Pride and Glory

'Pride and Glory" is a New York City cop movie about police venality, but it also might become the first Iraq war-inspired feature to make a dent at the box office and win mainstream awards.

How does a story based in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood Washington Heights resonate with the atrocities at Abu Ghraib? Credit the collaboration between a gutsy writer-director, Gavin O'Connor ("Tumbleweeds," "Miracle"), with family roots in the New York Police Department, and his audacious star, Edward Norton.

Over the phone from a getaway spot in Ontario, Norton recalled telling O'Connor, "I have to ask the question, what's going to make it worthwhile for me to make a very good example of another cop-corruption movie?"

Then the Abu Ghraib scandal broke.

"We started saying to each other that the institutional lying at the center of 'Pride and Glory' mirrored the crucible the country was going through. What's so fascinating to me about Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo or any flash point is that somewhere around it there is a person who surely has deep feelings of loyalty to his fellow soldiers, his unit, his army, his country.

"Yet he reaches a moment where he says, 'I'm going to distribute a disc with the pictures because they show a corruption of the things we're supposed to be standing for.' For an actor, that's an incredibly interesting tension."

The movie, which opens Friday, was personal for O'Connor, who called last month from Pittsburgh, where he's preparing his new picture ("Warriors," set in the world of mixed martial arts).

"My dad retired from the NYPD as a detective sergeant," he said. "My uncle was a cop; my mother's father was a cop. There are a lot of things we got right in the script, including having cops talk as cops talk.

"But when Edward got on board, he was great about challenging me, pushing me."

"Pride and Glory" is an underpowered movie with a powerhouse cast. Because of studio politics, it is just now being released after languishing for two years on the shelf. No wonder. It's yet another movie about familial strife in the New York City Police Department. If you think you've seen it all before, you have.

Jon Voight plays top cop Francis Tierney Sr., whose two sons, Ray (Edward Norton) and Francis Jr. (Noah Emmerich), as well as his son-in-law Jimmy (Colin Farrell), are all on the force. When four New York cops are killed in what at first looks to be a routine drug bust, Francis Sr. puts Ray on the case, even though the murdered cops served under Francis Jr. and beside Jimmy. This glaring conflict of interest doesn't seem to rankle anybody but Ray, who rightly suspects the investigation will end up fingering his brother and brother-in-law.

In the real world, Ray would likely not have been assigned this case at all, or would staunchly have refused it. But this is Hollywood. Ray's dilemma – should he serve the cause of justice or family? – becomes the crux of the melodrama.

It would be easier to buy into this dilemma if director and co-writer Gavin O'Connor – whose father was a New York cop – wasn't so keen on engineering a statement. The actors, keyed up for greatness, look as if they're flailing about in a roadshow Eugene O'Neill production. The overacting by Voight and Farrell is countered by the underacting of Norton and Emmerich.

At times, "Pride and Glory" seems to be about a war between actors, not cops. Nobody comes off well.

This movie was a long time coming. Originally scheduled to star Russell Crowe, it was torpedoed by the events of 9/11. Who wants to make an anti-NYPD story after that? Clearly, nobody.

But now it’s finally gotten made, maybe in a different iteration, but with a terrific cast, headed by Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, and Jon Voight. The story of an Irish family of NYPD cops, headed by Chief of Manhattan Detectives Francis Tierney, Sr. (Voight). His two sons, both detectives, Ray (Norton) and Francis, Jr. (Noah Emmerich) are members of the NYPD, as is his son-in-law, Jimmy Egan (Farrell). After four members of Francis, Jr.’s crew are murdered by a notorious gang member, Francis Sr. asks Ray to head the investigation. It suddenly becomes clear that Jimmy and his cohorts, all under Francis, Jr., are as bad as cops can get.

The main problem I had with this film was its pace. It’s got terrific acting by everyone, but when director Gavin O’Connor (the son of a NYPD cop, from a smart script by Joe Carnahan and O’Connor), delves into the Tierney family’s personal life, the pace lags. There’s a B story about Francis, Jr.’s wife, Abby (Jennifer Ehle) who is in the last stages of a battle with cancer. She’s obviously inserted in the story to add to the pressure heaped upon Francis’ head and a dose of pathos that the film doesn’t need. While the dichotomy between loyalty to job and loyalty to family is appropriate, still every time the film switched to the Tierney family, pace slowed and my attention flagged.

Other than that, this is a fine story of a well-meaning Irish family and how things can turn sour when it’s penetrated by one bad apple. It’s a tense story of mixed loyalties, expertly told.

Norton and Farrell give their usual exceptional performances. Not to be left behind is Voight, the controlling father, who thinks he knows what’s right and what needs to be done, forget what his sons think and feel. Ehle is exceptionally moving as the dying mother undergoing chemotherapy, who remains strong for her husband, but shows in a poignant scene how devastating it is for her to have to be taken from her child.

That sentiment gets expressed a lot in New York City, it seems, at least when Hollywood is spinning the gritty version -- mean streets, crumbling tenements, clattering overhead trains -- of the Big Apple. The premise of a hardened police veteran passing on the family trade to his sons is full of meaty dramatic possibilities. And when one of those brothers is possibly mixed up in shadowy bad-cop shenanigans, things can get downright explosive.

In "Pride and Glory," featuring the acting bravado of Edward Norton, Colin Farrell and Jon Voight, we're treated to a well-crafted and sharply plotted version of the genre. Though it has a lot in common with last year's "We Own the Night" -- which featured Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix, with Robert Duvall as the father -- "Pride and Glory" stands on its own for a couple of good reasons.

First, there's the performance of Norton. Soft-spoken and melancholy, his character, Ray Tierney, could have been the epitome of crusading good cop. Ray has been on desk duty for a couple of years after a high-profile case that ended up with him testifying before a grand jury. Now a grisly ambush of four officers in Washington Heights, in which he lost a close friend, has prompted Ray's return to the active investigative beat.

Separated from his wife and a little disconnected from the gung-ho police bravado that permeates his extended family -- his brother, Francis Jr. (Noah Emmerich) and brother-in-law, Jimmy Egan (Farrell) are both cops, along, of course, with his dad -- Ray is obviously working through some serious law-enforcement career issues. When he starts to get a whiff of wrongdoing in the department during his investigation, the stakes are raised.

But Nortonnever gets too big or dominant on screen. He is relentlessly non-showy in the role.