Product: Homicide [VHS]
Rating: 5.0
Playing by the rules
Mamet transcends his medium,whether in drama or cinema.For instance, he uses the same group of actors/ technicians.He shamelessly exploits routines of the genre:the cop as philosopher-stoic,to whom nothing is more important than doing right,or who has personal reasons for doing his job,like his partner gets killed or his family terrorised.He makes the genre work alongside his own preoccupations.With his distinctive voice,the movie's look is confident with its own alien,visual style.The film is unashamedly theatrical-the persistent patter of the cops,their talk defines the game-the toughness of their world,the unhappiness of their lot,and also the ties(friendship, family and a kind of faith)that bind them.The film pivots on the conflict in Gold(Mantegna,excellent)when he hears the siren song of another language, another faith.An investigation into the meaningless slaying of an old Jewish lady who runs a steet-corner store,he is tipped back into the world of his fathers.A self-denying Jew,Gold begins to see that the people connected to the victim are `his' people,and the persecution they might be suffering is his cause. Looking back on himself as a policeman,constantly having to prove himself for an assumed weakness,Gold declares that in that world he was 'nothing' .In Mamet's scheme there's no item of faith that can't be turned to condemn one,and language isbound to deceive one.The ambiguity makes it exciting cinema-Mamet's splendid visual control turns this archetypal city(Baltimore) into an abstract zone,where `nothing' is the threat that seems to lurk around every corner.