Dever e Honra

This procedural cop drama shines a light on the vulnerability of serving officers who make fatal mistakes in the line of duty. Director Agustín Fernández shares screenwriting credit on this with Anthony Thorne, Kevin Barrett, and Nick Montalvo. The 93 minutes run-time passes quickly, with the taught script emphasising the tension between the characters rather than the action. The scenes are edited to make for efficient storytelling, with no unnecessary time wasted on the necessary but peripheral, plot-lines. That being said, whenever a scene build-up seems slow, this is done to create atmosphere and build tension. Casting is fairly spot on and all of the actors pull their weight here. The overall mood being pretty dark and intense, is only saved from being grindingly humourless, by the fast pace and plot twists. Overall, an intelligent and solid piece of work, that is well worth a view.

Summary: This film is fantastic. Deserves a much better rating than it currently has on IMDb (4.7). Don't see why this movie's average rating is not at least a 7.

Comments:

The rare movie with an empowered, non-hypersexualized female lead character, whose humanity is the most important thing about her, not merely that she is a female. She is not fetishized nor relegated to caring only about relationships with men, nor does she need to be rescued by a "big strong man" to do all the dirty work for her. Rather, she is capable of doing anything any human person can do, but what in cinema is often reserved for males alone, such as wielding worldly power, being emotionally tough, and perhaps most importantly, simply being independent. It is not enough to merely put a gun in a female character's hand and let her shoot someone, and then celebrate the movie as non-sexist. Not if said female character is still portrayed as utterly relationally dependent on men, as usually happens in such movies. Not here.

In line with this, the movie takes a far more realistic, compassionate approach to how it portrays human relationship, character, and choice, rather than the macho, male-dominant, "shoot/beat up everyone and make it better" tropes in so many other movies with similar subject matter. It actually takes the time to show the plot from the point of view of all the characters, female or male, adult or child, powerful or powerless, "glamorous" or ordinary. One example being a gunshot victim's sister. Just an ordinary kid, no reason the movie has to include her at all, but it does, because this movie cares about the human element. In this regard Badge of Honor is very reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's best directorial work, such as "Gran Torino" and "Unforgiven".

OK for a got-nothing-else-to-do movie. Whomever was in charge of writing stuff in this film needs spelling classes ASAP. Apart from the "Assualt" mistake in the report, the Credits at the end are FULL of errors: The character appears as "Jocob", another one is "Smauel". Then there are three "Sunt Doubles", an "Add'l Firs Assistant B Camera", an "Assitant Costume Designer" and a "Set Cosumers Supervisor". I'm sure there are other goofs I didn't catch, especially among the First and Last Names of people involved in the movie. One positive thing about the movie is FINALLY using people who really do speak Spanish playing the roles of Latinos something Hollywood, completely surrounded by people from Central and South America doesn't usually do. Maybe it was Martin Sheen's influence or that Agustin's ear would hurt from the bad Spanish found in most American movies. Unfortunately, the director wasn't the right person to check the credits or assign that job to whomever did it.

It is a great movie, but needs to have a parental review.

I haven't even gotten 30 minutes into the movie before 2 full blown sex scene hit.

The scenes are full nudity and breast are fully out there.

I really don't care for movies like this.

I am interested in the movie not the sex scene.

If I wanted to see a sex scene I would get a porno.

I just want to let everyone know what is in the movie.

So, not recommended for anyone who doesn't want to see this kind of movie with nudity in it.

I am British, so rarely watch US TV crime series. Maybe for that reason there were some angles in this "dirty cop" drama which were new to me, and kept me watching to the end.

But they were not developed as they could have been, and the screenplay was to blame. The direction, too, is mediocre with the same tired style of flashbacks to patch holes in the exposition that we see in so many direct-to-DVD movies.

I think the intended ironic statement about "truth" and "honor" is indeed there, but gets muffled in the obligatory Hollywood ending.

The heroine and the "redeemed" cop were too lightweight, while Martin Sheen popping up in a supporting role, and still-beautiful Natasha Hensbridge in a dispensable one, only served to undermine the intended grittiness and remind us we are watching a Hollywood movie.

I am posting because I think this movie deserves better than the current 4.7 score. I give it 6, and most of that is for the storyline rather than the way it is realised on screen.