TO PROTECT AND SERVE
US, 1992, 88 minutes, Colour.
C. Thomas Howell, Lezlie Deane, Richard Romanus, Joe Cortese.
Directed by Eric Weston.
To Protect and Serve is expected material: a focus on a police officer whose father has died in active service, police corruption, a vigilante seeming to be killing off corrupt police - with the final revelation that it is the corrupt captain who is murdering his colleagues.
C. Thomas Howell is the veteran of so many of this kind of made-for-Home Box Office or video thrillers. Richard Romanus, a veteran of many dramas, gives an interesting performance as the captain until he is revealed as the dastardly villain. In fact, apart from the suspicion that the young hero is the killer, there is nobody else in the screenplay who fills the bill as the villain to be revealed, except the captain. Much of the film is set at night, in alleyways, at wharves, in clubs, as the corrupt police boast about their lives and then are murdered.
1. The popularity of this kind of investigation of police corruption? Low-key drama for television and video audiences?
2. The Los Angeles settings, the precincts, apartments, alleyways, wharves, clubs, precincts? Musical score?
3. The title and its focus on police work and service? The irony with the criticism of corrupt police and corruption being perpetuated? The need for investigation, for justice?
4. The focus on Egan, the initial crime, the police bashing the suspect, his seeming to turn a blind eye? Under investigation? His having reported the corruption, his meeting Internal Affairs in secret? His relationship with Harriet, her being appointed as his partner? The retrospect that the captain was putting her with him to put Egan off his scent? His discussions with the various police, the investigations, the murders? Kozinsky and his boasts? Beverley and her disappearing, his trying to track her down? The relationship with Harriet, their discussions, Harriet suspicious of him?
5. The portrait of the corrupt police, their brutality, Kozinsky and his rationale? The policemen in the car with the drug dealer, the prostitute, being shot? The policemen in the car park, Kozinsky's death? The officer with the diary and his being murdered? The cumulative effect, Egan getting the diary, reading about the captain, his father's death, the confrontation with the captain, the captain boasting about killing his father? The shootout?
6. Internal Affairs, investigation, the pressure on Egan? Harriet and her suspicions, the phone calls, setting him up by disguising herself as Beverley? Her saving him from the attack of the captain?
7. Police routines, the film's exploration of the possibilities of corruption, the effect on police, on their work? The young hero and the revelation of the truth?
