Pride and Glory Review

“We have four cops down; two dead, two likely.” These words strike fear in the heart of any cop, fictional or not.

In Gavin O’Connor’s Pride and Glory, an Irish family of New York Police Department cops, who share a very close bond with one another, suffer from the thin line between loyalty and betrayal.

The movie begins with a drug bust that has gone horribly awry. Four cops in Jimmy Egan’s NYPD unit go to a drug dealer’s apartment to make a bust, only to discover that the dealer had been tipped off about their arrival, and are all shot to death. Jimmy, played by Colin Farrell (In Bruges, Miami Vice), is destroyed about losing four of his closest friends, and vows to exact revenge on the murderer.

His brother-in-law, Ray Tierney, is an NYPD detective who is currently taking a leave of absence. His father, one of the higher-ups in the department, tries to convince him to take up investigating the case for the sake of Jimmy’s safety and sanity. Ray, played by Edward Norton (American History X, Fight Club), is originally reluctant to take the case, still recuperating from the one that gave him a deep scar etched into his left cheek. Seeing the validity of his father’s words and how much Jimmy is suffering force him to get involved.

Pride and Glory is, in a nutshell, phenomenal. Everything about the movie is wonderfully executed: the casting made the characters feel alive, the use of the city itself makes everything seem realistic, the almost constant plot twists keep you guessing up until the final scene, and the multiple action sequences give the drama-thick movie some aesthetically pleasing elements.

The film treads on familiar territory: cops (usually NYPD or LAPD) deal with some sort of case and throughout the movie have problems with dirty cops. Pride and Glory utilizes these themes, but delivers them in such a fresh way that the movie doesn’t seem at all old or overused.

Possibly the most enjoyable thing about the movie was its integration of every character’s back story into the main storyline. Each character’s unique personality traits impact the story, whether positively or negatively. The interactions among the characters themselves is nothing short of priceless, many of which draw out more details of Ray’s very secretive past.

Pride and Glory was received well among critics. Michael Sragow of the Baltimore Sun, for one, gave the movie 88 out of 100 percent, saying “it overflows with a combustible blend of street sensitivity and testosterone.”

Fabulously executed in every way possible, Pride and Glory redefines the Cop Drama genre. While the storyline is its best aspect, the superb acting adds to the progression of the story and the incredible amount of character development. Even to someone who is not interested in Cop Dramas, Pride and Glory is a fantastic movie that should not be passed up.