Pride and Glory (2008)

Directed by: Gavin O’Connor | 130 minutes | thriller, crime | Actors: Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight, Noah Emmerich, Jennifer Ehle, John Ortiz, Frank Grillo, Shea Whigham, Lake Bell, Carmen Ejogo, Manny Perez, Wayne Duvall, Ramon Rodriguez, Rick Gonzalez, Maximiliano Hernández, Leslie Denniston

‘Serpico’ (1973), ‘LA Confidential’ and ‘Copland’ (both 1997) are just a few titles from the long list of films about corrupt police officers. The difference between these films and ‘Pride and Glory’ is that they are successful. Director Gavin O’Connor tries to add something extra to the film with family relationships between the agents involved. Yet ‘Pride and Glory’ leans more towards the police aspect of the story, which means that the ‘family’ dimension gets snowed under. However, the whole thing completely collapses after the ridiculous and unexpected anticlimax.

O’Connor and his twin brother, producer Gregory, come from a police family themselves. An excellent background to present this part of the story as truthfully as possible. Unfortunately, however, there is little to do in the family area, except that the characters refer to it several times. Furthermore, the adventures of the main character Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) are a bit boring. His quest for cop killers, which happens to lead him to corrupt cops, isn’t exciting. Furthermore, it’s a mystery why the director chose to reveal the identity of the bad guy to the viewer rather than the protagonist. It dulls the tension.

Norton and Farrell, who together form the poster for ‘Pride and Glory’, do what they were asked to do: act credibly. The scenes with Jon Voight also seem to be a routine job for the experienced actor. Especially in the (only) scene where the whole police family is together, Voight shines. As a slightly tipsy father, he takes an emotional look at his children one by one. One of those children is played by Noah Emmerich. He plays Norton’s older brother, Francis Tierney. Emmerich’s character is probably the most complex in the film. He is the sergeant of the corrupt unit and does not know which side he is on. Francis also struggles in his private life with the illness of his wife Abbey (Jennifer Ehle), who is suffering from cancer. Emmerich shows himself to be a gifted actor and bravely stands next to the ‘bigger’ actors in terms of name.

After seeing the few scenes with actual interaction between the characters, the fact that the film is so sparse with them is even more regrettable. Besides family ties in the film, there is of course also the honor of the police force that binds some characters together. In his film, O’Connor portrays a grim police world, in which hardly a single officer seems immune to corruption. In ‘Pride and Glory’ this is beautifully expressed during a police officer’s funeral: “Who are these men? Those who wash themselves every morning, shave, say goodbye to their wives and children, not knowing if they will return that same evening?”” In addition to this argument, a character whitewashes his shady behavior by stating that a simple drug dealer earns more than a mere drug dealer in one week. agents in a year. Mildly corrupt behavior wouldn’t be so crazy, compared to the pranks he plays. The person in question is literally going over corpses and even almost working a baby with a hot iron. O’Connor does not shy away from the heavier violence.

Despite the talented cast, ‘Pride and Glory’ is mediocre. The two themes ‘police’ and ‘family’ are not related to each other. This makes the less exposed part appear careless and the film unfinished. After seeing the totally out of the blue and completely idiotic denouement, fans will regret that Norton didn’t interfere with the script, which he did in previous films, such as ‘American History X’ (1998) and ‘The Incredible Hulk’ (2008). The unnecessarily violent and absurd ending relegates the film to a total failure.