Dark
Blue Sees Red
Dark
Blue Sees Red
Dark Blue is a solid, well-acted police procedural whose quality will
be judged by two factors: 1) how long it's been since you have been trapped
inside a house with no escape; and 2) how many cop movies and TV shows you've
seen in the past 10 to 20 years. The film is a retread to the nth degree, with
elements of Training Day, Narc, Magnum Force, L.A. Confidential,
Colors, The Shield, and Homicide running throughout it.
In fact, it was written by Training Day scribe David Ayer from
a story by James Ellroy. Ayer has the nuances of police officers, especially
corrupt ones, down to a T. He sees the Los Angeles Police Department of 11 years
ago as a corrupt military installation of sorts, with evil generals giving unthinkable
orders to lieutenants and foot soldiers all too willing to carry them out.
The film is as subtle as a blizzard. Recent interviews and press notes for the
film have director Ron Shelton on the defensive, contending that he has
not made an anti-cop movie but an anti-corruption movie. To that, I say, "Yeah
right! Good luck calling the 5-0 the next time you have a break-in or your car
is stolen, Mr. Shelton!" The LAPD's reaction to this movie will be VERY
interesting in the coming days.
Kurt Russell stars as LAPD Detective Eldon Perry Jr., who takes his orders
directly from the very dirty, very oily Commander Jack Van Meter (Brendan
Gleeson). Perry has been involved in so many police shootings over the years
that inquiry boards are a part of his weekly calendar. Their unholy alliance
starts to unravel when Perry is partnered with Van Meter's wet-behind-the-ears
nephew, Bobby (Scott Speedman of Felicity fame), who witnesses
Perry time and again brutalize and even murder street hoodlums only to be protected
by the system.
Enter Ving Rhames as the upwardly mobile Deputy Chief Arthur Holland, outraged
at the corruption and the old-boy/cowboy network of city-sanctioned, racist
gunslingers that the police department has been reduced to since he joined the
force in the late '60s. After witnessing Perry escape justice yet again, then
watching as Van Meter assigns him to a suspicious quadruple homicide, Holland
vows to crack some heads of his own and bring down their crooked regime.
Dark Blue does a very good job of holding the audience's attention throughout.
Russell hasn't had this meaty a role in years, and his Eldon Perry is a reminder
of what an intense, brooding presence the former Snake Plissken can be on the
big screen. I really liked how Perry wasn't the real bad guy in the piece, that
he was a follower not a leader. Usually big stars like Russell have to be the
Big Dog, but Perry is more of a "shut-up-and-follow-orders" kind of
guy. He has a sense of justice, but it's been warped and perverted by too much
booze, too much violence, and too many years employed by a skewed system.
The rest of the cast can't help but shrink by comparison. Gleeson suggests all
sorts of pent-up rage and sleaze. A hundred more pounds, and he would have made
for a spectacular Kingpin in the recent Daredevil flick. However, Speedman
barely registers as the tortured, conflicted younger cop. It's too apparent
too soon where his story is going, and it really made me miss what the young
Sean Penn of 15 or so years ago would have done in the
role.
Most disappointing is how little screen time Rhames gets. Shelton and Ayer are
much more interested in wallowing in and prosecuting the dirty cops than exploring
good and motivated officers like Holland. The film alternately hates Russell
and his crew and is fascinated by them to the point where it does a disservice
to the righteous Holland character. After the Deputy Chief declares war on the
white brotherhood, he basically sits back and waits for someone to come forward
to confess. I wanted Rhames, a truly dynamic actor, to be more active in the
plot of the film. His finest moment comes opposite Gleeson during a short elevator
ride early in the film. The scene leads you to believe these two bulls are gonna
get it on at some point, but the duel never really materializes.
Finally, the film's most gutsy choice--to set the story against the backdrop
of the Rodney King beating in 1991, the subsequent acquittal of the cops
who arrested him, and the ensuing riots that set L.A. ablaze--is its most problematic.
Most of us lived through that time of turmoil. To set a fictional story against
such a real and immediate event felt wrong while I was watching the film and
really hurts the picture's believability late. If such a case as the Perry-Van
Meter one really went down amid the riots, it would be a HUGE part of both
the historical record and our national fabric. Instead, you leave the theater
slightly confused and muttering to your buddy, your significant other, or yourself:
"Uh, I don't remember that happening."
That's because it didn't, but Shelton's point is that such corruption was going
on and that it was tipping the scales of justice at a time of great unrest in
Southern California. The film is compelling, I'll give it that. And while its
flaws are many, I am still giving it a recommendation. Russell is just too good
in the lead role to ignore, and Dark Blue was just too welcome an alternative
to the Frozen White.
Ugh. Have my room ready, please.
Dark Blue is rated R for violence, language, and brief sexuality.
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