Brooklyn's Finest

Cops and robbers. It's an age-old story. The cops are traditionally the good guys and the robbers are traditionally the bad guys. As it should be. Well, not necessarily. Sometimes the lines are blurred. Sometimes the cops are also the robbers or vice versa. Sometimes the dynamic supersedes the profession and is a matter of right and wrong. Good and bad. What happens when a cop is a bad person but is not a robber? What happens when a robbers is really a cop but he's a good person? Everything is turned on it's head.
Brooklyn's FInest is a cop tale about when the lines are blurred. Director Antoine Fuqua has come to perfect, or at least own, the law morals story. This is a step above his last similar film, Harsh Times, and a step below his piece-de-resistance, Training Day. Brooklyn's Finest is a story of three Brooklyn cops, a Narcotices officer hard up for cash, an undercover cop who's starting to confuse his allegiances, and a street officer a week from retirement. Their lives are shaped by their experiences in the streets and their paths all lead to a fate of redemption in one form or another. Ethan Hawke is solid as Sal, the narcotics cop, who begins breaking certain laws to get the cash to buy a house to provide for his family. His story is a spiritual one in the sense that it focuses much on family and religion. He's fighting to stay loyal to both but we known which one goes first and thus, in these stories, what type of destination he is likely heading to. Don Cheadle is also solid as Tango, an undercover cop who sees the streets and the people in it as his own. He knows this is happening and doesn't like it but is compelled to. He desperately wants out but we know where his likely destination leads as well. Richard Gere is excellent as Eddie, a poor cop who's mailed it in the last week on the job. He's stuck reluctantly mentoring rookie cops and sees nothing but bleak futures for them and the streets he worked. He's semi-suicidal. His story is perhaps the most important as his destination is the most clear. Does this mean he is set for redemption? The three stories blend together to cerate a seamnless portrait of the job these men do and the world they inhabit. It's not pretty but neither are they.
Cop films are a crowd favorite. Therein lies a problem because most average cinema goers do not embrace hard and gritty films such as this. It's brutal. The streets can be and often are violent and lewd places. SOmeone has to work them. Those people are cops. It's not glamorous and its hard. They deserve better from the people they serve.