Pride & Glory: Just Another Cliche Movie?

By Connect2Mason Writer Emily Culley.

Pride and Glory has its work cut out for them. It's the age old tale of the good cop versus the bad cop, only this time the story comes with some intense family connections among the cops. The movie starts off with a football game for the cops, and during the game four cops are gunned down in what seems like a routine drug bust.

As Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) begins investigating the case, he finds leading evidence suggesting that Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell) and his fellow cops are running an intricate system involving drugs, murders, and even stealing from local convenient stores.

The story becomes a little too intricate when Francis Tierney Jr. (Noah Emmerich) is introduced as Ray's brother and Egan's boss and then some more when Francis Tierney, Sr. (Jon Voight) is introduced as Francis and Ray's father, also very high up on the NYPD scale.

Ray is flanked by guilt from a previous shady job, which left him physically and psychologically scared about two years ago. Causing him to lose his wife and his position in the detective force—accepting what can be viewed as a demotion working in the missing persons division.

When the under workings of Egan play out, Ray is at a stand still when making a decision. Does he sell out his brother-in-law, the Tierney family legacy—and inadvertently his own brother, who was innocent to all of the bad deeds?

This story has been told before. At least seven to eight times this year. The story of a good cop driven bad by the illusion of money. Torturing, death, betrayal, and guilt range fully throughout the movie. But what makes this movie stand out from the other movies is the acting.

The way Edward Norton and Colin Farrell play off one another makes the cliché cop story somewhat less cliché. The raw emotion, internal struggle, and shady history of Norton's character is brought to a full blown perfection by Norton. The supporting cast members also do a convincing job.

On the other hand, the intricate family workings of the Tierney family highlight the cliches within the plot. At some points it seems as if the writers chose to work with every modern day cliché in Hollywood.

Grade: B-