Dark Blue (film)

Dark Blue
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Ron Shelton
Produced by
Written by David Ayer
James Ellroy
Starring
Music by Terence Blanchard
Cinematography Barry Peterson
Edited by Patrick Flannery
Paul Seydor
Distributed by United Artists
Release date
  • December 21, 2002 (2002-12-21) (Noir in Festival)
  • February 21, 2003 (2003-02-21)
Running time
 118 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $15 million
Box office $12,150,301

Dark Blue is a 2002 film directed by Ron Shelton and starring Kurt Russell with Ving Rhames and Brendan Gleeson in supporting roles. The film is based on a story written for film by crime novelist James Ellroy and takes place during the days leading up to the Rodney King trial verdict.

Plot

In Los Angeles, in April 1992, Sergeant Eldon Perry is pacing in a motel room with a shotgun and pistol. Five days earlier, two men, Darryl Orchard and Gary Sidwell, appear to be robbing a convenience store, when they are actually after a safe in the room above the store. Four people are killed in the robbery and one severely wounded. Detective Bobby Keough, is in a Gun Board hearing in relation to use of deadly force. His partner, Perry, defends him, and the two leave.

Perry, Keough, and Jack Van Meter are all sitting in a room when they find out that Keough is exonerated. Van Meter is Keough and Perry's superior who often has his subordinates fabricate stories and evidence. It is revealed that Perry killed the man that the Gun Board thinks Keough killed, meaning Perry and Keough perjured themselves. Later that night Van Meter goes to Orchard and Sidwell's house and takes the money the two stole from the safe, indicating that the two work for him. That night Keough is shown having sex with a woman who is also a police officer; they do not reveal their surnames to one another.

Van Meter tells Perry and Keough to investigate the convenience store robbery. Their investigation ends with them finding Orchard and Sidwell; when this is brought to Van Meter, he tells them to pin it on someone else and provides a false alibi for Orchard and Sidwell. Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Arthur Holland finds Perry's actions suspicious and also does not believe Keough killed the man he was charged with killing at the Gun Board hearing. He asks his assistant, Sergeant Beth Williamson, to help him. When Williamson is pulling files on Perry and Keough, she discovers the identity of her lover to be Keough.

That night, after obtaining a search warrant with underhanded techniques, a SWAT team raids the house of the ex-cons who are to be the fall guys. One of the men escapes and goes into a back alley, but is chased by Perry and Keough. When they catch him, Perry tells Keough to kill the man, but Keough has trouble pulling the trigger. Ultimately, Keough does kill the innocent man and is visibly shaken. Later, Perry arrives home and sees a moving truck outside of his house. His wife informs him that she is leaving him. Perry tells her that she can keep the house, and leaves. Keough, distraught after shooting an unarmed man, goes to Williamson's house and confesses that he killed the man under Perry's orders. Van Meter decides he wants Perry killed and calls Orchard and Sidwell to do the job.

Van Meter calls Perry and tells him that there is a witness at the address 12657 Juliet who has to be eliminated. Perry initially balks at this proposal, but finally accepts, and the call ends. Perry runs the address, and learns it is the address of Orchard and Sidwell. Shocked at this revelation, Perry ultimately decides to arm himself and head out to the address anyway, perhaps to kill Orchard and Sidwell.

Believing that Perry was sent by Van Meter to Orchard and Sidwell, Keough and Williamson also drive to 12657 Juliet. Turning a corner near Orchard and Sidwell's house, Perry sees Keough and Williamson and all three stop. This pause is only broken as Keough is killed by Orchard and Sidwell firing from the rooftop. Before dying, Keough tells Perry that he has ratted him out. Infuriated, Williamson blames Perry for what happened. Perry calls in the incident, hesitating briefly before stating his intention of pursuing Orchard and Sidwell.

As they are driving, Sidwell is dragged out of his car and beaten to death by rioters while Orchard is captured by Perry. Perry then heads to the police academy promotions ceremony, where he confesses about the corruption and implicates Van Meter. Van Meter attempts to discredit Perry, but ultimately fails as Perry volunteers himself to be arrested, and Holland orders an officer to do so. After the ceremony is adjourned, Perry and Holland chat briefly; Perry is well aware he will be incarcerated, and asks Holland to help him avoid the rougher prisons. Holland says he will see what he can do.

Cast

Critical reception

William Arnold of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer gave the film a positive review. "Ron Shelton's Dark Blue is another harrowingly cynical dirty-cop movie in the recent tradition of Training Day and Narc. Yet it's so much more complex, engrossing and satisfying than those films that the comparison is not entirely fair...."[1]

However, the film received a negative review from the L.A. Weekly, "Dark Blue is stuffed to the gills with blithely improbable coincidence and subsidiary story line... Shelton is a likable, generous director who's made two pretty good films (Blaze and Bull Durham), but it's not at all clear he has the chops to take on an action movie, let alone the intricacies of police politics — let alone the politics of race, about which he had more imaginative things to say in White Men Can't Jump."[2]

References

  1. ↑ Arnold, William (2003-02-20). "Down-and-dirty 'Dark Blue' weaves a thoroughly engrossing tale". seattlepi.com. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  2. ↑ Taylor, Ella (2003-02-20). "Our Dark Blue Places - Page 1 - Film+TV - Los Angeles". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
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