PRIDE AND GLORY is one of those films that grabs you from the very beginning, and whisks you away to another world, keeps you there, engrossed in its detail, its passion, and then lets you off, wishing for more.  It’s not a walk in the park, to be sure.  This is a gritty, real life drama, a wallow in the underbelly of big city life, New York City life.  With cops and robbers, mostly cops themselves, bringing a stinging dose of reality to my idyllic world.

Life is ugly and complicated, and things get all gummed up, especially if you are a cop, in New York City.

The tale is not a new one.  SERPICO, from my childhood told essentially the same story, as did THE PROFESSIONAL, or THE DEPARTED, from more modern times.  Cops on the take, cops looking after their, cops acting like gods, making the rules, enforcing the rules, breaking the rules and obliterating our notions of peace and freedom.  Forget protect and serve, it doesn’t exist, at least not in this world.

The powerful point of the film, is that it takes place in a typical, honorable, glorified family.  JON VOIGHT is the patriarch, the legendary cop, on the verge of retirement, with 2 sons, played expertly by NOAH EMMERICH and ED NORTON.  He has a son-in-law, powerfully portrayed by COLIN FARRELL, rounding out the pride, police family in which this drama plays out.

And drama it is.  The movie never wavers from its hard-hitting path through the minefields of police business in the big city.  ED NORTON is reluctantly pulled back into the life, after falling away from the “family business” as a result of a moral dilemma that is slowly revealed throughout the length of the film.  He is both loyal, and resistant to his family ties, succumbing to the will of his still domineering, and fully in command father.

He embarks on unraveling a complex, morass of negligence and greed, and outright criminal and immoral behavior that infiltrates not only the family, but the entire police department.  It is stunning, and depressing, and fully engaging.

This is a movie you must see, so I will refrain from any other details on the plot, only to say, once again, that it is not an original story.

It is the acting, which if not original, is uncommonly superb.  Every single player that takes the screen is engulfing, from a bit cop trapped between good and evil, to a spouse with a terminal disease.  JON VOIGHT is first rate as always, playing an aging, perhaps alcoholic, head of this clan, on the verge of breakdown as a result of the cruelty of growing old, or the accumulation of evil he has had to digest, or so many other things.  He is superb.

As is NORTON and FARREL who square off in a number of scenes that are jaw dropping in their power, and surprise.  COLIN is scary aggressive, all the while portraying a devout and dedicated family man trying to please a wife and shelter two young kids.  The level of depravity, the force of his anger is so palpable here.

NOAH EMMERICH is just as good as the captain responsible for the collapse, not only of his family, from his cancer-stricken wife, also tremendously played by JENNIFER EHLE, to his extended relatives, but further out to his squad of police officers, all of which comes crumbling down.  EMMERICH stands alongside VOIGHT, NORTON and FARRELL in this superbly cast work, and holds his own, without a doubt.  The ensemble cast is first rate, from top to bottom.

Look for Best Picture consideration, and acting nods for a host of players here. 

The movie, and the performance are that good.  Best this year.  By far.