Themes: Fighting the System, Police Corruption, Whistleblowers
Main Cast: Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, Armand Assante, Patrick O'Neal, Lee Richardson
Release Year: 1990
Country: US
Run Time: 132 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Following Serpico (1973) and Prince of the City (1981), veteran urban crime film director Sidney Lumet completed a thematic trilogy about New York City police corruption with this noir drama. When New York City cop Mike Brennan (Nick Nolte) shoots an unarmed Hispanic drug dealer in cold blood, he quickly plants a gun on his victim and manufactures some eyewitness testimony. D.A. Kevin Quinn (Patrick O'Neal) calls in his assistant district attorney, Al Reilly (Timothy Hutton), to conduct a perfunctory investigation of the incident, but Brennan's obvious guilt during a question and answer session makes Reilly dig deeper. The crusading lawyer is soon uncovering a web of corruption that reaches from Brennan into Quinn's office. At the same time, Reilly learns that his ex-girlfriend Nancy Bosch (Jenny Lumet, the director's daughter), is now dating his chief witness, Puerto Rican drug dealer Bobby Texador (Armand Assante). Q&A (1990) was based on the novel by Edwin Torres, a New York State Supreme Court judge whose two other novels were later adapted into the film Carlito's Way (1993). Lumet would again return to the subject of New York's corrupt criminal justice system with Night Falls on Manhattan (1997). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
Sidney Lumet's occasionally powerful film on the ubiquity of racial strife and corruption in the N.Y.P.D. and the New York legal system features a tremendous performance by Nick Nolte, but is ultimately too sprawling and shapeless to have the impact he intended. Adapted from a novel by a New York assistant DA who went on to become a New York State Supreme Court Justice by a director who has made classic films about the corruption of the N.Y.P.D., it suffers less from a knowledge deficit than a bad script. Lumet may be a fine director, but in choosing to adapt this script himself, he seems to have forgotten that his best films were written by people like David Mamet, Paddy Chayefsky, and his longtime partner, Jay Presson Allen. The result is an overlong, overcomplicated, repetitious film with an unbelievably naïve protagonist whose laughably contrived erstwhile romance is a major subplot. Yet, in dwelling on the abject ugliness of the racial hostility, tribalism, cronyism, greed, and ruthlessness of this world, Lumet often hits a nerve, exposing truths which have been well-documented. Nolte's monster of a detective embodies the essence of these qualities, a man so consumed by rage that it seems he might kill anyone in any scene at any moment, and his sadistic pursuit of a hapless drag queen is something viewers may wish to forget. The wan passivity of Timothy Hutton's assistant DA may represent Lumet's fatalistic response toward a problem he has come to believe is intractable. Were it not for Nolte's awe-inspiring performance, the excellent work of Armand Assante and Charles S. Dutton would be more readily apparent. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Jenny Lumet - Nancy Bosch; Luis Guzman - Detective Luis Valentin; Charles S. Dutton - Detective Sam Chapman; Paul Calderon - Roger Montalvo; International Chrysis - Jose Malpica; Dominic Chianese - Larry Pesch; Leo Cimino - Nick Petrone; Fyvush Finkel - Preston Pearlstein; Tommy A. Ford - Lubin; Cynthia O'Neal - Agnes Quinn; Jose Rafael Arango - "After Hours" Patron; Gustavo Brens - Alfonse Segal; Martin E. Brens - Armand Segal; John Capodice - Hank Mastroangelo; Jerry Ciauri - Bruno Valli; Victor Colicchio - "After Hours" Alvarado; Jose Collazo - Fisherman; Danny Darrow - Phone Investigator; David Dill - Bartender; Drew Elliot - Magnus; Burtt Harris - Phil; Gloria Irizarry - Mrs. Bosch; Michael Joseph - Pimp; George Kodisch - Inspector Flynn; Hal Lehrman - Altshul; Anibal Lleras - "After Hours" Patron; Olga Merediz - Mrs. Valentin; Susan Michell - Flo; Brian Neill - Sophia/Sylvester; Junior Perez - "Nancy" Captain; Frank Raiter - Seabury; Javier Rios - Boat Lover; Rod Rodriquez - Carlo; Edward Rogers III - Jose's Apartment Detective; Frederick Rolf - District Attorney; Edward Rowan - Ed; Maurice Schell - Detective Zucker; Richard Solchik - Phillie; June Stein - A.D.A; Sonny Vidiz - Gino; Harry Madsen - Tony Vasquez; Peter Gumeny - Guard; Alex Ruiz - Danny
Credit
Beth Kuhn - Art Director, Joy Todd - Casting, Burtt Harris - Co-producer, Arnon Milchan - Co-producer, Ann Roth - Costume Designer, Neil Spisak - Costume Designer, Sidney Lumet - Director, Richard P. Cirincione - Editor, Rubén Blades - Composer (Music Score), Carlos Franzetti - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ray Evans - Songwriter, Jay Livingston - Songwriter, Joe Burke - Songwriter, Joe Cranzano - Makeup, Tom Priestley Jr. - Camera Operator, Philip Rosenberg - Production Designer, Andrzej Bartkowiak - Cinematographer, Patrick Wachsberger - Producer, Gary J. Brink - Set Designer, Peter Odabashian - Sound Editor, Sidney Lumet - Screenwriter, Edwin Torres - Book Author
Aloysius "Al" Reilly is a young assistant district attorney, still wet behind the ears. He is handed a case by homicide chief Kevin Quinn, seeking to prove the corruption of a NYPD detective named Mike Brennan.
Brennan is something of a legend in the department. A tough, crude, decorated officer, he has a hidden dark side as well as a partnership with certain figures of organized crime. Brennan shoots and kills a small-time Puerto Rican hood and then threatens witnesses to testify that he acted in self-defense.
Reilly's case leads him to a Puerto Rican crime boss by the name of Roberto Texador, nicknamed "Bobby Tex," whose wife Nancy Bosch was once the love of Reilly's life, and a final violent confrontation between Texador and the rogue cop Brennan.
Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "It is fascinating the way this movie works so well as a police thriller on one level, while on other levels it probes feelings we may keep secret even from ourselves".[1] In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "Great little scenes overshadow bigger, more important ones. Characters come and go at speed. Watching the movie is an entertaining ride, but when it's over it's difficult to remember where, exactly, one has been".[2]Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers wrote, "Lumet tries to cram too much in ... But he's onto something, and you can sense his excitement. This is Lumet's boldest film in years -- a combustible drama with a vivid, shocking immediacy. The director is back at the top of his game".[3] In his review for the Washington Post, Hal Hinson praised Nick Nolte's performance: "This actor doesn't flinch in the least from his character's unsavoriness; instead he seems to glory in his crumpled suits and unwashed hair, as if they were a kind of spiritual corollary. Nolte gives Brennan a kind of monumental brutishness -- he makes him seem utterly indomitable".[4]
