Dark Blue (2003)

Great Film overall

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Blistering performances.

Dark Blue is the overlooked performance of Kurt Russsel's career, and also the best. It's also a film that brilliantly examines corruption, lies, brutality and abuse of power through a thoughtful narrative lens and via a powerfully moving story. So why then was it received with an unceremonious cold shoulder? Life is full of mysteries. I was too young to see it when it came out, or pay attention to the buzz surrounding it's release, but I fell in love with it when I was older, and it remains one of my two favourite LA cop films, alongside Training Day. Kurt Russell throws himself headlong into one of the fiercest and most complex character arcs he has ever been in as Eldon Perry, an LAPD detective who comes from a long lineage of law enforcement. Eldon is a corrupt cop, but the important thing to realize about them is that they never consider themselves to be the bad guys which they are eventually labeled as. To him he's on a righteous crusade, led by Captain Jack Van Meter (a purely evil Brendan Gleeson), a quest to clear the streets using any means necessary in his power. Eldon is blind to to the broken operative he has let himself become, questioned only by his wife (Lolita Davidvitch) and son, who are both thoroughly scared of him. The film takes place during the time of the Rodney King beating, with tensions on the rise following the acquittal of four LAPD officers. Ving Rhames is resilient as Holland, the one honcho in the department who isn't rotten or on his way there, a knight for the force and a desperate loyalist trying to smoke out the corruption. Perry is assigned a rookie partner (Scott Speedman) and begins to show him the ropes, which include his patented brand of excessive force and intimidation. As crime ratchets up and a storm brews, Perry realizes that his blind trust in Van Meter and his agenda has been gravely misplaced, and could lead to his end. It's a dream of an arc for any actor to take on, and Russell it seems is the perfect guy for the job. He fashions Perry into a reprehensible antihero whose actions have consequences, but not before a good long look in the mirror and the option to change the tides and find some redemption, before it's far too late. It's not so common anymore for crime films to cut through the fat of intrigue and action, reaching the gristle of human choices, morality and the grey areas that permeate every institution know to man, especially law enforcement. Working from a David Ayer screenplay based on a story by James Ellroy (hence the refreshing complexity), director Ron Shelton and everyone else onboard pull their weight heftily to bring this difficult, challenging, sure fire winner of a crime drama to life. Overlooked stuff.

"Dark Blue" features a pretty great ensemble cast, but I have to admit to some degree of disappointment that they're in the service to a fairly bland police procedural. Can't help but think the movie's standing in the shadows of much better films when it's recalling "Lethal Weapon" and "L.A. Confidential" in its score. But it's classic James Ellroy material (corruption running deep within LAPD), and that's always interesting storytelling. And setting things against the backdrop of the impending Rodney King verdict gives the movie some nice atmosphere.But Kurt Russell handily walks away with this movie, playing a racist plainclothes thug. Not at all a likable character, but Russell's magnetic performance actually manages to wring some sympathy out of the guy until you find yourself almost - almost - rooting for him in the end. His abilities have been unsung for far too long.6/10

I was kind of shocked into submission by "Dark Blue". The movie doesn't slow down from minute 1 and it's not a short film, so that edge of your seat adrenaline might seem to fade, but it didn't for me--all the way to the awesome Kurrupt remix of a Porno for Pyros track during the credits. That song was so right on for the overall theme of the film that it got me off the couch to write this review.This was the rare cop movie with very few scenes, if any, of gratuitous violence, though the film is very violent and angry. The filming of the LA riot scenes were chilling--because I was actually in LA during them and saw some crazy stuff. Whomever set up the sets for those shots had to have been there--the sheer chaos and random, explosive aggression out of nowhere was intimately captured. Scary stuff.Kurt Russell has played so many cops that you almost think that he'd be uncastable at this point. This is not the case. This is the darkest, and most tortured I've ever seen him, and it's because his character is truly complex, and not all a bad guy. You are appalled at what he does, and yet root for him because he has an essential goodness in him that he painfully and tragically redeems at the film's end.Another masterful LA movie in the same pantheon, though perhaps maybe one or two steps down from "LA Confidential" and the king of them all, "Chinatown".

About halfway through this movie, I realized I hadn't blinked once. That's when I knew that I was watching a really good film. Kurt Russell is no slouch of an actor. He was riveting. This was a well crafted cop flick where everyone seems to have dirt on someone else, and meanwhile, there are crimes being committed, and L.A. is about to erupt in rioting.The great thing about this flick is that it doesn't try to be more than it is. Which is just a very entertaining, suspenseful cop movie.Well worth a watch.Or two.