The Flock (2007)

This film is about a hyper-vigilant employee of the department of public safety who, while training his young female replacement, has to track down a missing girl who he is convinced is connected to a paroled sex offender he is investigating.

Director:

Andrew Lau

Writers:

Craig Mitchell, Hans Bauer

Stars:

Richard Gere, Claire Danes, KaDee Strickland

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Gere	...	Errol Babbage
Claire Danes	...	Allison Lowry
KaDee Strickland	...	Viola Frye
Ray Wise	...	Bobby Stiles
Russell Sams	...	Edmund Grooms
Avril Lavigne	...	Beatrice Bell
Kristina Romero	...	Harriet Wells (as Kristina Sisco)
Dwayne Barnes	...	Vincent Dennison
Matt Schulze	...	Glenn Custis
Debrianna Mansini	...	Harriet's Mother
Ed Ackerman	...	Louis Kessler
French Stewart	...	Haynes Ownby
Paul Scallan	...	Missing Girl's Father
Susan Conklin	...	Missing Girl's Mother
Carmen Serano	...	Woman in Gorilla Suit

Storyline

The paranoid registrant administrator of the Department of Public Safety Erroll Babbage is forced to an early retirement due to his abusive behavior against the sex offenders that he should monitor, and shall spend his last eighteen days training his replacement Allison Lowry. When the seventeen years old Harriet Wells is considered missing in his area of work, Errol is convinced that her disappearance is related to one of his parole sex offenders. However, his superiors do not believe on his investigations and he convinces Allison to follow him in the sick underworld of pornography and perversions trying to find the missing girl.

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Plot Keywords:

sex offender | retirement | pornography | investigation | trailer park | 

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Taglines:

To kill accusations, you must go with the flock. (UK Tagline)

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for perverse content involving aberrant sexuality and strong violence, and for language

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the first english language movie directed by Andrew Lau, the co-director of the Infernale Affairs trilogy

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Goofs

Babbage calls a cell phone that is associated with Custis. It is shown to be adjacent to the kidnapped Harriet. The second time he calls the male answering reveals his knowledge about the paper left at the diner. In 2006, cell phone locations could be triangulated, so the suspect's location could have been determined and Harriet rescued.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Erroll Babbage: [knocking] Department of Public Safety.
[knocking]
Erroll Babbage: Mr. Dennison? Vincent Dennison is a registered sex offender, the sooner I can verify his address, the sooner I can leave him alone!

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Alternate Versions

After the film was released in European and Asian markets, several portions of the film were reshot and the entire film was basically reedited. The result is that the tone of the US version is less bleak and grim.

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian/The Tracey Fragments/How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer/Reprise/The Flock (2008)

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Soundtracks

The Law's Best Friend
Written by Vida Wakeman and Jeff Burke
Performed by Jeff and Vida Wakeman (as Vida)

User Reviews

Unpleasant and Bigoted Story and Characters

The paranoid registrant administrator of the Department of Public Safety Erroll Babbage (Richard Gere) is forced to an early retirement due to his abusive behavior against the sex offenders that he should monitor, and shall spend his last eighteen days training his replacement Allison Lowry (Claire Danes). When the seventeen years old Harriet Wells (Kristina Sisco) is considered missing in his area of work, Errol is convinced that her disappearance is related to one of his parole sex offenders. However, his superiors do not believe on his investigations and he convinces Allison to follow him in the sick underworld of pornography and perversions trying to find the missing girl.

"The Flock" is a movie with unpleasant and bigoted story and characters with a good and dark cinematography but terrible edition and camera work. The ambiguous character of Richard Gere has a despicable behavior in spite of solving the case, and it is impossible to feel any empathy for him. In the beginning, there are statistics about the theme "sex offenders", and I do not know whether they are realistic or generated by a North American obsession that considers a sexual offense or harassment certain attitudes accepted by other societies. This film seems to be intended to spread a sort of concern and prejudice against those that have been condemned but paid their debt with the society, since they have been released on probation by the justice. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Justiça a Qualquer Preço" ("Justice at any Price")

Details

Official Sites:

Blue Rider Pictures Official soundtrack site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 August 2007 (Japan)

Also Known As:

The Flock

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$35,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,155,358

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bauer Martinez Studios, Double Nickel Entertainment, Gibraltar Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1