Somewhere
in its mutation from the mystery story to the cop flick, the familiar movie
about the detective’s search for a criminal changed not only its protagonist
and his methods, but also its moral focus. The transition probably began three
decades ago with the almost simultaneous appearance of some powerfully
influential motion pictures: William Friedkin’s The French Connection, Don Siegel’s Dirty Harry, and Sidney Lumet’s Serpico.
Those films transformed traditional cinematic police procedure, with its close
attention to the process of official investigation and its implicit endorsement
of the criminal justice system, into its contemporary form, with its wild car
chases, pyrotechnic gunfights, and police officers who often break the law in
order to enforce it. Gene Hackman played the tough detective as a working-class
Captain Ahab, utterly obsessed with the drug kingpin he pursues; Clint Eastwood
hung up his spurs to play the cop as avenging angel, armed with an enormous
pistol and an immense righteousness; Al Pacino played the one pure cop in a
force overwhelmed by its own corruption.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย As Ron Shelton’s new picture, Dark Blue, demonstrates, the cop flick
of today reflects the influence of those movies and their numerous progeny; in
fact, the movie at times resembles something like a compendium of the subjects
and themes of the whole history of the form. It employs some highly publicized
current events, a notorious background of official misconduct, and a story that
might have come from any news report, in any medium, any day of the week.
Ironically, the cops are mostly responsible for its entirely predictable series
of increasingly brutal and bloody crimes, which should surprise no one who
reads the newspapers or goes to the movies.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Kurt Russell plays Eldon Perry, a
top cop with the Special Investigations Squad, a tough, elite unit within the
Los Angeles Police Department that apparently pursues the most difficult and
potentially most dangerous cases. As in virtually all such movies, he works
with a new partner, Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman), a rookie he must instruct in
the particular police methods of SIS. Under his tutelage, Keough undergoes an
education in blood, an initiatory experience that forces the young officer to
abandon all his principles of conduct and belief. At the same time, after a
good deal of pain and suffering, the mentor learns something from his student,
undergoing his own initiation, becoming aware for the first time of his own
compromises, failures, and betrayals.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Although their boss, Jack Van Meter
(Brendan Gleeson), protects Perry and Keough from an internal review board that
questions their fatal shooting of a suspect, for reasons of his own Van Meter
also obstructs their investigation of a quadruple homicide. Following Van
Meter’s orders and the general pattern of SIS, Perry leads a raid on the home
of two other felons, innocent at least of that particular crime, and, to test
his partner’s courage and loyalty, forces Keough to kill one of the men in cold
blood, which implicates him fully in the criminal activity of the squad. That
moment defines the disastrous nature of the partnership and, in effect,
explains the turmoil and devastation that provide the context for the movie’s
climactic actions.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Ron Shelton, chiefly known for some
fine, generally humorous and relaxed sports movies — White Men Can’t Jump, Bull
Durham, Tin Cup — maintains a
sense of urgency throughout the film, using the rapid pacing, quick cuts,
hand-held camera work, and loud soundtrack familiar to veterans of the form.
The movie also positively wallows in its own violence, showing the cops
practicing a sort of punching-bag method of interrogation throughout and, of
course, shooting people whenever possible. The constant brutality of gesture
and language pushes the picture way over the top at times — nobody except the
dedicated assistant chief of the department (Ving Rhames) ever questions the
conduct of the police, who seem able to impose a sort of legal criminality on
anyone they believe to be a suspect.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The real energy and relevance of Dark Blue, however, grow out of its deft
use of a historic contemporary trial for both structure and meaning. The movie
occurs during the final deliberations on the fate of the police officers
accused in the beating of Rodney King, a sequence that frequently appears on
television screens in the background of various scenes. When the jury finds the
officers not guilty, as everyone will remember, the ghettos of Los Angeles
explode, providing a context for Eldon Perry’s final desperate attempt to
redeem himself as a cop.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The chaos and anarchy that overwhelm
the action ultimately demonstrate the consequences of police brutality and
corruption, the logical conclusion not only of the behaviors in the film, but
also of three decades of cop flicks.
Dark Blue, starring
Kurt Russell, Brendan Gleeson, Scott Speedman, Michael Michele, Lolita
Davidovitch, Ving Rhames, Dash Mihok, Jonathan Banks, Graham Beckel, Khandi
Alexander, Eloy Casados, Marin Hinkle, William Utay; story by James Ellroy;
screenplay by David Ayer; directed by Ron Shelton. Cinemark Tinseltown; Hoyts
Greece Ridge; Loews Webster; Regal Culver Ridge; Regal Eastview; Regal
Henrietta.
You
can hear George and his movie reviews on WXXI-FM 91.5 Fridays at 7:15 a.m.,
rerun on Saturdays at 11:15 a.m.
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2003.
