MI-5: Volume 9 (2010/BBC DVD) + Report To The
Commissioner (1975/MGM Limited Edition Collection DVD) + Wired (2008/Acorn DVD)
Picture: C/C+/C+ Sound: B-/C+/C+ Extras: D/C-/D Episodes/Film/Telefilm: C-/B-/C+
PLEASE NOTE: Report To The Commissioner is a web-only DVD release that can be
ordered from Amazon.com and accessed from the sidebar of this site while
supplies last.
The image
of police and agents of the state (or federate if you like) in fiction can
wildly vary, but usually they are the “good guys” and it is hard to have a TV
series where they are all bad or their police station would collapse. Still, there is still the matter of character
development (think Hill Street Blues,
The Sweeny, even Barney Miller) that separates the good
shows form the bad. Therefore, you are
more likely to deal with “bad cops” in feature films when they can and now
we’ll look at three releases that run the gamut of such programming.
Though it
is a spy show, MI-5: Volume 9 is
much more like a police procedural and more boring and formulaic than I could
have ever imagined from when it started; it is a spy show for people who are
not fans of them, but here it is with the MI-5/CIA relationship having some
trouble (temporary, of course) and that is among the endless list of
predictability here. For those
unfamiliar with the show, here is a link to our past coverage:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9568/MI-5:+Series+Seven/Volume+Seven
It is
supposedly intriguing, but except for invested fans, it is like watching
McDonald’s battle Burger King, but with less excitement. That is how safe and corporate-friendly the
show has become and I might add, the total opposite of what the BBC used to be
about when it came to programming.
Besides being so Right of center ideologically (everyone is wonderful
beyond question, which is not real life), it’s 8 hour-long show how empty and
tired this approach is, which we can trace back to the 1980s (itself a
throwback to the 1950s and pre-WWII Britain) with technical bells and
whistles. So that is my example of the
one far side of showing police authority we’ll continue in a minute.
Know that
the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image here is as soft as it has been for a
while, making it one of the most poorly shot-in-HD shows around, though I have
to admit the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is better than past releases and even
possessed a soundfield. There are
predictably no extras, as what is there to say after all this?
On the
other end is Milton Katselas’ hard-hitting Report
To The Commissioner (1975) co-written by no less than Abby Mann (the Kojak creator who also wrote the
controversial Sinatra vehicle The
Detective (1968)) and Ernest Tidyman (the Shaft creator who also wrote The
French Connection (1971) and the Eastwood hit High Plains Drifter (1973)) based on the book by James Mills (who
also wrote The Panic In Needle Park)
with a very young Michael Moriarty as an equally young rookie cop joining the
force in New York City to get things done, only to slowly discover the
department is a rotten as the city, getting caught in the crossfire of
corruption, bad, self-serving decisions and worse.
This is
yet another gem too long out of circulation and though it may have dated
slightly, it is as hard hitting as its more well-known counterparts of the time
(like the work of its writers) and far exceeds the power of so many of its
would-be imitators today. Note most
Scorsese/Tarantino imitators always throw in the Gangster genre when dealing
with corrupt cops since those imitators don’t have the guts to do a film like
this. The situation is real, every
aspect of the story questions the system with healthy cynicism that has been
systematically eliminated since the 1980s from most cinematic discourse and the
performances (which includes Yaphet Kotto, Susan Blakely, Hector Elizondo, Tony
King, Dana Elcar, William Devane, Bob Balaban, Vic Tayback, Sonny Grosso and
the big screen debut of Richard Gere; a very strong cast) mesh together
extremely well.
Though
not a total dismissal of police power, it is part of a cycle of films and TV
shows that rightly examined police power and how it can easily go wrong if
unchecked, plus the permanent pitfalls of dealing with complex urban
situations. This is a smart, realistic
film made by adults for adults that would never get a PG today (a PG-13 or
maybe R is what it might get today) but solid filmmaking all around that
endures and it highly recommended, especially since we rarely see such work
today. The anamorphically enhanced 1.85
X 1 image comes from a decent print despite the disclaimer that this was the
best print they had (Director of Photography Mario Tosi (Carrie, The Stunt Man)
delivers remarkable work here) and the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also decent
for its age, down to the sometimes ironic voiceover narrator and Elmer
Bernstein score. The original theatrical
trailer is the only extra.
That
brings us to a supposed financial thriller in Kenny Glenaan’s Wired (2008) was made around the time
the big worldwide financial collapse occurred, which is one of the reasons why
this is just coming out on DVD now because it could never match real life, but this
tale of a woman (Jodie Whittaker) getting a big promotion only to get involved
with underworld hoodlums is a mixed bag that never totally rings true and never
picks up throughout the long 134 minutes, even when Toby Stephens shows up as a
cop who might be on the take. It is so
flat and dull, I could have cared less, though I liked some of the actors and
the makers thought fancy editing and digital screens were somehow exciting or
just talking about money helped.
I would
argue that it comes from the same safe place as MI-5 and that is why it is a bore, especially since this approach
is played out. See it for yourself, but don’t multitask while watching.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image shows its age and looks like an older HD shoot, while
the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack is good for what it is, but nothing
impressive or surprising. There are no
extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
