Dark Blue
(MGM Region One DVD)
(2002)
review by Head Cheeze

Kurt Russell is the epitome of underrated. We've literally watched this guy grow up before our very eyes in Disney flicks and featherweight comedies, countless action classics, and even manage to deliver Oscar caliber performances in dramas like Silkwood, yet, for some reason, the actor is still a bit of minor celebrity. The fact that Russell never achieved the box-office success (or high paychecks) of his peers is a bit of a mixed blessing, however, giving Russell's career the shelf-life of a case of freeze dried beef jerky. While most stars rise and fall, Russell has maintained a low and discreet orbit, occasionally twinkling for our attention. However, in the pulpy and intense cop-drama, Dark Blue, the actor turns in a performance so explosive his modestly twinkling star may be on the verge of a supernova.

Set in Los Angeles days before the riots of 1992, Russell plays Eldon Perry, a seasoned cop with a frontier town attitude and a quick trigger finger. Perry's old-school tactics are something he shares with a good number of fellow detectives working under the crooked Jack Van Meter (Gleeson), who consider's Perry something of a "clean-up" man. When Jack tells Perry to "Do what he does" it usually involves lying, blackmailing, and fabricating evidence to insure a bust. In Perry's mind, it's all about heroes and villains, and he's wearing the white hat, so he doesn't question his own methods as long as the outcome puts a criminal behind bars. When Jack's nephew Bobby (Speedman) is brought into this sacred circle, his "initiation" goes awry when he feels guilt for killing a suspect that he and Perry falsely attach to a robbery case that Van Meter wants "solved" quickly and quietly. Bobby has a meltdown and seeks the help of the only man in Los Angeles he feels he can trust; Arthur Holland (Rhames), a politically and racially motivated candidate for Chief of Police, who has had his sites set on Perry and Van Meter for quite some time.

Dark Blue is a long, slow fuse of a movie. It's a cop-drama, but the conventions of the genre are eschewed in favour of a darker and more honest view of moral corruption, racial tension, and the fine line between upholding the law and breaking it. Perry is not necessarily a bad cop, quite the contrary, he puts the screws to people who deserve it, but his methods are as morally bankrupt as those he sends to prison. In a world where red tape lines the halls of the judicial system, Perry is an unfortunate by-product of the futility that many police officers feel when they watch the guilty go free on technicality after technicality. If the system won't back you up, why operate within it's boundaries?

One of the most compelling aspects of Dark Blue is the fact that there isn't a single hero in the film. Perry's a racist who ignores his wife and son, drinks too much, and breaks as many laws as he upholds, while Holland's seemingly righteous crusade to bring down the bad cops is little more than a platform for his run at being the first black chief of police. Bobby, meanwhile, has his epiphany, but only after he murders a man in cold blood. Sure he was spurned on by Perry, but he, ultimately, made the choice and pulled the trigger. It's a refreshing take on the genre, and Russell's fantastic performance gives it that much more impact.

Dark Blue, like it's characters, has it's faults, however. It seems that writers can't get around the cop cliche's even when they aren't making a traditional crime drama. There's the rampant alcoholism (which many will argue is realistic, but just once in my life I'd like to see a flawed cop who doesn't knock back a bourbon everytime he hits a wall!), planted guns, failed marriages, and other plot contrivances that the best examples of the genre seem to get by without (Training Day, Se7en). The scenes with Perry and his wife's crumbling relationship are just not needed, nor is the rather clumsily executed "redemption" scene at the films climax. Dark Blue had done well to avoid such pitfalls for the first half of the film, only to succumb to them in the third act. Still, Russell carries the excess baggage well, even if it does detract from the overall result.

I was also a little jaded by the rather small part the riots played in the film. While we're constantly reminded that the city is on the verge of major unrest, when said unrest occurs it's small-scale and anti-climactic and begs to reason why they even set the film in this period at all.

The Special Edition DVD from MGM is a loaded affair, featuring a commentary track by Shelton, three featurettes, trailers, talent files, and stills gallery. The featurettes add up to a full-length behind-the-scenes documentary, with interviews and introspection from the cast and crew, as well as some background on the infamous riots of the day and how the filmmakers went about recreating them for the film.

While certainly not a masterpiece, Dark Blue is easily one of the better offerings in the genre, thanks to a brazenly self-assured performance by celebrity everyman Russell.