Good Cop? Bad Cop? Any Cop?

Pride and Glory explores issues of loyalty, morality and justice as a corruption scandal threatens to blow apart a closely-knit police family and the entire NYPD.  The male dominated cast revolves around the Irish-American Tierney family, with Edward Norton taking centre stage.  The plot gradually unravels as he investigates the murder of four New York City cops, only to implicate members of his own family. 

 “[Jon Voight]… is a great drunk”

 The Tierney family is headed by the domineering Francis ‘Pop’ Tierney Senior (Jon Voight).  He’s universally respected as Manhattan’s Chief of Detectives with a tendency to hit the bottle.  He does a formidable job of inflicting the audience with the same levels of embarrassment, frustrations and shame that he imposes upon his sons, and he’s a great drunk to boot.  Noel Emmerich plays the eldest brother who has to juggle the film’s moral turmoil with a sub-plot involving his wife’s terminal illness and the effects of her chemotherapy. 

“[Farrell] puts in a fiery performance…”

The film also boasts big name bad boy Colin Farrell, who puts in a fiery performance as the Tierney’s reckless brother-in-law.  He’s a devoted family man, charismatic but fundamentally an aggressive alpha male.  Farrell’s on familiar territory but he maintains a convincing balance, despite being misdirected by Gavin O’Connor during me key scenes. 

It’s Norton who’s the star of the show, though he appears to have the least personality in the initial stages of the film as it attempts to build pace.  He puts in a layered, understated performance as the embittered Ray Tierney, a man with integrity but blighted by a failed marriage and a predictably dark past.  It’s a shame that the character’s big reveal is handled so clumsily midway through the film, but it can’t detract from Norton’s steadfast efforts.

“Pride and Glory is a very slow burner…”

Thanks to nausea-inducing cinematography the film gets off to a shaky start, and even when the camera settles things don’t improve much, as it takes far too long to engage the audience.  Pride and Glory is a very slow burner – to the point that it nearly fizzles and goes out during the initial scenes – thankfully the incendiary final act makes up for it, before burning out – lacking a satisfactory resolution. 

“A grim portrayal of police corruption”

The film provides a grim portrayal of police corruption, covering similar territory to the work of James Ellroy.  Compare it to Street Kings from earlier this year; both films offer gritty corruption exposés and are littered with harrowing scenes of violence at the hands of the law. 

Pride and Glory adopts a more drawn out, emotive approach but it’s peppered with slip-ups that it can’t afford to make in this saturated genre.  For examples you need only consider the clichéd ‘Irish-ness’ of the pub, the music and obviously Gaelic tattoos; presumably included to explain the closeness of the large family and to provide a tenuous set-up for a bar room brawl – albeit a ferocious one. 

“Good old fashined family values…”

Everybody has their crosses to bear in Pride and Glory, and there are consequences to pay for the erosion of every moral fibre.  It’s a bleak outlook with some simplified but powerful observations of the effects that the abuse of power can have on a community and society as a whole.  It also manages to provide a degree of hope for moral integrity in a landscape where only women and children are truly innocent.

Once Pride and Glory finds its sense of direction it has an interesting tale to tell, exploring the abuse of power, the corruption of justice and good old fashioned family values.  It benefits from a strong cast but it’s too long-winded and contributes little to a well-worn genre.

Rating ***

 Listen to the review as featured on BBC Radio Sheffield, Leeds and York on Wednesday 12^th November.   You can tune in to the weekly reviews on the Russell Walker Late Show at 88.6FM or listen online Wednesdays at 10.30pm.