E D I T O R I A L
Thursday, April 6: What
are you prepared to do?
Police officers the world over must contend with this question. Staying
within the letter of the law means many criminals will go unpunished.
But where is the line drawn? In their pursuit of the bad guys, which
laws can the police ignore?
Consider
Police Story.
Jackie Chan's 1985 film explores the thin line between criminal behavior
and police brutality. As Officer Chan Ka Kui, a criminal boss frames
him for the murder of another police officer. The boss escaped prosecution
himself thanks in part to the legal maneuvering of his slick lawyer.
Incensed, Chan temporarily takes his superior hostage and flees.
Eventually all is set right, but not before Chan pummels both the lawyer
and the crime boss in full view of his superiors. They turn a blind
eye. The audience cheers. The film is extremely well made and features
a lot of exciting stunt work by Chan and others. Yet the moral of the
story seems to be: the police must sometimes take the law into their
own hands.
The
makers of Big
Bullet spin a similar tale. Lau Ching-Wan starred in this 1996 film
as another frustrated cop. He doggedly pursues some nasty criminals,
despite the repeated efforts by junior officer Jordan Chan to restrain
him and stick to the book. Eventually all is set right, but not before
Chan is (at least temporarily) converted to the belief that the police
must sometimes take the law into their own hands.
That
theme is echoed repeatedly in a multitude of American police films,
perhaps most famously in the Dirty Harry series starring Clint Eastwood,
but also in the more recent Lethal Weapon series starring Mel Gibson.
Few have wrestled with the theme as well as The
Untouchables, the 1987 film starring Kevin Costner and Sean Connery,
written by David Mamet, and directed with bravura flourishes by Brian
DePalma. Connery, as beat cop Jimmy Malone, asks Costner, as treasury
agent Elliot Ness, "What are you prepared to do?" in order
to catch crime boss Al Capone (played by Robert DeNiro). Ness' resolve
to stay within the law is stretched thin and eventually broken by his
passion to bring Capone to justice. The battle is costly, but shown
to be worth the price paid.
Few
police officers have taken matters as far as beleaguered police chief
Lucien Cordier as played by Philippe Noiret in director Bertrand Tavernier's
1981 film Coup de Torchon, adapted from
the novel Pop. 1280 by noted crime writer Jim Thompson. The story is
set in a rural French African colonial town in 1938. Belittled by everyone
from his wife to the local pimps, Cordier eventually strikes back by
killing people in a matter-of-fact way. He easily covers up his crimes
because no one can believe he would do such a thing. The story is told
without offering an opinion as to whether this is good or bad, allowing
the viewer to draw his own conclusion about how far the police should
go.
More
recently, director Lee Myung-se's 1999 film Nowhere
to Hide demonstrated what the Korean police were prepared to do
in order to catch one elusive murderer. This included florid displays
of police brutality, a tradition harking back to the golden years of
Hollywood wherein confessions would routinely be beaten out of reluctant
criminals.
On
a different front, I finally watched Zu: Warriors
from the Magic Mountain and was both baffled and dazzled - baffled
by the plot and dazzled by the color and movement. The special effects
look dated now, but back in 1982 they must have fried some eyeballs!
Even today, the level of imagination is impressive to view. It will
be fun to see what becomes of the long-overdue sequel.
Also
saw The Young Ones (known as Half Past
Fifteen for its recent DVD release). I posted a review at the Hong
Kong Movie Database. It seemed like a television remake of the fine
film Spacked
Out with a happy ending, but kept my interest for its running time
thanks to some appealing performances.
Please feel free to e-mail
me your comments, whether positive or negative.
peter
Editor / Reviewer / Webmaster
Current
Editorial | Current
Index
Previous Editorials
Academy Awards
Special (3/26/01)
The Price of
Success (3/19/01)
Is Jackie Chan
Still the Man? part 1 (3/12/01)
Great Expectations
(3/7/01)
In the Mood for
Change (2/26/01)
Bronchitis on
the Brain (2/12/01)
Hong Kong Sequel
Blues (2/5/01)
Better or Best?
(1/29/01)
To Dub or Not
to Dub (1/22/01)
Scenes From a
Fractured Skull (1/15/01)
Year-End Round-Up
(1/7/01)
Briefly noted
(12/31/00)
Wuxia Fantasies
and the Black-and-White Western (12/24/00)
Raiders of the
lost heart (12/17/00)
The movie week
in review (12/10/00)
Redesigning
A Better Tomorrow (12/3/00)
The fantasy begins
again (11/26/00)
A return and
a shortened work week, hurrah! (11/20/00)
That blasted
job! (11/12/00)
Hollywood, Jet,
Jackie, Fred, and Gene (11/6/00)
Did you want
blood with that? (10/30/00)
Do you like cold
pizza? (10/24/00)
Preparing for
the Legend (10/16/00)
The pauper must
pay (10/10/00)
A visit to Five
Star Laser (10/05/00)
A brief vacation
(9/25/00)
The editor's
plea (8/20/00)
|
|
| |
|
|
|
corrections? broken
links? criticism? praise? please e-mail webmaster
this site is a non-commercial resource for region 1
original content copyright 2001 peter a. martin all rights reserved
