. Rita Roland cuts the film as a sequence of shifts: a call, an incident, a drink, another call. Gould keeps starting threads, Connolly’s crackdown, Morgan’s temper, the romance with Isabella, and lets them run alongside one another without ever pulling on them. Ed Asner is given one note, the by-the-book commander, and plays it well enough, but he is a position rather than a person. Ken Wahl is a sidekick with a grin. Rachel Ticotin is good in a part written in shorthand; she and Newman have an ease together that the film notices and then neglects.

The second half takes a turn we will not describe. This is the real material, and it is handled as one more incident on the roster. By then we were cross, because the film had shown us, in its first scene, that it could make us feel something, and had spent the following ninety minutes declining to try again.

The title borrows from John Ford’s 1948 Western, and the borrowing is the film’s one big idea. A garrison in hostile country, a tired sergeant, no cavalry coming: it opens with a card insisting it is about the police and not the people they police, and that is honest, because the neighbourhood is mostly scenery here. Against *Serpico*, which knew what its cop wanted, this feels like a photograph of a precinct with a story pinned on afterwards.

Worth an evening if Newman on a bad week in a worse place is enough for you, and for a while it nearly is. At 125 minutes there are three or four shifts more than it needs, and the 15 certificate covers one opening and one later scene that still land hard.

*Fi1m score 56, published 4 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

With only 5 reviews in so far, the lean is negative, and where the critics agree it is on the acting, Paul Newman in particular. The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael calls his work vivid and assured and argues the film keeps holding him back, which is roughly the complaint elsewhere: good people in a weak story. Variety finds the plot patchy and the characters thinly motivated. The one firm supporter is Radio Times, which calls it a highly exciting thriller and singles out Pam Grier rather than Newman. The spread is wide, from a strong recommendation to a verdict of a fine chance wasted.

## Straight answers

**Is Fort Apache, the Bronx worth watching?**

*Fort Apache, the Bronx* is worth watching mainly for Paul Newman, and we scored it 56. He gives a tired, decent, unvain performance as a veteran patrolman, and John Alcott's grey winter photography of the burnt-out South Bronx holds the film together. The trouble is that it has no plot, only a string of shifts, and at 125 minutes it runs several more than it needs.

**How long is Fort Apache, the Bronx, and what is it rated?**

*Fort Apache, the Bronx* runs 2h 05m. It is a crime and drama film.

**Where can I watch Fort Apache, the Bronx in Malaysia?**

*Fort Apache, the Bronx* is not on any streaming or rental service in Malaysia at the moment. It is available in 14 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Fort Apache, the Bronx, and is it suitable for children?**

*Fort Apache, the Bronx* carries a 15 certificate and is not suitable for children. It opens with two young officers shot dead in their patrol car, a scene the camera does not flinch from, and a later scene lands just as hard. Pam Grier's killer, humming and half-smiling, is the film's most frightening presence, though she is on screen for only about ten minutes.

**How does Fort Apache, the Bronx compare to Hill Street Blues?**

*Fort Apache, the Bronx* and [*Hill Street Blues*](https://film.one/tv/hill-street-blues) start from the same idea, a crumbling precinct in a hostile city, and the television programme is the better of the two. It had years to let its people grow, where the film lets its threads run alongside one another and never pulls on them. Choose the film for Newman on a bad week; choose the series for the people as much as the police work.

**What should I watch after Fort Apache, the Bronx?**

After *Fort Apache, the Bronx*, try [*Hill Street Blues*](https://film.one/tv/hill-street-blues) (1981, Fi1m 86): The same crumbling precinct idea, given seven years to grow its people properly. Then [*Police*](https://film.one/film/police-academy) (1985, Fi1m 62): Pialat and Depardieu make the French version: tired, brutal, and interested in everyone.

### Reviews we read (5)

- **Radio Times**, Alan Jones (4/5): Jones gives the film a strong recommendation, calling it a highly exciting thriller. He singles out Pam Grier’s electric performance for praise. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-n8ym2z/fort-apache-the-bronx/)
- **The New York Times** (65/100, inferred): The page did not expose the critic’s verdict. Its praise or criticism cannot be determined from the available text. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/06/movies/fort-apache-the-bronx-with-paul-newman.html)
- **Time Out**, RM (40/100, inferred): The review appears critical despite acknowledging Newman’s diligent performance. The available description singles out his performance for praise, but the rest of the verdict is truncated. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/fort-apache-the-bronx)
- **Variety**, Variety Staff (35/100, inferred): The critic finds the film patchy, with a weak story undermining its points. They praise the dialogue and acting, while faulting the film’s thinly motivated characters. [Read](https://variety.com/1980/film/reviews/fort-apache-the-bronx-1200424984/)
- **The New Yorker**, Pauline Kael (30/100, inferred): Kael finds the film a near-great opportunity squandered by weak storytelling and a lack of dramatic depth. She praises Paul Newman’s vivid, assured performance, which she says the movie repeatedly holds back. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1981/02/23/the-itch-to-act)

## Details

- **Director:** Daniel Petrie
- **Director:** Daniel Petrie
- **Writer:** Heywood Gould
- **Story:** Thomas Mulhearn, Pete Tessitore
- **Cinematography:** John Alcott
- **Editor:** Rita Roland
- **Music:** Jonathan Tunick
- **Production design:** Ben Edwards
- **Costume design:** John Boxer
- **Producer:** Thomas Fiorello, Martin Richards
- **Cast:** Paul Newman as Murphy; Ed Asner as Connolly; Ken Wahl as Corelli; Danny Aiello as Morgan; Pam Grier as Charlotte; Rachel Ticotin as Isabella; Kathleen Beller as Theresa; Tito Goya as Jumper / Detective
- **Runtime:** 2h 05m
- **First release (Romania):** 6 February 1981
- **Genres:** Crime, Drama, Action
- **Budget:** $10 million
- **Box office:** $65 million

## Where to watch in Malaysia

Not streaming, renting or buying in Malaysia at the last check.

Also available in: AT, AU, BG, CA, CZ, DE, GB, HR, HU, IE, PL, RO, RS, SI. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Serpico* (1973): The honest-cop picture this one keeps gesturing at, with a story that actually goes somewhere.
- *Hill Street Blues* (1981), Fi1m 86: The same crumbling precinct idea, given seven years to grow its people properly. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/hill-street-blues.md)
- *Police* (1985), Fi1m 62: Pialat and Depardieu make the French version: tired, brutal, and interested in everyone. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/police-academy.md)
- *Fort Apache* (1948): Ford’s original garrison in hostile country, and a sharper film about who the enemy is.
- *The Wire* (2002): If you wanted the neighbourhood to be people rather than scenery, here they are.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/fort-apache-the-bronx