Monday, March 3, 2014

March 3 - Dark Blue

Today’s movie is a crime drama with a scene on March 3. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

DARK BLUE                      

On March 3, 1991 [00:40 to 2:01] Rodney King is beaten by the LAPD while resisting arrest. We jump ahead to the start of the trial of the officers involved. Darryl Orchard and Gary Sidwell, rob a Korean convenience store, but steal a safe in a back room, killing four customers who come in and wound another. Meanwhile Sergeant Eldon Perry and his partner, Detective Bobby Keough face a shooting board. They are cleared and Perry is told he is to be promoted to Lieutenant. We see that Orchard and Sidwell work for Commander Jack Van Meter, who is Perry’s mentor on the force, and they give him the $150 thousand taken from the safe. Van Meter asks Perry to investigate the 4 murders. Keough has sex with a woman who is a cop but neither reveals or knows the other’s name. We learn she is Sergeant Beth Williamson, who works for Assistant Chief Arthur Holland, who does not believe Perry or Keough’s testimony at the shooting board, thinks they’re dirty cops and is determined to get them. Perry’s investigation uncovers that the Korean storeowner also owned a strip club that made lots of cash. They learn the bagman is missing and find him dead. Beth learns that her new sex partner is Keough. The wounded witness says the guys were one white and one black. Perry suspects Orchard and Sidwell, but Van Meter tells him to pin it on two other guys. Perry blackmails a DA and a judge into signing a search warrant on two other ex-cons. Perry gives Keough photos of Beth and Holland having sex. After a confrontation where Beth tells him Holland is going to bring him down and that her affair with Holland was 5 years ago, Keough delivers the photos to Holland’s wife, who now wants a divorce. Perry raids the home of one of the ex-cons and pressures Keough into killing the man, even though he is no threat. Perry returns home and finds his wife is moving out. Keough is shaken by killing an innocent man and goes to Beth and confesses to her and later Holland. Van Meter orders Orchard and Sidwell to kill Perry. Van Meter gives Perry their address and tells them a witness who can prove Perry and Keough lied at the shooting board lives there. Perry learns this is Orchard and Sidwell’s address, but goes there anyway. Keough learns that physical evidence links Orchard and Sidwell to the Korean killings and goes there with Beth to take them into protective custody before Perry can kill them. On the way they hear that the officers in the Rodney King case have been acquitted. Orchard and Sidwell end up killing Keough. Perry tracks them.  The White Sidwell is killed by rioters and Perry arrests Orchard. Perry goes to the Police Academy where he was to receive his lieutenant’s badge. Instead he confesses his crimes and implicates Van Meter. He is arrested by Holland. The riots sweep over LA.    
                     
A very violent film. A good exploration of police corruption. Well worth watching.

 Race and Justice: Rodney King and O. J. Simpson in a House Divided by Jewelle Taylor
Gibbs (Jossey Boss Publishers, San Francisco, 1996) at page 29 and the movie at 1:02 give the date of Rodney King’s arrest.

Producers - David Blocker, Caldecot Chubb, Sean Daniel and James Jacks

Director - Ron Shelton

Screenplay - David Ayer and James Ellroy

Runtime – 1 hour 58 minutes

Released – December 21, 2002

Starring –

Kurt Russell as Sergeant Eldon Perry
Scott Speedman as Detective Bobby Keough
Michael Michele as Sergeant Beth Williamson
Brendan Gleeson as Commander Jack Van Meter
Ving Rhames as Assistant Chief Arthur Holland
Kurupt as Darryl Orchard
Dash Mihok as Gary Sidwell
Jonathan Banks as James Barcomb
Lolita Davidovich as Sally Perry
Khandi Alexander as Janelle Holland
Dana Lee as Henry Kim
Master P as Maniac
Kaila Yu as Asian Stripper 

Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.







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