Q & A Review
Sidney_Lumet's occasionally powerful film on the ubiquity of racial strife and corruption in the N.Y.P.D. and the New York legal system features a tremendous performance by Nick_Nolte, but is ultimately too sprawling and shapeless to have the impact he intended. Adapted from a novel by a New York assistant DA who went on to become a New York State Supreme Court Justice by a director who has made classic films about the corruption of the N.Y.P.D., it suffers less from a knowledge deficit than a bad script. Lumet may be a fine director, but in choosing to adapt this script himself, he seems to have forgotten that his best films were written by people like David_Mamet, Paddy_Chayefsky, and his longtime partner, Jay_Presson_Allen. The result is an overlong, overcomplicated, repetitious film with an unbelievably naïve protagonist whose laughably contrived erstwhile romance is a major subplot. Yet, in dwelling on the abject ugliness of the racial hostility, tribalism, cronyism, greed, and ruthlessness of this world, Lumet often hits a nerve, exposing truths which have been well-documented. Nolte's monster of a detective embodies the essence of these qualities, a man so consumed by rage that it seems he might kill anyone in any scene at any moment, and his sadistic pursuit of a hapless drag queen is something viewers may wish to forget. The wan passivity of Timothy_Hutton's assistant DA may represent Lumet's fatalistic response toward a problem he has come to believe is intractable. Were it not for Nolte's awe-inspiring performance, the excellent work of Armand_Assante and Charles_S._Dutton would be more readily apparent. Michael Costello, Rovi
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