Keep a Score Card Handy, but It's Worth It

Rating: Null/10 (18 March 2012)

Ordinarily a "2-hour+" movie with an equally dense storyline would give me the shudders. But I have to admit that these folks manage to bring it off in riveting style, even though the many narrative threads don't merge until the end. To that point, I was keeping a scorecard to track the characters and plot, that is, unless somebody was taking a slug to the gut, which was pretty much every few minutes.
I've got to admit that this movie may have the single most stunning moment that I've experienced in 60-odd years of movie watching. I don't know anything about director Hanson, but he manages that scene, plus the whole ball of wax, in really expert style, worthy of the best of the craft.
What lingers for me is what the movie says about one of the most popular TV shows of the early 1950's. In those days, Jack Webb's Dragnet pretty much took audiences, myself included, by storm, as it portrayed police work in near documentary style. More importantly the episodes were proudly set in Los Angeles with the announced cooperation of that city's police force. The movie's Vincennes (Spacey) character is clearly intended to be an adviser to that TV show. So a comment is pretty much also intended.
Needless to say, the cops of Dragnet were portrayed as nothing less than professional in both attitude and behavior. As a result, police work was so defined for a whole generation of young Americans. However, if even one-tenth of this movie's script is to be believed, then what do we say about the integrity of that long-ago police drama or about the beliefs that so many of us held to. Not a pretty prospect.
Anyway, the movie's a darn good neo-noir done in convincing period fashion. And for geezers like myself, it was fun seeing again the styles of my youth.