Le Prix de la loyauté

In 2008 New York thriller "Pride And Glory" Edward Norton's a cop reluctantly pulled in (by top brass dad Jon Voight) to investigate the shootings of four fellow cops who worked under his bro Noah Emmerich (married to Jennifer Ehle) with hard-ass Colin Farrell (married to his sister Lake Bell), Shia Whigham & Frank Grillo. What unfolds is a rich & finely crafted tale of Irish-American family & NY cop loyalty & corruption, good vs bad, and the blurring of those lines. The drama occasionally slips to melodrama, but co-writer (with Joe Carnahan) / director Gavin O'Connor does an excellent job applying the polish, eliciting great performances & keeping it taut. Terrific film.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

When four police officers are brutally gunned down in a run down, drug infested tower block, it sets a deadly chain of events in motion that threaten to tear apart the brotherly structure of the New York Police Department. Honest cop Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) starts with the proper approach, getting a statement from an eye witness to what may have gone on in the shape of an innocent, unlying child who admits to having seen notorious drug dealer Angel Tezo (Ramon Rodriguez) fleeing from the scene in fear. With what happened starting to look fairly obvious, the hunt begins for Tezo. Unfortunately, that includes less honest cops Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell), related to Ray through marriage, and his men whose corrupt activities have lead to the murders. It all builds up to a devastating battle between family and friends, loyalty and justice, truth and honour.

As any one who's glanced at the trivia section (or Empire Magazine!) will already know, work on Pride and Glory was scheduled to begin as far back as 2001, but owing to America's characteristically patriotic respect for NY cops who risked their lives to save lives that fateful day, any suggestion of corruption amongst them was deemed, well, unpatriotic and it's been left till seven years later for the film to come out. It would appear the most high profile film to come from writer/director Gavin O' Connor, whose other credits appear a smattering of unheard of films that have skipped the sort of exposure this one's got.

Though a few have claimed the film has been done before (which it surely has), it is still far more than a standard, straight-forward cop thriller, with an intelligent, twisty turny screenplay that keeps you hooked with it's developments and raw honesty. Despite this, the narrative flow fails to keep going as well as you'd like, and a fair few scenes gracelessly flow on from the last one rather than keeping you hooked for them. Also on the plus side are strong, solid performances from leading men Norton and Farrell, not to mention Jon Voight and Noah Emmerich as the other honest, well meaning father/son cop team caught up in the middle of the corrupt shenanigans as everyone else. But Norton and Farrell not only have good presence, they have good chemistry together and it's a shame they're scenes together are too few. Another down point is their climactic fisticuffs session, which feels corny and out of place amongst what has been a raw, unflinching, brutally and unsearingly honest cop film up till now, belonging more at the end of a Jet Li or Chuck Norris movie to be honest.

Still, this is a solid, well made cop thriller that was still quite worth the wait. ***

Edward Norton and Colin Ferrell, the automatic great duo, they make a perfect team for a movie like this. They're both great actors and will make any movie worth the watch. So my friends and I watched Pride and Glory a little over a week ago, I was hearing mixed reviews on it, but still, when you love these actors as much as I do, you have to see it. So based on my honest opinion, this is a very good story, but the film just needed better editing, it was a little longer than it should have been. Also I didn't really like the ending, although I know they did it more for the cinematic reasons as people wanna see the bad guys pay for their crimes. But Ed, Colin, and even John Voight make this film very watchable and click right on screen. We've seen a million crooked cop movies, I think we're still looking for one that really stands out, but Pride and Glory holds itself well and is watchable.

Jimmy is a narc who does pretty much all the dirty work when it comes to busting in on drug dealers, hookers, murderers, rapists, etc. One night though he among other cops receive a call that 4 policemen have been killed in a building with drug dealers. Jimmy is trying to figure out what went wrong only to find out that one of the drug dealers had an inside man who called in advance to warn them that the cops were coming. But one of the policemen that he suspects is his brother in-law who does the best he can to justify all that he is doing.

Pride and Glory is a very good story, I'd say though to wait for the rental, but I'm warning you there are some really intense scenes, Colin goes really far in one scene with a baby, I'm a person who has seen every disturbing film known to man, and this scene had my hands over my eyes. If you wanna see this film, you'll see what I'm talking about. There are some shocking lines as well and hurtful, this was just an intense movie and is not for the weak hearted. It's like the more disturbing episode of The Shield in some ways. Ed and Colin work well together and are a great duo, Pride and Glory is a good movie, just needs a little more editing.

7/10

Films revolving around a family of policemen are nothing new. Pride & Glory, starring Norton & Farrell, isn't anything revolutionary in the genre but takes a generally strong storyline and adds some good acting.

Story revolves around a group of cops (led by Farrell) up to their necks in trouble after their corrupt scams have backfired on them, and to cover their backs they need to tread deeper into the mire. On the other hand is Norton (Farrell's brother-in-law) who slowly discovers what's going on, and it all goes helter-skelter.

In many ways in these films they can get a little clichéd and melodramatic, but this film seems conscious of that fact, and in general has strayed away from what it could have been. Nevertheless, its nothing special but still interesting. The main interest is the family politics and dynamics and that should keep your interest with the generally good acting. An enjoyable movie.

The plot of this movie is the fairly predictable (though always entertaining) idea of the corrupt cops against the good cops and the always-annoying injection of the nosy media. If it had been done by amateur actors, this movie wouldn't have been nearly as good.

Edward Norton was absolutely STUNNING, blew me away. He's always been a favorite of mine but every role he's in continues to amaze me. There a scene where he's talking to a Spanish woman and his expression throughout the scene is the main thing that stuck out to me in the whole movie. There's just something in his eyes that draws you and sucks you in.

Colin Farrell did an amazing job as well, as did Jon Voight. They managed to bring their characters more personality than I expected there to be. Especially Colin. Even though he played a such a bad character, there was something there in the way he was with his family and everything that still made me feel BAD for him.

And though the f-bombs were sometimes distracting and the ending could've had more punch, overall I really liked this movie.