| RATING: | 80% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
More Crime; Less Police Work
Essentially a thoughtful disquisition on honesty and moral integrity, this movie posits the notion that few wish to actually prevent crime because so many are employed on the back of it; that is, in only curing it.
Thus, police corruption is endemic here - up to 75% of officers being on the take. They know their law-enforcement efforts are largely ineffective so they feel they might as well profit from illegal drug sales themselves, by selling the drugs they seize back to the dealers; turning crime into a cash cow for themselves. In this, it is good on the solidly-capitalistic principles of its central antagonist regarding branding, quality control, product consistency, trade names, copyright, etc. So much so that it could easily serve as a primer for any budding businessman.
This institutional criminality means no-one can ever truly be free of its baleful influence. It oils the wheels of so many activities that to reduce crime is also to reduce the need for crimefighters, locksmiths, security guards, etc. Thus, an uneasy balance persists between police and criminals so that each can avoid being a victim of their own respective successes - so much so that honest policemen are seen as “crazy”.
Inevitably, criminals are caught not because the police are particularly diligent, but because criminals get careless and the police have to make an arrest or otheriwse reveal their own corruption in being reluctant to make such arrests.
Denzel WASHINGTON is brilliant as the super-criminal who runs his business like General Motors and the Mafia combined, but with infinitely more skill and success - in full honour of the American Dream. Russell CROWE is as bland as he has now become - a once-great actor who has lost his way in Hollywood. This could have been a great cinematic double-act of equal antagonists, but is not because Crowe does not take seriously enough the screenwriter's concept of a politically-incorruptible policeman who is somewhat degenerate in his personal life.
Despite being very good, the film is too long for its underdeveloped dramatic concerns so it sometimes drags when it should soar.
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