Lesson plan
Busting
Busting is a 1974 American buddy cop film, directed by Peter Hyams in his theatrical directorial debut, starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as police detectives of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The film was the main inspiration for the cop series Starsky & Hutch, which premiered in 1975 and, like this film, also featured Antonio Fargas. In the film, the honest efforts of the two detectives against organized crime are undermined by police corruption and by the influence of a local crime boss over the police department. They are sent to police gay bars instead. The detectives resort to harassing the crime boss and his family, until uncovering evidence of drug trafficking in a hospital which counted the crime boss as a patient. The crime boss states to them that he cannot be convicted on circumstantial evidence, and dares them to shoot him. Busting was the last film Blake starred in before his fame reached greater heights with the cop drama series Baretta.
Article summary
Busting is a 1974 American buddy cop film, directed by Peter Hyams in his theatrical directorial debut, starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as police detectives of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The film was the main inspiration for the cop series Starsky & Hutch, which premiered in 1975 and, like this film, also featured Antonio Fargas. In the film, the honest efforts of the two detectives against organized crime are undermined by police corruption and by the influence of a local crime boss over the police department. They are sent to police gay bars instead. The detectives resort to harassing the crime boss and his family, until uncovering evidence of drug trafficking in a hospital which counted the crime boss as a patient. The crime boss states to them that he cannot be convicted on circumstantial evidence, and dares them to shoot him. Busting was the last film Blake starred in before his fame reached greater heights with the cop drama series Baretta.
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.