Burt Reynolds is an LA police lieutenant. Paul Winfield is his partner. Catherine Deneuve is his call girl girlfriend. Ben Johnson is a little guy whose daughter just killed herself and he won't accept it. Robert Aldrich directed this portrait of the ugly life of a cop in an ugly city shot in ugly browns by Joseph Biroc. Surely beautiful people like Reynolds and Deneuve deserve better!
Aldrich had a propensity for directing movies about skirting the seamy side of life, but given the DIRTY HARRY movies' success, as well as the sort of 'private justice' modern-dress cop films John Wayne was making in the 1970s, this is a relatively restrained story, of people who skirt the borders between resignation and defiance. It's all very well done, but unappealing.
Aldrich had a propensity for directing movies about skirting the seamy side of life, but given the DIRTY HARRY movies' success, as well as the sort of 'private justice' modern-dress cop films John Wayne was making in the 1970s, this is a relatively restrained story, of people who skirt the borders between resignation and defiance. It's all very well done, but unappealing.