Keeping it in the family,,,,, (Pride And Glory (DVD))

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Pride And Glory (DVD)
Date:	28/08/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some very well worked scenes, acting, violence

Disadvantages: Drags in places, too long

Pride and Glory is an intriguing and well made cop thriller about police brutality and corruption. It has an impressive cast list that delivers on what it a tough and convoluted plot, presented in an overly long 2 hours of film.

Chief Tierney (John Voight) is proud of his two boys Ray (Ed Norton) and Frannie (Noah Emmerich). When son in law and Sergeant of some of New York's 'Finest' Jimmy (Colin Farrell) loses 4 of his men in what is seemingly an inexplicable presence in a drug dealer's lodgings, Chief persaudes Ray to head up the task force to find out what happened and to track down the crims responsible for the deaths.

As Ray digs deeper, he finds that corruption starts emerging a bit too close to hme for his liking, and soon finds himself torn between what would be the right thing to do, and what would be best for his family.

I would say that Norton is probably the main character here, as the film focuses a lot of his struggle with his own morals. Frannie, as the division head, has a certain amount of wool pulled over his eyes, and the focus is not always on him, and Jimmy certainly doesn't worry about morals. Ray is the one with the failed marriage and the cloud over his history as a detective. It is him that director Gavin O'Connor choses to ficus on more, especially with the visuals.

At times, farrell is way above everyone else in terms of the believability factor, but it mustn't be ignored that the rest of the cast pay a huge part in maing this extremely watchable. The brutal nature of it is riveting, and worrying, and the family side of things is almost added as a concurrently running theme, with a multigeneration family at the heart of things. O'Connor manages to add plenty of visual emotion and poignancy to drive home what is essentially a film that comes close to losing its focus because of its duration.

It always seems like not a lot is happening simply because it's two hours long. The film could easily have been made in an hour and a half, and would have seemed a bit more fast paced, yet allowing time for the slower scenes requiring time for a bit of emphasis. The 2 hours were a bit too much for me, and it did drag a bit as a result.

However, it is still a well made film, with a fine cast giving us a good show. The violence is extremely well choreographed, and the effects (particualrly bloodies ones) are also well carried out. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a bit of a darker, violent thriller style of film, but if this is not your scene, then you're unlikely to enjoy it. I enjoyed it, despite being a bit disheartened becaus eof the length and also as it lost its focus in places. Still, it's very watchable and well constructed.

In terms of extras, the pick of the bunch has to be 'Source Of Pride', which is all about how they made the film. It's not immensely impressive, as there isn't really anything we have seen in the film that has not occurred in films before. However, it's always useful with such films to gain an insight as to the approach. I find that if you do this, watching it the second time around reveals many things that would otherwise have been missed.

I shall let you decide whether you want to give this a go or not. I thought it was decent enough, excellent in places, but dragging in others, so it's only a 3 star rating from me, I'm afraid. Still worth a watch if this is your thing though.

Summary: Often violent thriller about police corruption