Pride and Glory (film)

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Pride and Glory
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gavin O'Connor
Produced by	Josh Fagin Gregory O'Connor
Written by	Gavin O'Connor Joe Carnahan
Starring	Edward Norton Colin Farrell Jon Voight Noah Emmerich
Music by	Mark Isham
Cinematography	Declan Quinn
Editing by	Lisa Zeno Churgin John Gilroy
Distributed by	Warner Bros. New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	October 24, 2008 (2008-10-24)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	United States Germany
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$43,440,721^[1]

Pride and Glory is a 2008 crime drama film directed by Gavin O'Connor. It stars Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight, and Noah Emmerich. The film was released on October 24, 2008, in the United States.

Deputy Chief Francis Tierney (Jon Voight) is the head of a multigenerational police family, which includes his sons Francis, Jr. (Noah Emmerich), Ray (Edward Norton), and his son-in-law Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell) all being police officers. When four of Francis Jr.'s guys are killed during a shootout turned bad, everything looks straight initially. However, Ray, who is assigned to the investigation, soon discovers something more sinister.^[2]

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Release
5 Reception
- 5.1 Critical reaction
- 5.2 Box office
6 Soundtrack
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Plot

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (August 2010)

Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell) leads the New York City Police Department to victory in police-league football. While everybody is celebrating, Francis Tierney Jr. (Noah Emmerich) answers his phone to find out that several men from their unit have been killed. Along with Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) they rush to the scene and find several dead officers. Francis Tierney Sr. (Jon Voight), pushes Ray to get onto the task-force unit investigating the incident. Ray, still haunted by a previous incident, is reluctant but eventually agrees.

The next day Ray is observing the crime scene with fellow officers, and finds that there was a suspect who escaped and finds the suspect's cell phone. Speaking Spanish, Ray interviews the boy. Through this he determines that the suspect, Angel Tezo was bleeding from the stomach and got into a cab.

Cut to Jimmy, Kenny Dugan (Shea Whigham), Reuben "Sandy" Santiago (John Ortiz) and Eddie Carbone (Frank Grillo) in a field with the getaway cab. The driver is dead, Tezo is gone. We find that the four officers investigating the cab here are corrupt. They set about to find Tezo before Ray and the task-force do.

Tezo is seen in an apartment getting stitched up while watching television. After the doctor stitches Tezo up he is shot dead instead of being paid.

Ray is reviewing the photos and notices one of the dead gangsters from the crime scene was not wearing a belt, and that his shoelaces were gone.

Officers arrive where Tezo was being stitched up, and are noticed by his friends while parking their cruiser. Tezo shoots two of his friends, and escapes. Ray finds out that Tezo has a friend in the police department, named "Sandy". Ray doesn't tell officers who are present about this. Later Ray confronts Francis Jr., and shares this information with his older brother, but Francis Jr. lies and says there's no policemen in his division nicknamed "Sandy". Shortly after, Francis Jr. confronts Sandy in the showers. Francis Jr. tells Sandy he's fired after Sandy breaks, telling him that he and the officers in his unit are, in essence, a gang with badges. He says the incident took place because the officers wanted to kill Tezo so they could work with another dealer, but that the hit went bad, with several officers dying and Tezo escaping. Despite being their leader, Francis Jr. seems surprised this behavior has occurred, which surprises Sandy, who thought he'd known all along. Francis fires Sandy.

Jimmy is home with his wife and kids, and is confronted by the dealer Casado, who had paid Jimmy and his squad to kill Tezo, so that they could start working for him. After a heated encounter, Casado walks to his Bentley GT while telling Jimmy that he is going to be killed.

Fearing both Casado and the task-force, Jimmy and the other corrupt officers rush to find and kill Tezo. Jimmy and another officer find that Tezo's cousin is in town. After breaking the door down and beating him, they learn where Tezo is. While this was happening, Ray also finds out where Tezo is (from an old confidential informant/junkie). Ray arrives to find the corrupt officers are nearly done torturing Tezo to death. When Ray (Norton) opposes this, an officer shoots Tezo dead. Ray realizes his brother-in-law Jimmy used his gun to execute Tezo, to make it look like Ray was the one who fired. Ray attacks Jimmy, but realizes he cannot do much as it was his gun that killed Tezo. He calls his older brother, Francis Jr., to tell him their brother-in-law Jimmy just tortured Tezo to death, and then framed him for it.

Francis Jr. is torn between his job and his family; his dying wife encourages him to do what is right, even if it means all this corruption happened under Francis Jr.'s watch, with some of it committed by his brother-in-law Jimmy.

Sandy, having been fired, calls a reporter to do an expose on the corrupt officers. The reporter meets him in a parking lot. Sandy spills everything to the reporter before shooting himself in the head. The next day the newspaper proclaims "Corrupt Cop Cashes-Out".

Both the good and bad officers work to pin this corruption on the four dead policemen from the initial crime scene, along with the now-dead Sandy.

Francis Jr. confronts Jimmy in the bar they all go to. Jimmy is surprised that Francis Jr. is mad, and presumed he already knew what was happening. Francis Jr. admits he allowed Jimmy and the officers some leeway, but is furious at how far they took the corruption. He also tells Jimmy there's no way he'll let him frame Ray for murdering Tezo. Francis is appalled that, after becoming their brother-in-law, that Jimmy got them into this situation. Jimmy offers Francis "his cut". Francis Jr refuses and leaves.

Ray, in a room with internal affairs investigators, tells them the statement isn't going to go how they want it to. He tells them that he was not the one who shot Tezo. He repeatedly refuses to tell them which officer did pull the trigger, protecting brother-in-law Jimmy (and his older brother Francis' precinct.).

Francis Sr., a long-time police veteran, is shown privileged testimony regarding Tezo's murder. He sees Jimmy's interview tape, in which Jimmy reluctantly tells the investigators that he witnessed Ray shoot Tezo. Francis Sr. and Ray speak, Francis Sr telling Ray to go along with it, hoping to protect the department. Ray refuses his father's command.

Despite Francis Sr. wanting his children to go along with Jimmy's story, he finds that Francis Jr. intends to come clean, against his father's wishes.

Two members of Jimmy's corrupt crew go to a liquor store, intending to quickly rob it, as they are out of cash and drugs, due to all of the heat on their division. It goes badly, with one of the two being killed, the other holding the store-owner hostage as both police and local gangsters looking on.

Francis Jr. and Ray speak on the phone, they decide to split up to each situation. Francis Jr. goes to the liquor store to talk his officer out of holding the owner hostage, while Ray confronts Jimmy at their bar. Ray orders everyone out. After confronting Jimmy, Ray gets into a fight with him, and emerges victorious. With Francis Jr. successfully getting the officer to release his hostage and get in the cruiser, the two brothers diffused both situations.

Tezo's cousin is among the people in the streets, everyone furious that Tezo was brutally tortured before dying, all the while the policemen are free. When Ray is walking a hand-cuffed Jimmy to his cruiser, the crowd surrounds them looking for vigilante justice. Jimmy asks Ray to give him his weapon back, Ray refuses. Jimmy, finally giving into his circumstances, allows himself to be beaten to death by Tezo's cousin, while the mob holds Ray back.

Ray staggers away from the mob and his dead brother-in-law, to the diffused hostage scene at the liquor store. Francis Jr. and Ray get in a cruiser and drive off.

The film ends with Ray, Francis Jr. and Francis Sr. about to give testimony, presumably the truth now that Jimmy is dead and Francis Jr.'s precinct's corruption is obvious.

[edit] Cast

Edward Norton as Ray Tierney^[3]
Colin Farrell as Jimmy Egan^[3]
Jon Voight as Francis Tierney Sr. Nick Nolte was originally cast in the role, but after a chronic knee injury became too severe, he was unable to perform and was replaced by Voight.^[3]
Noah Emmerich as Francis Tierney Jr. Emmerich had previously starred in Gavin O'Connor's Tumbleweeds and Miracle.^[4]

The film also features Shea Whigham;^[5] Frank Grillo and John Ortiz as police officers;^[6]^[7] Manny Perez;^[8] Lake Bell;^[9] Rick Gonzalez;^[10] Christina Cabot,^[11] Jennifer Ehle as Francis' wife, Abby, and Declan Quinn. Quinn said the biggest challenge was "[trying] to find a fresh way to do a police drama where it feels real and not like something we've seen a hundred times before."^[12]

[edit] Production

Gavin O'Connor and his brother Gregory began writing the film with New York City police officer Robert A. Hopes in 1999, after the completion of Tumbleweeds. The brothers, whose father was a police officer, were given "rare" access to the police department and its officers.^[13] Gavin O'Connor described their intent: "My father was a New York City detective, and I grew up in that world. It's a birthday bash of honest cops, which was everything my father was about. Though it is fictional, it is an homage to my father."^[4] They also hoped to create a film which evoked those of the 1970s, using corruption in the police force, as a metaphor for wider institutional corruption.^[14] The script was optioned in June 2000 by Fine Line Features, a subdivision of New Line Cinema, and Joe Carnahan was hired to rewrite the script. Production on the film was expected to begin later in 2000, with Gavin O'Connor directing and Gregory O'Connor producing.^[13]

In 2001, the project was subject to a turnaround deal, which saw the rights ceded to Intermedia. Production was expected to start in February 2002 in New York City, and Mark Wahlberg and Hugh Jackman were in talks to star.^[15] The film's development was subject to further delays until 2005. Carnahan cited the September 11, 2001 attacks as the primary reason for the delay: "There was a moment after 9/11, where the notion of doing what might be deemed an anti-cop film, particularly an attack of the NYPD, would be grounds for hanging."^[16]

In September 2005, the rights were once more with New Line Cinema. Production president Toby Emmerich had been a fan of the script for several years, and the studio entered negotiations with Norton, Farrell and Emmerich to star.^[4] Production was set to begin in New York City in January 2006,^[4] though principal photography did not begin until the following month.^[17]

[edit] Release

Pride and Glory was originally scheduled for release on March 14, 2008, and trailers for the film appeared, with showings of No Country for Old Men, Atonement, and American Gangster.^[14] In January 2008, New Line announced that it was pushing back the release until 2009, citing both Norton and Farrell's 2008 releases of The Incredible Hulk, and In Bruges respectively.^[18] The studio has not commented further on the delay, which angered O'Connor. He blamed internal New Line politics for the delay, specifically chairman Bob Shaye, saying, "I don't think [Shaye] believes in it, and he's decided he'll only release [sure bet] films. He never had the decency to call me." O'Connor has said he will withhold delivery of his next script for New Line, Warrior, until he discovered the film's fate, and also looked at the possibility of taking the film to another studio. In February 2008, O'Connor held a screening at the headquarters of talent agency CAA, in order to publicize that the film may need a new distributor.^[14]

O'Connor said of the situation, "We've delivered something special and unique, a film that's not for everybody but has something to say. We're all heartbroken." Norton blamed a wider industry "paralysis" for the problems, rather than New Line Cinema: "We're a victim of the moment, and I just hope they will either find a way to give the film its due or graciously let us do it with someone else." Farrell said he believed in the film and called the situation "bizarre".^[14]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Critical reaction

The film was eventually released on October 24, 2008 in United States. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 34% percent of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 140 reviews, with the critical consensus being that the film is "Formulaic in its plotting and clichéd in its dialogue, Pride and Glory did little to distinguish itself from other police procedurals."^[19] The film was also accused of racism for its portrayal of Dominicans.^[20]^[21]^[22]

[edit] Box office

As of January 28, 2009, the film has grossed $43,440,721 worldwide.^[23] In North America, the film opened at #5 with $6,262,396 behind High School Musical 3: Senior Year, Saw V, Max Payne, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua,^[24] respectively, from 2,585 theaters with a $2,423 average.