Pride and Glory

I saw a screening of "Pride and Glory" last night. It's the kind of American movie you don't see anymore, a throwback to the big themes and dramatic tone of the 1950s, when Elia Kazan was making movies like "East of Eden" and "On the Waterfront," and Arthur Miller was writing plays like "Death of a Salesman" and "All My Sons." Family, honor, corruption, right and wrong, fathers and sons--these are the kinds of issues that director/co-writer Gavin O'Connor is taking on in "Pride and Glory," and in doing so he's made a timeless film. Sincere without being sentimental (much like "Miracle," O'Connor's last effort), "Pride and Glory" gets elbow deep in a corruption scandal that threatens to crack the blue wall of the NYPD and destroy the Tierney family legacy (patriarch Jon Voight, sons Ed Norton and Noah Emmerich, and outlaw brother-in-law Colin Farrell, who has never been better). A muscular, old-school American film, with big themes splashed on a big canvas, "Pride and Glory" is familiar and original at the same time. In the Age of Irony, these are the kinds of movies you rarely see anymore. An honest, gripping drama.