- Title: Pride and Glory
- IMDB: link
Over the top acting, typical story line and a complete lack of moral high ground makes Pride and Glory absolutely painful to watch. You don’t give a shit about any one single character, not a one; the most enduring character is a wife dying of cancer. That’s right, a dying wife and interesting enough women were only window dressing in Pride and Glory. Chics don’t carry guns, they are not in the force and they certainly don’t have a brain, just drones that are completely clueless to the peril and damage their husbands are pressing on the poor elements of society. Pride and Glory is way too long and exaggerates every stereotype from unlawful cops to the criminal element, way too much in one film. It’s certainly nothing we haven’t seen before, not a single original thought or character.
There is this family of cops, however, you don’t get to see who is blood and who is marriage till half way through, but I guess if you’re a member of the force everybody’s family. Jimmy (Colin Farrell) is a mean brute of a cop who comes off all sweet and loving, he’s married into the family, interesting how his wife really doesn’t add up to more than a couple of screen shots, a third pregnancy and a handful of mean glares demonstrating her concern in Jimmy’s underhanded ways that she knows absolutely nothing about.
Ray (Edward Norton) is everybody’s brother and stands on the only moral high ground, more like a lump of dirt, than anybody else does in the film. Francis AKA Pops (Jon Voight) insists, after an exaggerated performance by Jimmy and Francis in a gruesome scene amongst 4 dead cops, that Ray gets back on the force and joins the task force to solve the crime and catch the cop killer. By the way 2 screenshots of his soon to be x-wife, they both still love each other dearly, but she can’t abide by his families ways of covering up the crap and taking care of their own.
Francis (Noah Emmerich) , the leader of the force now, has been turning his head and not bringing down heat on Jimmy and his wicked ways. Now that everything has come to head it’s time for Francis to man up or let Ray take the fall. Francis has been so beside himself taking care of his dying wife, that he rather let Ray take the fall because his life isn’t as hard as his own. Then, the only enduring and strong character in the entire film, Abby (Jennifer Ehle) , tells her husband to grow a set and be the man she needs him to be for her children. Francis has a moral change of heart and helps Ray stop Jimmy.
There is a rotten element to Pride and Glory, it’s the fact they tried to do too much, but came up with too little. Too many story lines and individual character growth, it falls short and leaves the audience wondering why, when and where too many times. Too much story, not enough background or detail. What exactly was the incident that may Ray leave the force, why did Jimmy go bad and Franny just turned his head, exactly why are the wives so stupid to not wonder WTF? Pride and Glory doesn’t have an original moment in the entire film and ultimately, even with all the violence and stomach turning moments, it comes up pretty damn flat. Nothing worth seeing here, move on folks!