Pride and Glory doesn’t deliver anything moviegoers haven’t seen countless times before; good cop, bad cop and lots of conflict. My first instinct was to dismiss this film completely. However, I figured since the picture starred Edward Norton and Colin Farrell, it might not be half bad. Turns out I was right, While Pride and Glory isn’t a very good film, chances are that without the two actors involvement, this film would have been a straight to video release.
The sons of a police officer, director Gavin O’Connor (Tumbleweeds) and his brother Gregory started writing Pride and Glory back in 1999 with first-time script writer Robert Hopes, a New York City police officer. The script was eventually finished by Joe Carnahan (Narc, Smokin’ Aces), though the title came from Hopes original story.
As the film begins, a New York police raid goes terribly wrong, resulting in the deaths of four officers. The squad belonged to Francis Tierney, Jr. (Noah Emmerich), a second-generation policeman on his way to becoming a full Inspector. Police work is the family business: His father, Francis Tierney, Sr. (Jon Voight), is an NYPD Captain; his brother, Ray Tierney (Ed Norton), is an NYPD Detective; and his brother-in-law, Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell), is an NYPD Sergeant. As we soon discover, Tierney’s squad is full of bad cops. Jimmy is the leader, taking drug money and killing people whenever necessary.
“Good cop” Ray is assigned to investigate the deaths of the four officers. In doing so, he uncovers evidence against his brother-in-law and his brother. Faced with the evidence, Ray has a terrible choice to make; cops are taught to protect their own. On a personal level, he must decide whether to betray his own family. Throughout the first half of Pride and Glory we learn a lot about the Tierney and Egan families; what drives them, their beliefs and sources of interfamily conflict. O’Connor has crafted a fairly solid first half by telling us as much about the families as the crimes they committed.
Unfortunately, as the film moves along the solid storytelling falls by the wayside; the filmmakers give rise to a lot of questions about various people but never answer them. Ray is divorcing his wife. Why? No reason given. Francis, Jr.’s wife is dying of cancer. Why? No reason again. Francis, Sr. drinks too much. Why? No reason except that he’s Irish, and that’s what he’s supposed to do. Undoubtedly, all of these things are meant to elicit sympathy for the characters. Instead, Carnahan has turned all of them into cinematic cliché’s.
It’s really too bad the screenplay gets so flimsy in the second half. Given the talent of Edward Norton and Colin Farrell, Pride and Glory could have been a solid movie if the idea was completely fleshed out. Edward Norton is excellent as always but the lack of a solid script leaves him faltering through the last twenty minutes or so of the film. Colin Farrell is relegated to playing a nasty hood, so viewers never really get a sense of dimension with his character.
Pride and Glory is one of the films that left me wondering what could have been. The first half really has the genesis of a strong story, so I can’t say Pride and Glory isn’t worth seeing. However, after working on this project for almost a decade, I’m surprised that Gavin O’Connor would commit a story to film that seems so obviously half-baked.
Pride and Glory is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio, using an anamorphic transfer, enhanced for widescreen TVs. There is some film grain that gives the picture a realistically gritty texture, especially in dimmer scenes. Bright colors do stand out vividly when they occur, which isn’t often, and object delineation is fine. Black levels aren’t always too intense during nighttime scenes, images often look too smoothed out, and the overall screen appearance is slightly glossy.
The disc contains only an English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1. It provides a good sense of surround, with music, crowds, gunshots, fires, and street noises all encircling the listening area. The midrange is reasonably natural and well balanced; the bass is prodigious; the highs are sparkling.
The disc contains one major bonus item, a sixty-seven-minute documentary called Source of Pride: The Making of Pride and Glory. It’s an extremely detailed account of how the filmmakers went about making the movie to look as authentic as possible.
The release includes a digital copy disc of the film, compatible with iTunes and Windows Media devices; English as the only spoken language; Spanish subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired
