Pride and Glory, delayed for years, according to the Associated Press, should have been delayed indefinitely. The promise of this film and its failure to meet the standards of the intense cop story advertised makes it sad to watch.
For a cop melodrama with more twists than a pretzel, Pride and Glory has an inventive story. However, the lack of explanation at times takes away from the innovative screenplay and noteworthy acting.
There are stereotypical conflicts, one being looking out for your fellow men or doing the right thing. In trying to differentiate the film from others like it (The Departed), it adds a barrage of other emotional conflicts. These side stories are not only meaningless to the overall plot, but flood the audience with more sappy emotions than it can take, leaving viewers shell-shocked and unable to care about the film's progression.
The film is about two brothers, Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) and Francis Tierney (Noah Emmerich), and brother-in-law Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell), who are all part of the NYPD. Four police officers are killed in a heinous shootout. Ray decides to investigate the case after pressure from his father Francis Tierney Sr. (Jon Voight).
As he delves deeper into the case, Ray discovers corruption in his precinct and is conflicted because it could destroy everything he has worked to achieve, not to mention his family.
The film takes on far too many emotionally charged topics: Francis Jr.'s girlfriend is dying of cancer and Francis Sr. is an alcoholic. These themes are included randomly, without adding anything to strengthen the story.
The camerawork and filming are hazy, which is probably supposed to add to the seedy backdrop. Even with a good pair of eyes, it was difficult at times to decipher what was going on.
In addition to this visual confusion, there's a muffled quality to the audio of the film. It was often difficult to understand what the characters were saying, making it hard to fully comprehend the extent of what was going on until a quarter of the way into the film.
An inordinate amount of lengthy conversations in Spanish during the film also seemed unnecessary. There were no subtitles and little extrapolation as to what was being said. This left people baffled and at a loss to understand the direction the movie was going.
But a lack of subtitles was not the only language barrier imposed in the film. Colin Farrell's attempt at a New York accent failed miserably and he would often mix his character's accent with his own Irish brogue. These lapses were especially apparent in the scenes in the film in which Farrell had to portray forms of emotion.
Pride and Glory was filled with many scenes that wrench out the heart and challenge the viewer. Some of these scenes are more horrifying and stomach-turning than those in slasher films because they show the monstrous things people can do to others when motivated by money and dreams of grandeur.
For example, when Jimmy tries to get information from a man, he breaks into the man's house and threatens to use a hot iron on his infant child unless he tells Jimmy what he knows.
While there was some awe-inspiring acting in the film, there were also less than satisfactory performances.
Voight was good as Francis Tierney Sr. His character's presence and power over the family (Godfather-esque) is strongly felt. Furthermore, Voight captures the audience immediately when in front of the camera.
Norton plays Ray Tierney spectacularly, though sometimes there are small scenes in which he does not fully connect. Overall, however, he has his shining moments.
Farrell, used to playing the bad boy or incendiary and unlikable character, was not fully believable in this role. For the most part he only scratches the surface of what the character could be.
Overall, this film had too much emotional baggage weighing it down from its flight toward becoming a high-quality movie.
Grade: C+
