DVD Review: Pride and Glory
Max Hope is back . . .
Seeing Joe Carnahan’s name on a cop drama is always a good thing, especially after his penned and directed attention getter Narc brought me back into that world with a huge jolt. Pride and Glory, written by the O’connor brothers along with Carnahan, is another modern cop drama set in New York city that tries to bring that same powerful impact of real life NYC cops on the beat. Unfortunately Carnahan was not behind the camera, instead actor turned director Gavin O’Connor tells a more personal story of inter bureau corruption blended nicely with old-school cop family feuds. Obsessed with authenticity and stemming from a line of cops himself, O’Connor breathes the kind of reality into certain scenes that we would only get by watching the TV reality show “Cops”.
Edward Norton and Noah Emmerich play two Irish-American brothers that grew up in a Cop household headed by their “pops” Jon Voight. Colin Farrell rounds off the cast as their brother in law, playing the “bad cop” as we quickly see after the start of the film. As always Norton turns in high caliber acting, along with his co-star Emmerich, a New York native and former NYU student. I only mention his NYU creds because we both took the same courses in film school, and even had the same professor, who mentioned Emmerich’s name all the time when discussing noteworthy graduates.
The only qualm I have with the film, other than Farrell’s usually uninspired performances, is his characters exploration within the family. The movie spends about two hours and change making sure that everything is as genuine as can be, down to hiring real NYPD cops to act, and real NYC thugs from the projects of Washington Heights, but when it comes to exploring Farrell’s family life or his motives, I felt completely short changed. Overall I recommend renting the DVD for the documentary found in the special features that for me explored Washington Heights and the NYPD a little more than the movie it spawned.
