jerry_newman

The film has a limping quality almost from the beginning: stock characters - like the wise-cracking, envious cop; the black police officer who has come up through the ranks thanks to Eastwood's character - and dialog straight out of "Dick & Jane." That there was going to be a romance between Eastwood & the Graciella was as obvious as her cleavage and improbable in terms of what either character had in the way of interest for the other.

Why do they keep replaying these tired romantic cliches? Forrest Whittaker plays a character whom we are supposed to identify with precisely because he gives us so little to identify with. And the depiction of the gangsters is coy & unconvincing.

As usual, Ang Lee has a wonderful eye for movement and a genius of a cinematographer. The depiction of warfare is utterly unlike the usual elaborately choreographed stuff of too many movies. Fine performances all around but the Afro-American who is barely recognizable as the man who was the lead in Basquiat is especially fine. Look out for the moment when he expresses his preference for a certain letter.