'Night Falls on Manhattan' pounds with corruption<\/p>\n
By Laksmi Pamuntjak-Djohan<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): If one person can be cited for molding New
\nYork's urban angst into its present film noir form, it is Sidney
\nLumet.<\/p>\n
Starting in the 1970s with his memorable Serpico, Lumet has
\nhelped immortalize the genre's hallmarks of frenetic pace, the
\nneurotic drive for success, the daily convergence of hyper-
\ntension, opportunism, skepticism and cut-throat competition
\ncreating the conundrum that is the city itself.<\/p>\n
In this urban labyrinth of Stygian gloom where naivete has no
\nplace, sugar-high dynamism belies skewed, overworked brains
\nteetering on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Lumet revels in
\nsuch paradoxes, celebrating not the pasted smiles that make up
\ntheir social facade, but the gaping hole of modern
\ndisillusionment beneath.<\/p>\n
His latest New York in Night Falls on Manhattan, is his old,
\nunchanged one pounding with corruption and violence, stretching
\ninsalubriously from the dark and dingy ghetto of dope dealers,
\nscavengers and scum of the earth right to the heart of law
\nenforcement. As usual, his focus is not on the pitch black
\nrepresentation of evil or milk white embodiment of truth, but the
\nblurred, ill-defined gray in between.<\/p>\n
In the movie's superb opening montage, we see a bedraggled
\nSean Casey (Andy Garcia) learning the hard, ugly facts about the
\ndaily workings of the legal system. Life is certainly not easy
\nbeing a rookie in the D.A. office. You not only get dissuaded by
\ndeadbeat mentors who tell you that idealism is mere psychobabble
\nor judges who doze off during your hard-won summation, but you
\nare also belittled by your own crummy clients.<\/p>\n
Worse, you get used by the powers that be. When big-time dope
\ndealer Jordan Washington (Sheik Mahmoud-Bey) kills two police
\nofficers and wounds another during a drug bust gone awry, the
\nincensed political animal who is the district attorney,
\nMorgenstern (Ron Leibman), sees the perfect opportunity in Sean
\nnot only to win the case hands down, but also to shore up his
\nflagging popularity. The wounded officer, as it turns out, is
\nSean's father, Liam (Ian Holm).<\/p>\n
Morgenstern is, naturally, a true product of the system, and
\nhis instincts for the jugular are proven acute. His apologetic
\nand gratitude-mumbling protege rises to the challenge, making
\nmincemeat of seasoned defense attorney Sam Vigoda (Richard
\nDreyfuss) and plonking Washington down where he should be (in the
\njoint forever).<\/p>\n
He becomes a media poster boy and the toast of his profession,
\nall the way until he becomes, implausibly or otherwise, the D.A.
\nin what must be the swiftest career rise in legal history.<\/p>\n
We also see something else brewing not so visibly. Garcia gets
\nto reprise his media-parodying Accidental Hero role in which he
\nmetamorphoses from a junkie to a national hero entirely by
\ndefault, a role which, incidentally, he is very good at.<\/p>\n
Night Falls on Manhattan is no comedy and Sean Casey has, to
\nan extent, "earned" his way up. But the underlying principle
\nremains the same: he is being used by the system. We only have
\nto see the knowing smirk of Jude Ciccolella's acerbic,
\n"I've-seen-it-all" Internal Affairs interrogator as he addresses
\nSean not as the budding D.A., but as the wet-behind-the-ears
\ncollege graduate that he also is.<\/p>\n
Circumstances turn against Sean, but that's always part of the
\ndeal in a society where everybody uses everybody. Vigoda
\nreasserts his defense that Washington was acting in self-defense
\nagainst corrupt cops who had been receiving steady payoffs from
\nhim. Soon, Sean has to choose between duty and loyalty, job or
\nfamily.<\/p>\n
That law enforcers have found themselves titillated from time
\nto time by the promise of money is certainly no novelty to
\nHollywood. For Lumet, particularly, this theme is as well-worn as
\nhis career, but one which still retains its relevance. His works,
\nincluding Serpico, Prince of the City (which could easily have
\nbeen titled "Serpico Revisited"), Dog Day Afternoon, Nework and
\nTwelve Angry Men are all fables of strengthened idealism in an
\natavistic, corrupt system.<\/p>\n
Lumet stands unflinching in his focus, never sacrificing his
\ncharacters for stylistics, even of the noir kind (smoky veneers,
\nKafkaesque proportions, distorted camera angles) that he has
\nhelped make famous. He gives us instead a smart and perceptive
\nscript, and strong three-dimensional characters against the
\nbackdrop of stark realism.<\/p>\n
Take Morgenstern, whose explosive monolog represent
\nconversational candor and gung ho pragmatism at their best.<\/p>\n
Liam Casey (Ian Holm) and his partner, Joey Allegretto (James
\nGandolfini) charge the scene with mordant realism, totally
\nbelievable as screws in the system who have weathered more than
\ntheir fair share of doomed monotony.<\/p>\n
There is something especially endearing about Holm as he
\nskillfully combines foul talk, junk-heat-grit and self-
\nintrospection, all tell-tale signs of the ravages of a corrupt
\nsystem taking its toll.<\/p>\n
Sheik Mahmoud-Bey is downright electrifying as the drug
\nkingpin. Far from being the circumspect image of justice denied,
\nthere is not an ounce of modesty about him, let alone self-
\nrecrimination. In a remarkable act of self-possession, he
\ndisrobes before the hollering press and demonstrates every inch
\nof his glorious physique, suggesting he bears no imprint of the
\nvice he is accused of peddling.<\/p>\n
Even Richard Dreyfuss, whose recent CV reeks of cheap parody
\nroles (remember his laughable take on Bob Dole in The American
\nPresident?) gives a mature performance as the Alan Dershowitz-
\nstyle defense attorney Vigoda.<\/p>\n
In the vortex of forces pulling upon him -- great acting as
\nwell as the gravity of the premise -- the handsome, if slightly
\nshallow, Garcia fits into the part with good acting that flits
\nfrom comic to serious to intense, and profligate charm.<\/p>\n
As author Steve Martini once wrote "The criminal side of the
\nlaw provides a window on the dark side of life that exists
\nnowhere else". We already know that the criminal justice system
\nis unable to prevent innocence from being callously destroyed.<\/p>\n
But in the end, as the highest inhabitant of the law
\nenforcement pecking order reserves the last say, we also know
\nthat the law stands way up there as the foremost designer of
\nspecial rules for special people. And we wonder, too, why there
\nis any morality crisis at all.<\/p>",
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