Brooklyn's Finest

Blake Matthews READ TIME: 2 MIN.

Brooklyn's Finest follows the lives of three police officers in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn within the Van Dyke housing projects in the NYPD's 65th precinct. The three officers are at different points in their careers.

There's Officer Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere), who's been on the force for twenty-two years of mediocre service. Eddie is a week from retirement when he is assigned to oversee rookies in the tough neighborhoods. Eddie is having a rough time as of late, barely holding it together; his only friends are a prostitute he uses, and the whiskey he drinks in the morning to get him out of bed.

Detective Clarence "Tango" Butler (Don Cheadle) is an undercover cop working the drug beat. He's been trying to get a desk job and promotion for years, and is finally given an opportunity. However, the opportunity would mean betraying a close friend, Caz (Wesley Snipes), who has been released from prison recently and is involved in some shady activites.

Finally there's Detective Salvatore "Sal" Procida (Ethan Hawke). Sal has money problems. He has a few kids in a cramped house, and his wife is now expecting twins. To get by, he's been pocketing the money left on the table during drug raids. He's conflicted, since he's trying to resolve his misdeeds with his needs. But the walls in his home contain mold, which is making his wife (Lili Taylor) ill, in addition to endangering the life of his unborn twins. To top things off, the down payment on his coveted new, bigger house is past due.

The three men's lives intersect with spectacular results which ends in a hail of gunfire, and not everyone will escape unscathed.

Brooklyn's Finest comes with a good number of extras. There's commentary with director Antoine Fuqua, the commentary ranges from insightful to just doing a play-by-play of what's on the screen. He could have benefitted from a partner to bounce his thoughts off of and to interact with.

There's also interviews with cast and crew, as well as interviews with neighbors and extras who discuss the realism of Brooklyn. A behind the scenes featurette shines the spotlight on Fuqua and his directing style. Screenwriter Michael C. Martin gets a featurette dedicated to him and covers how he went from a tollbooth job to scripting a film and rounding things out are over 30 minutes of deleted scenes which include extended scenes and a few alternate endings


by Blake Matthews

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