Bon cop, bad cop,
same cop

Pride and Glory is a well
told but familiar story

ODIOUS OFFICER: Colin Farrell

by MATTHEW HAYS

Corrupt cops have made for good cinematic fodder over the decades—in fact, if it weren’t for corrupt cops, actors would lose an entire sub-genre. Al Pacino and Sidney Poitier, among many others, got to chew up valuable scenery by taking on their brothers, playing crusading, virtuous policemen.

In Pride and Glory, Ed Norton plays a decent cop scorched by the impending divorce from his beloved. Though emotionally wounded, he maintains close ties with his family, his dad Jon Voight, brother Noah Emmerich and sister Jennifer Ehle, who’s married to none other than Colin Farrell. (With that family tree, how could there not be trouble?) The weak moral link is Farrell, as it turns out, who is up to all manner of no good behind the scenes.

Pride and Glory opens when four cops are brutally gunned down during a drug raid. The dealers were somehow tipped off in advance, and Norton must find out who the bastard is who would do such a thing. Farrell appears to be running his own investigation, which includes warrant-less raids on homes, torture tactics and random beatings, all to get info out of various ne’er-do-well types. Director Gavin O’Connor knows how to twist the knife during certain key scenes. When Farrell is at a loss to get some details about the whereabouts of one crook, he holds a hot clothes iron over an infant to coax a bloodied thug to fess up. It’s pretty nasty stuff.

And it’s well told, shot in bold strokes, with a knockout cast. But given all of that, Pride and Glory makes for viewing that is occasionally exciting, but overwhelmingly familiar. I mean, they kind of shook things up a bit by having Farrell being Norton’s brother-in-law rather than brother, but it still adds up to one good cop having to bust a family member for being naughty.

This film will evoke a number of sensations, many of them intentional: horror, sorrow, anger. But Pride and Glory will undoubtedly also inspire some unintentional ones. Like déjà vu.

PRIDE AND GLORY OPENS
THIS FRIDAY, OCT. 24