Dark Blue (2002)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Ron Shelton

Writers (WGA):

James Ellroy (story)
David Ayer (screenplay)

Release Date:

21 February 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Sworn to protect / Sworn to serve / Sworn to secrecy

Plot:

A robbery homicide investigation triggers a series of events that will cause a corrupt LAPD officer to question his tactics.

Plot Keywords:

Lapd | Police | Robbery | Riot | Neo Noir

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Kurt Russell	...	Eldon Perry
Scott Speedman	...	Bobby Keough
Michael Michele	...	Beth Williamson
Brendan Gleeson	...	Jack Van Meter
Ving Rhames	...	Arthur Holland
Kurupt	...	Darryl Orchard
Dash Mihok	...	Gary Sidwell
Jonathan Banks	...	James Barcomb
Lolita Davidovich	...	Sally Perry
Khandi Alexander	...	Janelle Holland
Dana Lee	...	Henry Kim
Chapman Russell Way	...	Eldon Perry III
Marin Hinkle	...	Deena Schultz
Jim Cody Williams	...	Suspect
Eloy Casados	...	Rico

Also Known As:

4-29-92 (USA) (working title)
The Plague Season (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, language and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA | UK | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-15 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Philippines:R-18 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #38722) | Germany:16 (w) | Australia:MA | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

La Verne, California, USA

Company:

Alphaville Films

Trivia:

James Ellroy declared that he had nothing to do with this film. David Ayer entirely rewrote his script and only conserved the names of some characters.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Bobby shoots an "innocent" suspect, the gun Eldon handed the suspect to make it look like self defense is clearly seen lying on the ground before him on ground views but not on helicopter views.

Quotes:

Det. Sgt. Eldon Perry Jr.: That's Eldon Perry the third. Right there next to his mom.
Det. Sgt. Eldon Perry Jr.: He will never be a cop - he hates cops. I love him and I... I thank God that I was just too busy pass on to him what my granddaddy passed on to my daddy and my daddy passed on to me - And I was raised up to be a gunfighter by a family of gunfighters.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Blue Code (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Wild Thing

"I Was Brought Up A Gunfighter"

The old cry of the vendors at baseball parks who sold the scorecards with the cry, 'you can't tell the players without a scorecard' could hold true here. Even the issuance of uniforms to the police don't necessarily make them the good guys in Dark Blue.

A decade earlier a film called Extreme Justice that starred Lou Diamond Phillips and Scott Glenn was made and it was also about the Special Investigation Squad, a group unique to the Los Angeles Police Department. In that one it was flat out stated that the group was a sanctioned death squad for the LAPD. It's not quite that here, in fact we're not sure what they do.

Kurt Russell stars as a veteran of that squad and he comes from a law enforcement tradition going back in his family to the Old West. His background and disregard for due process is a quality that they like for that squad. He's got a young partner in Scott Speedman whom he's trying to show the ropes.

The Special Investigation Squad is something that one of the high ranking officers in the LAPD, Ving Rhames wants to bring down. He sees it as a racist enclave and some of the statements by Russell and his superior Brendan Gleeson sure give Rhames enough cause to think as he does.

Russell and Speedman are given an assignment to track down the two perpetrators of a robbery of a market in which four people were killed, one of them a dispatcher for the LAPD. But it seems as though everyone has a different agenda on this one and it ends in tragedy.

In the cast I liked Speedman the best. He was great as the bright and eager young cop looking to make his bones so to speak with that squad. He and Kurt Russell played off well against each other.

A couple of women also give standout performances in supporting roles. Lolita Davidovitch as Russell's long suffering wife who finally gives him his walking papers and Michael Michele who is working for Rhames, but dating Speedman. She's a girl with an agenda all her own.

Dark Blue is a very good police drama, the second about LAPD's Special Investigations Squad and a much better film than Extreme Justice.