For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - Brooklyn's Finest
The Impression:
Crash but with cops, as directed by
the man behind Training Day, a film I absolutely
deplored.
The Reality:
If you're looking for cop cliche,
Brooklyn's Finest has all the detective cliches
you can stomach: the undercover cop who's been in deep for
too long (Don Cheadle); the detective faced with moral
dilemma when he has to protect his family (a sweaty Ethan
Hawke); and of course, the disillusioned beat cop who has
just days before he retires (Richard Gere). Antoine Fuqua
seems to find that if he loosely interweaves these three
stories and ties them in to a mammoth ball of violence in
the final few frames, that he doesn't need to add anything
but booming symphonics, graphic sex and violence, and showy
visuals to "add something new" to these rote formulas. From
frame one the outcome of each and every story has already
been played out a thousand times on the silver screen,
moment by moment, word by word and by directors and
screenwriters far more talented.
The Lesson:
Originality is well worth it's weight in
gold.
Noah Sanders is the blog/news editor at Light In The
Attic and a contributor at Sound On The Sound and
the KEXP blog. He also has his own
Criterion-based film site, Criterion Quest.
If you'd like to contact Noah in regards to his
writings here at Side One: Track One then please do
so
here.
- Noah Sanders
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Unless
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