Dark Blue

What a difference a few years makes. When Dark Blue was released in 2002 it came and went without making much of an impression--it was a box office flop that got lukewarm reviews. It was helmed by the talented Ron Shelton who was known for writing and directing sports films (Bill Durham; White Men Can't Jump; Tin Cup) and who was maybe operating a little too far outside of his comfort zone. It also came out shortly after The Shield premiered on FX, making Dark Blue seem a bit too little too late as corrupt cop stories went.But time has been unusually kind to Dark Blue. It features one of Kurt Russell's all-time best performances. In fact Ron Shelton is so good with his actors he even gets a strong performance from the perennially unimpressive Scott Speedman as Russell's young and not yet entirely corrupt partner. Ron Shelton's proven ear for dialogue yields a movie that feels smarter and more authentic than the entertaining and very similar but also frequently ridiculous Street Kings which more or less features Keneau Reeves playing the same character Kurt Russell plays here.The story involves a gunslinger street cop named Eldon Perry (Kurt Russell) who comes from a generation of cops and his young partner Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman) who are assigned to investigate a botched robbery at a ghetto convenience store that resulted in a stack of dead bodies except they aren't really supposed to solve it (shades of L.A. Confidential) and when they get too close to the truth their powerful boss Jack Van Meter (an excellent Brendan Gleeson) tells them in no uncertain terms to pin the crime on some other scum-bags and make sure they never have the opportunity to defend themselves in court.Eldon is an extremely loyal foot soldier who is willing to do what he's told without questions or problems of conscience but his partner Bobby can't abide by the fact that they know who committed a very violent crime and are setting up and murdering some other crooks to take the blame for it. When a potential witness surfaces Van Meter is more than willing to set-up his own man to die in the line of duty in order to save his own skin.James Ellroy has spun variations of this same broad story in the films L.A. Confidential, Dark Blue, Street Kings and Rampart, all of which he has some sort of writing credit on. Russel Crowe, Kurt Russell, Keneau Reeves and Woody Harrelson are all playing variations on the same character, and all bring something individual to the parts. If you look at the films collectively Dark Blue is better than all of them except L.A. Confidential, but since L.A. Confidential is one of the all time best crime films the fact that Dark Blue doesn't really measure up can't be counted as a criticism.Dark Blue's one completely original idea is that it sets the culmination of its violent double-crosses on the same afternoon as the Rodney King verdicts, making the mayhem of Dark Blue something minor in a much larger context. Director Ron Shelton handles the sequence where Kurt Russell's vengeful cop tries to catch his murderers as the L.A. riots explode in the streets around him surprisingly well for someone with no previous experience directing action films--the whole thing is genuinely exciting and alive in a way the movie doesn't prepare you for.The closing dramatic scene where Eldon Perry comes completely clean before a shocked audience of reporters, fellow police officers and their families at a stuffy police promotion ceremony that Eldon wasn't supposed to be alive to attend is possibly the finest acting Kurt Russell has ever done--with equal parts bravado and shame Eldon lets loose with a string of confessions and anecdotes that stuns the audience in the auditorium into gasps and silences--and forces his treacherous boss Jack Van Meter into very fast damage control, trying to undermine Eldon as drunk or the victim of on the job stress, slick to the end even as his world comes down around him. In Street Kings the Jack Van Meter figure was portrayed by Forest Whitaker and that film's gunslinger played by Keneau Reeves got away with a much happier ending. Dark Blue and Street Kings would make for an interesting double feature given their different approaches to telling almost the same story--or maybe just because they both happen to be entertaining cop pictures about corruption and redemption.

I didnt like the ending. My grandfather was a mounted policeman in Philly who died on his coffee break saving 5 ppl's lives, he was shot 5 times. (He was also decorated as a hero in the Spanish American war). I live where this movie was shot and now we have a rather corrupt police force and a terrible DA & governor who allow convicted rapists, murderers and armed robbers out on the streets. Ofc many cops are clean and against this and want our DA recalled or at least fired, our governor impeached. Bc of my grandfather I have nothing but the highest respect for policemen and have always had good cop karma. But I did think the Rodney King verdict was wrong and I believe his death in the swimming pool was no accident. Some elites watched the burning of parts of LA from their rooftops and had parties, sickening. Good acting by all here, good plot. Recommend.

Jeffrey Bone observed in his review here, that Russell's character, Eldon, loaded only 3 rounds into his shotgun before the climactic shoot-out, leaving 2 in the shell carrier. I noticed that too, and like Jeffrey, it struck me as odd since the shotgun holds 5 rounds in the tube, and one more in the chamber, and it would be kinda dumb to go into a gunfight two short. But, here in Florida, and looks like in California, too, only 3 shells are allowed by the state's game laws in the tube when hunting, so the guns are sold with a rod in the tube to prevent more than 3 shells from being loaded into the tube. The rod is easily removed, but I'm guessing the armorer forgot to remove it. Later, we see 3 shells in the shell carrier, a continuity error. So, did anyone count how many times Eldon fired the shotgun into the roof? I didn't. Anyway, Russell and Gleeson do excellent work in this film. Gleeson is untouchable as VanMeter. No one could have done that character as well. Russell is sort of an oddly designed guy, and he can be a little bit distracting pulling off a character like Eldon, but I will give him great credit for being able to use his face and eyes alone to convey what is going on inside his character. He has some fine scenes that were very well directed, in particular the one where Gleeson brilliantly as VanMeter humiliates and bullies him while ordering him to subordinate himself to him, and Russell shows us with his face and posture what it does to him. Also, the scene in which his wife leaves him, and when his partner is shot. Actual disturbing, violent video, that anyone who was watching tv at the time will remember, is woven into the movie very tellingly. The riot re-enactments are well done.

Dark Blue has a provocative start as it compares the real life Rodney King beating by LA police and the shooting of a suspect by Scott Speedman whose partner is Kurt Russell. The theme is the seeming impunity of the police. Standing up against them is Ving Rhames who is the deputy police chief of Los Angeles who wants to clean up the department. Russell plays the bad cop with his usual attitude. I didn’t think much of Michael Michele at first as another policewoman but then she has a great part where she tells Russell to go to hell. The end is dramatic as well as Russell is doing a high speed chase in the middle of the Rodney King riots.

Great film that will get watched more than once.

This is one of the best Kurt Russell films I have ever seen him in, from start to finish he is brilliant. If you see this film for sale on amazon or anywhere else buy it is a film not too be missed.

a film worth getting good quality picture and soundand better than new films realised today in regards ofstory and action ps try channel 81 TALKING PICTURES

All OK!

Thank you for this old time classic with Kurt Russell!