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Pride and Glory

Review By: Rebecca Ford
RebeccaFord@TheCinemaSource.com

For the life of me, I could now remember the name of this movie. Pride and Glory. I think it’s because it’s so general. I mean, it says nothing about what the film is about. Is it a war movie? A period piece? A samurai film?

Turns out it’s a cop drama. And it’s the same-old-same-old, we’ve seen it before good-cop-bad-cop story line. Dirty cops in New York City?! Shocking!

Directed by Gavin O’Connor, who also directed Miracle (look at that title!), the Olympic hockey movie, Pride and Glory feels far too familiar because it is just another cop movie where violence trumps story, and sensationalism trumps substance.

When four New York City cops are killed in what looks like a drub bust gone wrong, the NYPD scrambles to find the cop killers. Chief of Manhattan Detectives Francis Tierney, Sr. (Jon Voight) asks his son, Ray (Edward Norton), to step up to lead the investigation. Ray, who suffers from a troubled past, agrees, even though he knows the men who died served under his brother, Francis, Jr., (Noah Emmerich) and with his brother-in-law, Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell).

But as Ray starts to unfold the case, the evidence points in an unthinkable direction: towards his own brother and brother-in-law. Could they be dirty cops? So, Ray must choose between protecting his family of cops or justice.

Everything about this movie felt as if it was made to shock us as much as possible. The violence is at times horrific, especially in one scene involving a baby. And I don’t think I’ve even seen an innocent woman punched in the face in a movie before.

The stylistic decisions also seem to be based on a need to startle. The camera work is often hand-held and frantic. And the sound is edited so that sound from an upcoming scene will begin before the visuals, once leading to a man swearing on screen, but audio of children screaming. Sure, it’s creepie and unsettling, but that doesn’t make it good.

Worst of all, stereotypes run rampant in this film. Apparently, almost the whole NYPD force is Irish, druggies and bullies. They swear and drink a lot. And they use a whole lot of cheesy dialogue.

It’s even worse for the supposed drug dealers of the film. They’re all Spanish-speakers, and wearing baggy clothes and gold chains. There are whole scenes that are in Spanish (sans-subtitles), leaving audience members out of the loop if they aren’t bilingual.

It’s a shame that the script was so disappointing because there are some great actors in this movie. Some even manage to have moments of brilliance. Jon Voight provides necessary comedic relief as the drunken patriarch, and proves once again that his acting skills can transcend the mediocre material. Edward Norton has moments of genuine goodness, but both men are often limited by the cheesy dialogue.

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