Q & A

Q & A

Q & A

I really loved this movie when it first came out. It was sort of a Serpico for the 90's. The plot is a little convoluted and the movie could have perhaps used a little better screen writing, but the great performances by the magnificent cast more than makes this movie work. What I really think the movie does best is capture NYC as it was then. The dark side, the corruption of the political, judicial and law enforcement divisions. The not-so subtle racial divisiveness. It's all amazingly real and being a born and bred New Yorker,it was scary to watch, yet all too believable. I loved that all the characters in this movie are flawed and human. There is no real right or wrong in this movie - just shades of gray. This has been done many times in movies before and is nothing new, particularly with Sidney Lumet films, but I can't think of a movie that has done it better. I saw one user post a criticism for the last five minutes, I can't think of a better ending for this movie. (Spoiler alert.) When Bloomey tells Francis Reilly that it's all over and they're going to do nothing about his investigation but file it away and gives him the hard knock explanations as to why and how the world really works. I was just as floored by this scene the first time I watched it as Francis Reilly is in the movie. I just love this ending. The short epilogue with Jenny Lumet's character is OK and serves to sort of tie up a last loose end in the film. By the way, to that other commentator about the cheesy Rueben Blades theme song. (Don't double cross the ones you love.") Your not the only one who can't get that cheesy song out of your head whenever you watch this movie. Perhaps Blades should pursue a career as a jingle songwriter instead, he seems to have a lot of potential talent for it.

This is a pretty good cop movie until the last five minutes, that bit should have ended up on the cutting room floor. Good to see Nick Nolte playing a bad a$$ for a change. 7/10 if you cut off the secondary superfluous ending.

A potentially excellent dirty-cop thriller, Lumet's film never really achieves lift-off thanks to a redundant romantic subplot which drags the pace. Fortunately, the performances redeem it. Nolte is great as the violent pawn, Assante totally convincing as the criminal warlord, and Hutton simply outstanding as the rookie assistant DA whose wide-eyed innocence masks real strength - and an interesting weakness. For the same thing, done even better, check out Harold Becker's 'City Hall' (1996).

This movie came out in 1990 and when it was being made in 1989 a hurricane hit the island of Puerto Rico (Hugo).We were recovering and you can see it in one scene where Hutton, Guzmán,and the guy that kills Nolte are entering the Caribe Hilton. They are passing through the lobby being tailed by Nolte and you can see a tree being held by pieces of wood. They saved a very old tree from garden of the lobby. To anyone that questions movies about being fake and unbelievable let me tell you every scene that is shot in Puerto Rico is accurate even to the locations where the characters move and live. The Caribe Hilton is ten minutes from the Cangrejos Yacht Club where Roger the Dodger, Bobby Tex and one of the cuban hit men are blown up. I got to say I learned a lot when I saw this movie. Imagine a movie about a Chinese guy, a Brazilian and an American. And the American is played by a British, south African or an irish actor. You feel a little weird and question Why not hire an American actor to play an American right? Well all that went out the window when I saw Assante play the Puertorican drug lord. I couldn't believe my eyes or my ears. Assante IS one of us in that role. Everything was authentic in that performance. Also Luis Guzman surprised me in this film with his bravura acting confronting Assante in the interrogation scene. I met him in 1993 at the premiere of the movie Carlitos Way which is another movie based on the novels by the Puertorrican Judge and author Edwin Torres. It was a film festival and Guzman and Torres talked a little bit in a podium. Later I spoke with the judge and he was great. I talked to him about Q&A and how I enjoyed his work. Finally I went to Guzman and he behaved like a little ass. Maybe he was in a bad mood or something. I shook his hand and he never spoke and kept looking at the horizon or something behind you. Maybe he thought I was gonna scream and jump on his back yelling "Hollywood". I don't know I still like him and there are few of us out there working with the best to be fighting each other. Back in 1990 i believed there were gonna be a least two nominations in this movie, one for Assante and one for Nolte. Nolte continues to do great things but I get mad when I see Assante working in crap. It is such a shame that nobody uses him for something good. Tarantino should call him. And yes that song is by Ruben Blades and I cant get it out of my head. "Dont double cross the ones you love" HAHAHA. It is so cheesy and yet I cant help it but sing it every time I see the film.

"Q&A" is ostensibly about an investigation into an incident during which a small time drug dealer was shot and killed outside a nightclub by a street cop. In fact though, the movie's about something far more profound as it portrays New York City and its justice system as being inherently racist on every level and also asserts that the type of justice dispensed is determined predominantly by the ethnicity (and corrupt interests) of the people involved on both sides of the line. Homicide Bureau Chief Kevin Quinn (Patrick O'Neal) appoints Assistant D.A. Al Reilly (Timothy Hutton) to head up an investigation into the shooting of a Puerto Rican by NYPD detective Lieutenant Mike Brennan (Nick Nolte). Quinn makes it clear that Reilly only needs to collect some witness statements and then present them to the Grand Jury because, in his opinion, the case is so straightforward that it doesn't merit any greater attention especially as he regards Brennan as an excellent cop who gets results. Things get complicated and dangerous, however, when Reilly and his fellow investigators start to unearth evidence of corruption and suspect that Brennan may not be blameless for what happened. Reilly is young, inexperienced and eager to do well in his career but nevertheless (despite the steer he was given by Quinn) feels duty bound to pursue his inquiries thoroughly to discover what actually happened on the night of the shooting. It's soon revealed that the drug dealer was working for a major operator called Bobby Trexador (Armand Assante) who has Mafia connections and Reilly is surprised to find that the girl who was the love of his life is now involved in a relationship with Texador. Reilly meets Nancy Bosch (Jenny Lumet) on her own and wants to get back with her but it emerges that they had separated after Nancy had seen the expression on Reilly's face when he discovered that her father was black and despite every explanation he'd given her since, Nancy had been haunted by the experience and couldn't consider a reconciliation under any circumstance. The investigation doesn't go in the way that Quinn had ordered but also ends unsatisfactorily from Reilly's point of view. The experience brings the young investigator into contact with a whole range of people from a variety of different ethnic groups and also culminates in him becoming considerably less naive than he was at the start of the process. Nick Nolte's portrayal of Brennan (who is corrupt, bigoted and extremely threatening) is incredibly powerful as he looks physically imposing and capable of extreme brutality. Brennan is coarse and very dangerous because he operates by his own rules and is especially adept at covering up his wrongdoings. In situations where his superiors become suspicious of his methods, they quickly decide not to take any action because in a city where the threat of crime getting out of control is always present, his methods at least provide good results. Patrick O'Neal is perfect as the autocratic, smooth and calculating Quinn who doesn't intend to let principles or regulations get in the way of his political ambitions and Assante is impressive as Trexador who's a very non-stereotypical crime boss. Timothy Hutton also does well in conveying the idealism and gullibility of a young man who like Quinn and Brennan is an Irish American. "Q&A" is extremely thought provoking as it provides an uncompromising depiction of a situation in which any efforts to control crime and corruption (especially by orthodox methods) are inevitably hampered by the deleterious effects of rampant racism. This problem is portrayed as being intractable with no potential solutions being readily available.

"Yeah, what?" - "Who are we getting to chew up the scenery as Mike Brennan?" - "You kiddin' me? You specialising in bustin' my b**ls? Send for Nick Nolte!" - "Nick (choke) Nolte? Are you talking to me? I've just been on the phone to the mayor and the D.A. is crawlin' up my ass. You're a dinosaur, Lumet. Your ideas don't fit today. I want your director's guild ID on this desk now. People have a nasty habit of gettin' DEAD around you!" This is one of Lumet's three hour and always worthy examinations of police corruption and compromised idealism. This is similiar to his 'Prince of the city' although it's not let down by an actor like Treat Williams who was not up to the job. Q&A suffers from some over-ripe, stagey and over played performances that are allowed to run on longer than the scene's necessity. It also has such ugliness and perversion that you wonder whether the film really needed to be made as we have been down this road before. Hutton has the best scene whereby his heart is broken by a loyal old mentor who always warned him that it was inevitable. The main problem I have with this film is the susposed racism of the Reilly character. I'm not sure about the point of the subplot and why would a man who has a coloured girlfriend be shocked that her father is black? Surely it was on the cards.

Quinn: Law degree? Reilly: Brooklyn. Quinn: Why not St. John's? Reilly: My father thought the Jesuits were too left-wing. As a graduate of a fine midwest Jesuit university and as one who grew-up in the Lennox Hill section of NY, I was surprised to hear that exchange, written and directed by a well-known NY filmmaker. You see, up until today, thus for most of my 52 years, I'd thought that Fordham was the only Jesuit university in the five boroughs. So, I looked-up the St John's website and found this comment: "Reflecting the University's Vincentian Catholic tradition..." Ok, one ignorant mistake doesn't break the movie (the non-plot and typical over-acting which Mr Lumet is famous for do that on their own) but how come all the bad guys in this (and the other corrupt-cop Lumet films) are from predominantly Catholic ethnicities and all the good guys aren't? John Rocker never had to ride a NYC subway to make his politically incorrect comments. All he had to do was watch this movie. Absolutely terrible.