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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: New Line Home Video
Salesrank: 5020
Released: January 27, 2009 |
| Our Price: $1.75 |
| Used Price: $1.26 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight and Noah Emmerich star in a gritty, tension-packed tale of a multigenerational family of cops facing hard realities and tough choices. Set and filmed in Manhattan's Washington Heights, Pride and Glory draws you into a grippingly raw real world...and into a house divided.
Description of Pride and Glory:
Like a forgotten, one-and-only season of a 1980s television show about an Irish-American family of cops, Pride and Glory is full of ambition but lacks the storytelling instinct to realize the goal. Edward Norton stars as Ray Tierney, a New York City police detective whose father, Francis Sr. (Jon Voight), boss of all Manhattan detectives, pressures him into investigating the murder of four officers. Ray's efforts uncover a corruption scandal centered around his brother-in-law, Jimmy (Colin Farrell), a beat cop whose commander happens to be, of course, Ray's brother, Francis Jr. (Noah Emmerich). As Ray pushes forward, Jimmy's self-protective instinct goes savage, and the rest of the Tierney males shift to cover-up mode. Co-writers Joe Carnahan (Narc) and Gavin O'Connor (Miracle), who also directs this film, make a fatal mistake by forcing every element in a long story to further a prefabricated narrative shape, leading to the conclusion they want. But they can't pull it off without awkward transitions and bridges, including the perfunctory inclusion of an intrepid reporter who conveniently breezes in and out of the movie long enough to explain Ray's back story aloud. A monstrous scene involving Farrell holding a steaming iron (prop or not) over a baby's face is inexcusable. --Tom Keogh
Pride and Glory Reviews:
Strong Casting but No Bite 
2009-11-08 - Pride & Glory could've been so much better. The script seems to telegraph everything that we've seen in cops-turned-bad movies. More twists and suspense could have made this an edgier tale. Maybe if Scorcese had directed it. As it is, it's by-the-numbers cop themed thriller, a genre that needs revitalising. My partner watched it and loved Edward Norton so that could be a reason to watch for you. Otherwise, I wouldn't really bother.
pride an glory
2009-11-05 - Way, Way, Way too much cussing. I got so sick and tired of the "f" word. I don't think that they were able to complete a full sentence without saying that word over and over and over. Like I said ...way too much cussing. The movie had a great storyline and exceptional actors.
Crooked cops have families, too!
2009-10-31 - Pride and Glory / B001MZ5W3M
*Spoilers*
"Pride and Glory" is a perfect example of the fact that great actors simply cannot make a good movie in the face of a terrible script. All the actors involved are wonderful actors in general and struggle to perform well here in spite of everything else, but the end result just falls completely flat. Fundamentally, the script is so generic and bland as to feel like it was written by a committee, in some kind of experiment to see how many 'crooked cop' movies and TV shows of the last decade they could rip off.
Norton plays, of course, the burned-out, long-suffering, "honest" cop who, if he hasn't always been honest in the past, at least *regrets* his dishonesty, if only because lying under oath causes tension in his marriage. There's also a rather silly side plot about Norton being some kind of super-cop, which basically boils down to him being the only cop in the entire district who has a high-school level understanding of Spanish. This is an admittedly pretty useful skill to have in a district populated by a majority of Spanish-speaking residents, and I guess it *would* set you apart if you were the only cop willing to learn the language (the rest of the cops are all so stereotypically Irish Catholic that they can't be asked, apparently - and, yes, that is offensive) but the whole conceit feels so terribly out of date in a modern movie - knowing Spanish shouldn't be a novel super power anymore. But I digress.
Farrell plays, again of course, the angry, young, hot-tempered crooked cop - anxious to turn every situation to his financial advantage and eager to break teeth in the pursuit of power. We know Farrell is evil, you see, because he murders, beats, and (threatens to) rape his way across town to get what he wants. He threatens to burn small babies with very hot irons, but we also know he's good because after he gets the information he wants, he cuddles the aforementioned baby and shushes it (don't try this at home, by the way - the heated condensation and steam from that iron would have burned the baby long before he pulled the iron away, for crying out loud).
When Farrell's crooked dealings go awry, he manages a nice little frame-up job on Norton in the hopes that Norton will keep his mouth shut and help to bury the truth about Farrell and his dirty cops. In a bit of god-I-hope-this-isn't-like-real-life weirdness, the internal investigators give everyone a few days to collect their thoughts and get their stories straight, and then call Norton in for a white-wash investigation. Norton's too honest to lie for his crooked brother-in-law, but he's too wrapped up in some ridiculous concept of 'family honor' to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
And this is the real failing of "Pride and Glory" - all this 'family honor' conceit flat out doesn't make any sense. A lot of effort has gone into making all the characters seem noble and tragic and sympathetic, but it's bunk because blind loyalty to *your* family above all else (and everyone else's families be trampled in the process, or maybe that just applies to families with brown skin) isn't noble or tragic - it's stupid. There's really nothing inherently sacred about the guy you're sister is sleeping with and Norton's whole "I didn't do it, but I won't tell you who did" act isn't noble - it's irritating. Assuming internal investigation does their job properly, Farrell's going done anyway so the only difference is whether he does so now or later - after murdering goodness knows how many more people. And the ending that wraps the whole movie up is easily the stupidest I've ever seen in a cop movie, and that's saying something.
"Pride and Glory" isn't a terrible movie... if it was cast with a bunch of no-names, it probably wouldn't have been such a let-down. But it's a shame to see good actors put to waste in service to a ridiculously bland, generic, crummy plot.
Waste of good talent 
2009-10-25 - A typical corrupt cop story. Despite Norton and Colin this was an easy bore with nothing original or exciting.
3.5/5 Stars
2009-10-19 - I thought the movie was pretty good. Picked it up for $8.99 here on Amazon and was pleasantly surprised with the movie. I went in not expecting much but it was certainly worth the blind buy at $8.99. I would actually say it is one of the better acting performances I have seen from Farrell and Ed Norton was solid as always. PQ seemed good, I would give it 4/5. The detail in dark shots seemed to be a little lacking but a solid PQ for sure. I would say that if you like crime dramas and/or Farrell or Norton and you can get this for under $10, pick it up for sure!
