Hey folks, Harry here... Saw this just a few short hours ago, had to write up my very intelligent thoughts on OLD SCHOOL, but after the film I met this HOOTERS' waitress and... well one thing led to another... you know how things go, it was HOOTERS' 20th Anniversary and well... I spent most of the night talking with... Robogeek about frustrations of being trapped inside a body so attractive that it intimadates all the beautiful women in the world that are obviously panting in anticipation of possessing, but paralyzed by their fierce attraction. Anyways, due to this I didn't have the time to write up my opinion on DARK BLUE, but the film... I loved. I really and truly just adored the film. Completely felt it was a modern day L.A. CONFIDENTIAL. The best performance from Kurt Russell in years. A film that I feel just isn't getting the attention it deserves, that is unfairly being shat upon by a critical mass. And lastly, I feel that the movie is the unfortunate victim of coming out in a time period where many of us do not wish to look critically and with disdain at the "protectors" we employ to watch over us here at home. In a world of saran wrap and duct tape and color warnings of terror... Thinking that the guys in blue should be the guys in stripes... isn't comforting, so as a result I think a brilliantly taut suspense cop noir is going to be disregarded, over-looked and unappreciated by too many. However, you have now been informed... this is a really great little movie and if you are a Kurt Russell fan, you are in for a treat! Now on to Jeremy...
Hey, Harry. Caught a sneak peak at Dark Blue Wednesday night. Here are my thoughts:
"You tell him I'm coming! And Hell's coming with me!"
-Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) in Tombstone
And if that statement were meant in the literal sense, LAPD Sgt. Eldon Perry Jr. (also played by Kurt Russell) in Dark Blue would have been Earp's descendent. Raised to be a 'gunfighter in a family of gunfighters', Perry is the last of the remnants of the old Los Angeles. He is the tail at the end of full-fledged corruption and the law of the old west that his ancestors built 'with bullets.' He is sworn to protect the Hell he has helped not to create, but to keep together. This Hell is the world around him. This Hell is his very own soul.
Perry himself is a damned soul, lost in the ever-changing tides of Los Angeles and sworn to protect it. No matter what the cost, to himself or to the denizens of this Hell, he will protect it. When itÃs lost, and, at some point, it will be lost, there will be nowhere to go but to that overbearing land known only as Justice.
Ron Shelton paints Perry's world, and his story, with a wicked brush. Incorporating both harsh realism and gritty storytelling onto his canvas, he tells the simple story of two cops investigating a quadruple homicide with utter severity. ItÃs a brilliant kind of severity, the kind only found in films like Narc and To Live and Die in LA to name just a few. When this kind of grit is allowed to even make an attempt at appealing to mass audiences, you know someone sitting somewhere in a studio office is paying attention to the worldÃs pulse.
It is probably this same pulse that decided to set PerryÃs story in the days leading up to the LA riots of 1992. The verdict on the four police officers who beat Rodney King is about to come in. Everything hangs in the balance, and, no matter what the outcome, when it is all said and done, everything is going to change.
This plot device connects the film to us, takes us back and tells us what it must have felt like to walk those streets knowing that the 'bombs' were about to drop. As if being there isnÃt bad enough, we have to see it through the eyes of not only cops, but corrupt cops who are, more than likely, worse than those on trial.
The film's working title was The Plague Season, and maybe they should have stuck with it. The references to Hell, and God's fury, and the overall sense of the end of the world push the film beyond the brink of being just another 'dirty cop' movie. In the scene where the verdict is announced, we only hear it in passing on a police scanner, but we know the implications that are about to arise. Like watching the Titanic hit the iceberg, we hope for just a split second that everything is going to be okay, but we ultimately know that the inevitable chaos is about to erupt.
As Perry, the character in the middle of it all, Russell charges full steam ahead into the persona. He is a man of vengeance, a Paul Kersey with a badge to not so much hide behind but to use to his advantage. He's Matt Murdock without the battle within himself convincing his outer shell that he's not the bad guy. He's as bad as the men he is after, but God help us we sympathize. Why?
Maybe it's because we know this is all he's ever known. He never had someone telling him what was right and what was wrong. He never had anyone show him the positive differences between black and white. If you instill into a child's mind that the sky is pink, it will be impossible down the line to convince him that it is blue.
To counteract as someone who does know better, Scott Speedman plays the part of Perry's partner, Bobby Keough, with little enthusiasm. He gets the job done, flashing his badge occasionally and slicking his hair back to look like a less wrinkled Kurt Russell. However, if he is to move onto greener pastures in the future, he is going to have to learn how to exert himself.
Brendan Gleeson does what he does best, acts the hell out of his part without even trying to cover up his accent. Bravo to him for being one of the most solid actors around, underrated as he may be.
Ving Rhames, contrary to what the ads would have you believe, is no match for the screen presence of Russell. In fact, there never is a direct showdown between his angelic Deputy Chief Holland and Russell's corrupt Perry. Probably the biggest unfortunate to hit this film is the 'and' placed before Rhames' name at the end of the cast list.
Overall, Shelton reintroduces us to this world with ease, coming off his sports-related high horse style of filmmaking. He rests comfortably in that Frankenheimer/Friedkin manner of police drama. The world that he conveys and its inhabitants are real people, and those of us who do not know them and who will never cross their paths are thankful. Those of us who did not live in that world are thankful.
Somewhere in time, Wyatt Earp, or at least that filmÃs portrayal of him, is thankful that he will never know that world and how accurate his words came to be.
Russell
