Busting

Busting
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Peter Hyams
Written by	Peter Hyams
Produced by	Robert Chartoff Irwin Winkler
Starring	Elliott Gould Robert Blake Allen Garfield Antonio Fargas Sid Haig Michael Lerner
Cinematography	Earl Rath
Edited by	James Mitchell
Music by	Billy Goldenberg
Production company	Chartoff-Winkler Productions[1]
Distributed by	United Artists[1]
Release dates	February 6, 1974 (1974-02-06) (Los Angeles)[1] February 27, 1974 (1974-02-27) (New York City)[2]
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

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 tasked with policing 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 can not be convicted on circumstantial evidence, and dares them to shoot him.

Busting was the last film Blake starred in before his fame reached higher heights with the cop drama series Baretta.