The Pledge (DVD)

During his police retirement party, Jerry Black becomes aware of a homicide that has been reported in the local mountains. Despite the fact that he is now theoretically retired, his boss allows him to go with the detective in charge to the crime scene. It transpires that a young boy out playing on his snow scooter has come across the horrifically mutilated body of a young girl. Only minutes earlier he had seen an Indian man trudging through the snow, away from the crime scene. In the face of general police incompetence, Jerry agrees to visit the girl's parents and break the terrible news. Having told them what has happened, the hysterical mother asks him to swear on the ...  Read the complete review

The Pledge is one of those films that often sneaks in under people's radar. Despite the fact that it has a larger than life lead in Jack Nicholson and a big name director in the form of Sean Penn, talk of it to many casual film-goers, and the reaction will be "The What?" Which is a shame, because The Pledge is a brilliant piece of film-making which deserves to be better known. It starts off as a fairly normal murder mystery, but quickly veers off in a different direction to make a compelling piece of cinema. The basic plot sees Detective Jerry Black (Nicholson), on his last day on the job, involved in a murder investigation. Even though he is ...  Read the complete review

Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson)is on the verge of his retirement from the police force. He was a great cop but is now looking forward to kicking back and doing a bit of fishing. However on the night of his retirement party a murder is reported. A little blonde girl has been raped, her throat slit and then dumped in the snow. Jerry decides that he wants to spend the last of his six hours on the police force working so he gets his coat and leaves. What starts as just helping out with the case leads him to break the news to the parents of the little girl. Whilst there the distraught mother makes him promise to find the killer. Jerry does and decides to leave his fishing trip ...  Read the complete review

Once in a while, if you're lucky, you find yourself settling down with a film, expecting to enjoy it but no more, then finding yourself so absorbed and affected that time disappears and, when the film is over, you just can't get its atmosphere out of your head. That's what happened to me with The Pledge, a masterful piece of film-making starring Jack Nicholson and directed by Sean Penn. At first it appears to be a standard police thriller, but after 20 minutes or so you realize that it's actually much, much more. The Plot ++++++++ Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) is a retiring policeman in bleak, wintry Reno, Nevada. Whilst he ...  Read the complete review

Released earlier this month, I saw this film at the cinema a few weeks ago and was completely haunted by it. My boyfriend saw the film with me and as he’s also a rather avid dooyooer I thought I’d get in quick and review it first. The Pledge The Pledge is Sean Penn’s third directorial foray (The Indian Runner and The Crossing Guard are its predecessors - but I’m afraid I haven’t seen either of them yet). The film is based on a short novel by Fredrich Durrenmatt and it’s a moody suspense thriller telling the tale of ageing detective Jerry Black, who is on the trail of a child killer. Plot ...  Read the complete review