Brooklyn's Finest
Encyclopedia
Brooklyn's Finest is a 2009 American crime film starring Richard Gere
, Don Cheadle
, Ethan Hawke
, and Wesley Snipes
in his first theatrical film since 2004's Blade: Trinity
. The film also stars Will Patton
, Ellen Barkin
and Vincent D'Onofrio
. It is directed by Antoine Fuqua
, and written by Michael C. Martin, a one-time subway
flagman from East New York. The film was released in North America on March 5, 2010.
section of Brooklyn and especially within the Van Dyke housing projects in the NYPD's (fictional) 65th precinct. The action revolves around three policemen whose relationships to their jobs are drastically different.
The opening scene shows two men sitting in a parked car having a conversation, the man in the driver's seat, Carlo (Vincent D'Onofrio
) is then shot unexpectedly in the face by the passenger, Detective Salvatore "Sal" Procida (Ethan Hawke
). Sal grabs a bag of money out of Carlo's lap and runs away. Sal immediately confesses to a priest, not seeking God's forgiveness but his help with his situation, which he sees as dire. His wife (Lili Taylor
) is pregnant with twins. His house is too small for the four children he already has, and it also has wood mold
, which is jeopardizing his wife's health and the twins'. Desperate to move, Sal has arranged to purchase a larger home through a woman who owes him a favor. The down payment is due the following Tuesday, and Sal is still short. Sal appears to be a highly skilled and accomplished narcotics detective, but he has begun to try and pocket money from police raids.
Officer Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere
) is a week from retirement after twenty-two years of less than exemplary service to the force when he is assigned to oversee rookie
s in the tough neighborhoods. His life in shambles, Eddie is barely hanging on, swilling whiskey in the morning to get out of bed. His only friend is a prostitute he frequents.
Detective Clarence "Tango" Butler (Don Cheadle
) is an undercover cop working the drug beat. Losing himself in his role as a drug dealer, he is tired of the kind of attention that a black man in a black car attracts. Having been promised a promotion and a desk job for years, he is finally offered a way out but it means betraying a close friend Caz, a known criminal (Wesley Snipes
) recently released from federal prison
. Federal Agent Smith (Ellen Barkin
) instructs Tango to set up the drug deal that will assure Caz's arrest and return to federal prison.
Eddie's first rookie assignment (Logan Marshall-Green
) is a former Marine, who becomes disgusted with Eddie's lack of professionalism and cynical outlook, and asks to be reassigned – only to be killed on his next assignment. Eddie's second rookie assignment (Jesse Williams
) accidentally fires his gun near a teenager during a petty theft investigation causing him to go deaf, leaving the NYPD facing a public relations nightmare. During the investigation, Eddie is remorseful for what happened, but refuses to play along with his superiors' attempts to imply that the teenager was a drug dealer.
When Tango goes to warn Caz to abort their upcoming drug deal, they are ambushed and Caz is shot dead on the street, under orders from Red (Michael K. Williams
), a gangster Tango had humiliated earlier in a rooftop incident. After Agent Smith makes a racist remark and refuses to pursue Red, Tango lunges at her, but is restrained by fellow officers.
Eddie turns in his badge and visits his regular hooker, Chantal (Shannon Kane
), who does not want to change her life by moving with him to Connecticut
. On his way home, Eddie sees a woman, (Sarah Thompson), who was reported missing being shoved into a van. He follows the van to the Van Dyke housing projects. Meanwhile, Sal's latest raid on the complex is cancelled, but he decides to go to the location and rob the money he needs for his house. One of his team members, Detective Ronny Rosario (Brían F. O'Byrne
), tries to stop him but fails. As he approaches the building, Sal passes Tango, who has come there to kill Red.
Sal raids the apartment. After killing three people and finding their stockpile of cash, Sal is shot in the back and killed by a young man who became suspicious when he saw Sal enter the building. Meanwhile, Eddie locates the sex-slave dungeon in the basement. Eddie apprehends one of the men and is confronted by a second. Eddie tells the second man to get down, but the man threatens him. Eddie shoots the man in the chest, and a big fight ensues in which Eddie eventually chokes him with a zip tie. Tango gets his vengeance on Red, but he is mistaken for a gangster and is shot by Rosario. Only after shooting Tango does Rosario realize he has shot another law officer. Rosario, still determined to stop Sal, is forced to continue his search for him. He witnesses the young man who shot Sal running away from the crime scene and is devastated when he finds Sal's body in the drug dealers' apartment.
The closing scene shows Eddie, having found redemption by rescuing the three missing girls.
, Queens, and Brooklyn
. In Brooklyn, locations included Brownsville
and there, among others, the Van Dyke Houses. In Queens, locations included Rego Park
. Michael Martin's script originally took place primarily in the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, which were near where the writer and a couple of his friends grew up.
The total budget for the film was in the $17 million range, and many of the actors took large pay cuts to make the movie.
injury derailed a possible future basketball career. He went on to study film at Brooklyn College
. He originally wrote the Finest script for a screenwriter's contest after having been injured in a car accident in 2005. He did not win the contest but his second prize included a subscription to the IFP newsletter. The script also continued to gain attention. Martin found an agent interested in him writing a New Jack City
sequel, and finally, interested in producing the original script. Martin was paid $200,000 for the script.
In an interview at the time of the movie's release, Martin detailed the development of the film: "Jeanne O’Brien-Ebiri and Mary Viola are responsible for getting this movie made. Jeanne was the first person in the industry to read the script and she was responsible for getting me an agent and the staff job (as a staff writer on the Showtime series Sleeper Cell
). And once the script was out there, it came across Mary Viola’s desk at Thunder Road as a writing sample for New Jack City 2. Mary, a native New Yorker, worked like hell to sell it to the head of Thunder Road, Basil Iwanyk. Basil was an executive on Training Day
, he had a great relationship with Antoine. And once Antoine attached himself to the script ... Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes, and Ethan Hawke followed. Within weeks it received a greenlight."
By way of inspirations for the Finest script, Martin named three Italian neorealist
films – Nights of Cabiria
, Umberto D.
, and The Bicycle Thief – and two directors, Vittorio De Sica
who directed Umberto and Thief among others, and Jim Jarmusch
.
In the interview, Martin identified his South Shore film teacher as Mr. Braun.
in January 2009, and was picked up by Senator Distribution with a price "in the low seven figures". Due to some financial distress, Senator Distribution wasn't able to fund its release in 2009.
The film was sold again to Overture Films
at the Venice Film Festival
in September, and was released in North America on March 5, 2010.
, with an average rating of 5.4/10.
The film also received a weighted average score of 43% at Metacritic
, based on 33 reviews from mainstream critics.
In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times
, Roger Ebert
gave the film three stars out of four, concluding that "The film has a basic strength in its performances and craft, but falls short of the high mark Fuqua obviously set for himself."
Mick LaSalle
of the San Francisco Chronicle
praised the actors for "bringing dimension to these stock characters", but criticized the film for being "a melodrama about three cliches in search of a bloodbath."
A. O. Scott
of the New York Times also gave the film a mixed review, stating that "the sheer charismatic force of much of the acting keeps you in the movie", but "Mr. Fuqua and Mr. Martin dig themselves into a pulpy predicament, and then find themselves unable to do anything but shoot their way out."
The Los Angeles Times reviewer commented that "Brooklyn's Finest is an old-style potboiler about desperate cops in dire straits that overcooks both its story and its stars."
with $13,350,299 in 1,936 theaters, averaging $6,896 per theater. As of September 3, 2010, the film has grossed $27,163,593 in the United States theatrically, – a good result for its United States distributor Overture Films
which paid less than $3 million to acquire this film's United States rights.
The film also grossed $36,027,986 in theaters worldwide, and achieved an eleventh-place on a "Cop – Dirty" genre ranking, 1973 – present.
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
, Don Cheadle
Don Cheadle
Donald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. is an American film actor and producer. Cheadle rose to prominence in the late 1990s and the early 2000s for his supporting roles in the Steven Soderbergh-directed films Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven...
, Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...
, and Wesley Snipes
Wesley Snipes
Wesley Trent Snipes is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist, who has starred in numerous action films, thrillers, and dramatic feature films. Snipes is known for playing the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy, among various other high profile roles...
in his first theatrical film since 2004's Blade: Trinity
Blade: Trinity
Blade: Trinity is a 2004 American superhero vampire action film, written and directed by David S. Goyer, who also wrote the screenplays to the first two Blade films...
. The film also stars Will Patton
Will Patton
William Rankin "Will" Patton is an American actor.-Life and career:Patton was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the eldest of three children. His father is Bill Patton, a playwright and acting/directing instructor who was a Lutheran minister and served as a chaplain at Duke University...
, Ellen Barkin
Ellen Barkin
Ellen Barkin is an American film, television and theatre actress.-Early life:She was born Ellen Rona Barkin in Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York, the daughter of Evelyn , a hospital administrator who worked at Jamaica Hospital, and Sol Barkin, a chemical salesman...
and Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...
. It is directed by Antoine Fuqua
Antoine Fuqua
Antoine Fuqua is an American film director. He directed the film Training Day as well as Tears of the Sun, King Arthur, Shooter and Brooklyn's Finest...
, and written by Michael C. Martin, a one-time subway
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
flagman from East New York. The film was released in North America on March 5, 2010.
Plot
The film takes place within the notoriously rough BrownsvilleBrownsville, Brooklyn
Brownsville is a residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn, New York City.The total land area is one square mile, and the ZIP code for the neighborhood is 11212....
section of Brooklyn and especially within the Van Dyke housing projects in the NYPD's (fictional) 65th precinct. The action revolves around three policemen whose relationships to their jobs are drastically different.
The opening scene shows two men sitting in a parked car having a conversation, the man in the driver's seat, Carlo (Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...
) is then shot unexpectedly in the face by the passenger, Detective Salvatore "Sal" Procida (Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...
). Sal grabs a bag of money out of Carlo's lap and runs away. Sal immediately confesses to a priest, not seeking God's forgiveness but his help with his situation, which he sees as dire. His wife (Lili Taylor
Lili Taylor
Lili Anne Taylor is an American actress notable for her appearances in such award-winning indie films as Mystic Pizza, Say Anything..., Short Cuts and I Shot Andy Warhol, and the acclaimed TV show Six Feet Under....
) is pregnant with twins. His house is too small for the four children he already has, and it also has wood mold
Mold
Molds are fungi that grow in the form of multicellular filaments called hyphae. Molds are not considered to be microbes but microscopic fungi that grow as single cells called yeasts...
, which is jeopardizing his wife's health and the twins'. Desperate to move, Sal has arranged to purchase a larger home through a woman who owes him a favor. The down payment is due the following Tuesday, and Sal is still short. Sal appears to be a highly skilled and accomplished narcotics detective, but he has begun to try and pocket money from police raids.
Officer Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
) is a week from retirement after twenty-two years of less than exemplary service to the force when he is assigned to oversee rookie
Rookie
Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of their sport or has little or no professional experience. The term also has the more general meaning of anyone new to a profession, training or activity Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of...
s in the tough neighborhoods. His life in shambles, Eddie is barely hanging on, swilling whiskey in the morning to get out of bed. His only friend is a prostitute he frequents.
Detective Clarence "Tango" Butler (Don Cheadle
Don Cheadle
Donald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. is an American film actor and producer. Cheadle rose to prominence in the late 1990s and the early 2000s for his supporting roles in the Steven Soderbergh-directed films Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven...
) is an undercover cop working the drug beat. Losing himself in his role as a drug dealer, he is tired of the kind of attention that a black man in a black car attracts. Having been promised a promotion and a desk job for years, he is finally offered a way out but it means betraying a close friend Caz, a known criminal (Wesley Snipes
Wesley Snipes
Wesley Trent Snipes is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist, who has starred in numerous action films, thrillers, and dramatic feature films. Snipes is known for playing the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy, among various other high profile roles...
) recently released from federal prison
Federal prison
Federal prisons are run by national governments in countries where subdivisions of the country also operate prisons.In the United States federal prisons are operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In Canada the Correctional Service of Canada operates federal prisons. Prison sentences in these...
. Federal Agent Smith (Ellen Barkin
Ellen Barkin
Ellen Barkin is an American film, television and theatre actress.-Early life:She was born Ellen Rona Barkin in Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York, the daughter of Evelyn , a hospital administrator who worked at Jamaica Hospital, and Sol Barkin, a chemical salesman...
) instructs Tango to set up the drug deal that will assure Caz's arrest and return to federal prison.
Eddie's first rookie assignment (Logan Marshall-Green
Logan Marshall-Green
Logan Marshall-Green is an American actor best known for his roles in Dark Blue, The O.C., 24, and Traveler.-Early life:...
) is a former Marine, who becomes disgusted with Eddie's lack of professionalism and cynical outlook, and asks to be reassigned – only to be killed on his next assignment. Eddie's second rookie assignment (Jesse Williams
Jesse Williams (actor)
Jesse Williams is an American actor and model. He is known for his role as Dr. Jackson Avery on the ABC series Grey's Anatomy and as Lena's boyfriend Leo in the film sequel The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2...
) accidentally fires his gun near a teenager during a petty theft investigation causing him to go deaf, leaving the NYPD facing a public relations nightmare. During the investigation, Eddie is remorseful for what happened, but refuses to play along with his superiors' attempts to imply that the teenager was a drug dealer.
When Tango goes to warn Caz to abort their upcoming drug deal, they are ambushed and Caz is shot dead on the street, under orders from Red (Michael K. Williams
Michael K. Williams
Michael Kenneth Williams is an American actor known for his portrayal of Omar Little on the HBO drama series The Wire, and of Albert "Chalky" White on HBO's Boardwalk Empire.-Early life and career:...
), a gangster Tango had humiliated earlier in a rooftop incident. After Agent Smith makes a racist remark and refuses to pursue Red, Tango lunges at her, but is restrained by fellow officers.
Eddie turns in his badge and visits his regular hooker, Chantal (Shannon Kane
Shannon Kane
Shannon Kane is an American actress who is currently portraying Natalia Hubbard on ABC's daytime drama All My Children.-Filmography:*CSI: Miami as Leslie Anderson *The Young and the Restless as Monica...
), who does not want to change her life by moving with him to Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. On his way home, Eddie sees a woman, (Sarah Thompson), who was reported missing being shoved into a van. He follows the van to the Van Dyke housing projects. Meanwhile, Sal's latest raid on the complex is cancelled, but he decides to go to the location and rob the money he needs for his house. One of his team members, Detective Ronny Rosario (Brían F. O'Byrne
Brían F. O'Byrne
Brían Francis O'Byrne is an Irish actor who works mostly in the United States. He was born in Mullagh, County Cavan.O'Byrne first attracted notice for his performances in the Martin McDonagh plays The Beauty Queen of Leenane as Pato Dooley and The Lonesome West...
), tries to stop him but fails. As he approaches the building, Sal passes Tango, who has come there to kill Red.
Sal raids the apartment. After killing three people and finding their stockpile of cash, Sal is shot in the back and killed by a young man who became suspicious when he saw Sal enter the building. Meanwhile, Eddie locates the sex-slave dungeon in the basement. Eddie apprehends one of the men and is confronted by a second. Eddie tells the second man to get down, but the man threatens him. Eddie shoots the man in the chest, and a big fight ensues in which Eddie eventually chokes him with a zip tie. Tango gets his vengeance on Red, but he is mistaken for a gangster and is shot by Rosario. Only after shooting Tango does Rosario realize he has shot another law officer. Rosario, still determined to stop Sal, is forced to continue his search for him. He witnesses the young man who shot Sal running away from the crime scene and is devastated when he finds Sal's body in the drug dealers' apartment.
The closing scene shows Eddie, having found redemption by rescuing the three missing girls.
Cast
- Richard GereRichard GereRichard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
as Officer Edward "Eddie" Dugan, a veteran cop, 7 days from retirement. - Don CheadleDon CheadleDonald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. is an American film actor and producer. Cheadle rose to prominence in the late 1990s and the early 2000s for his supporting roles in the Steven Soderbergh-directed films Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven...
as DetectiveDetectiveA detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
Clarence "Tango" Butler, a cop struggling to keep his cover. - Ethan HawkeEthan HawkeEthan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...
as DetectiveDetectiveA detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
Salvatore "Sal" Procida, a cop desperate to support his large family. - Wesley SnipesWesley SnipesWesley Trent Snipes is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist, who has starred in numerous action films, thrillers, and dramatic feature films. Snipes is known for playing the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy, among various other high profile roles...
as Casanova "Caz" Phillips, Tango's prison buddy and one of Brooklyn's most infamous drug lords. - Brían F. O'ByrneBrían F. O'ByrneBrían Francis O'Byrne is an Irish actor who works mostly in the United States. He was born in Mullagh, County Cavan.O'Byrne first attracted notice for his performances in the Martin McDonagh plays The Beauty Queen of Leenane as Pato Dooley and The Lonesome West...
as Officer Ronny Rosario - Jesse WilliamsJesse Williams (actor)Jesse Williams is an American actor and model. He is known for his role as Dr. Jackson Avery on the ABC series Grey's Anatomy and as Lena's boyfriend Leo in the film sequel The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2...
as rookie Officer Eddie Quinlan - Will PattonWill PattonWilliam Rankin "Will" Patton is an American actor.-Life and career:Patton was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the eldest of three children. His father is Bill Patton, a playwright and acting/directing instructor who was a Lutheran minister and served as a chaplain at Duke University...
as Bill Hobarts, the lieutenant watching over Tango's undercover work. - Lili TaylorLili TaylorLili Anne Taylor is an American actress notable for her appearances in such award-winning indie films as Mystic Pizza, Say Anything..., Short Cuts and I Shot Andy Warhol, and the acclaimed TV show Six Feet Under....
as Angela Procida, Sal's wife. - Shannon KaneShannon KaneShannon Kane is an American actress who is currently portraying Natalia Hubbard on ABC's daytime drama All My Children.-Filmography:*CSI: Miami as Leslie Anderson *The Young and the Restless as Monica...
as Chantel, a prostitute that Eddie visits regularly. - Ellen BarkinEllen BarkinEllen Barkin is an American film, television and theatre actress.-Early life:She was born Ellen Rona Barkin in Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York, the daughter of Evelyn , a hospital administrator who worked at Jamaica Hospital, and Sol Barkin, a chemical salesman...
as Federal AgentSpecial agentSpecial agent is usually the title for a detective or investigator for a state, county, municipal, federal or tribal government. An agent is a worker for any federal agency, and a secret agent is one who works for an intelligence agency....
Smith - Michael K. WilliamsMichael K. WilliamsMichael Kenneth Williams is an American actor known for his portrayal of Omar Little on the HBO drama series The Wire, and of Albert "Chalky" White on HBO's Boardwalk Empire.-Early life and career:...
as Red - Vincent D'OnofrioVincent D'OnofrioVincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...
as Bobby "Carlo" Powers, an informant. - Tobias TruvillionTobias TruvillionTobias Truvillion is an African-American actor.Truvillion was born in Flushing, Queens in New York City. He attended Parson JHS. He has appeared on such television shows such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and in April 2006, joined the cast of the long-running soap opera One Life to Live as...
as Gutta - Logan Marshall-GreenLogan Marshall-GreenLogan Marshall-Green is an American actor best known for his roles in Dark Blue, The O.C., 24, and Traveler.-Early life:...
as Melvin Panton, a former Marine. - Raquel CastroRaquel CastroRaquel Castro is an American teen actress and singer. She is best known for her role in the 2004 film Jersey Girl as Gertie Trinké, the daughter of Ollie Trinké and Gertrude Steiney , the role for which Castro won the Young Artist Award for the Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actress...
as Katherine
Production
The film was filmed in three boroughs in New York City: ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, Queens, and Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. In Brooklyn, locations included Brownsville
Brownsville, Brooklyn
Brownsville is a residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn, New York City.The total land area is one square mile, and the ZIP code for the neighborhood is 11212....
and there, among others, the Van Dyke Houses. In Queens, locations included Rego Park
Rego Park, Queens
Rego Park is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens.-Geography:Rego Park is bordered to the north by Elmhurst and Corona, the east and south by Forest Hills and the west by Middle Village.-History:...
. Michael Martin's script originally took place primarily in the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, which were near where the writer and a couple of his friends grew up.
The total budget for the film was in the $17 million range, and many of the actors took large pay cuts to make the movie.
Writer
Michael C. Martin, the writer of the screenplay, went to South Shore High School, where a film appreciation course sparked his interest and an ACLAnterior cruciate ligament
The anterior cruciate ligament is a cruciate ligament which is one of the four major ligaments of the human knee. In the quadruped stifle , based on its anatomical position, it is referred to as the cranial cruciate ligament.The ACL originates from deep within the notch of the distal femur...
injury derailed a possible future basketball career. He went on to study film at Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
. He originally wrote the Finest script for a screenwriter's contest after having been injured in a car accident in 2005. He did not win the contest but his second prize included a subscription to the IFP newsletter. The script also continued to gain attention. Martin found an agent interested in him writing a New Jack City
New Jack City
New Jack City is a 1991 crime film starring Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Mario Van Peebles, Judd Nelson, and Chris Rock. Snipes stars as Nino Brown, a rising drug dealer and crime lord in New York City during the crack epidemic...
sequel, and finally, interested in producing the original script. Martin was paid $200,000 for the script.
In an interview at the time of the movie's release, Martin detailed the development of the film: "Jeanne O’Brien-Ebiri and Mary Viola are responsible for getting this movie made. Jeanne was the first person in the industry to read the script and she was responsible for getting me an agent and the staff job (as a staff writer on the Showtime series Sleeper Cell
Sleeper Cell (TV series)
Sleeper Cell is a one-hour drama on the Showtime network that began airing on December 4, 2005. The tagline for the first season was "Friends. Neighbors. Husbands. Terrorists." and the tagline for the second season was "Cities. Suburbs. Airports. Targets." The series was nominated for an Emmy award...
). And once the script was out there, it came across Mary Viola’s desk at Thunder Road as a writing sample for New Jack City 2. Mary, a native New Yorker, worked like hell to sell it to the head of Thunder Road, Basil Iwanyk. Basil was an executive on Training Day
Training Day
Training Day is a 2001 crime drama film directed by Antoine Fuqua, written by David Ayer, starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. The film follows two LAPD narcotics detectives over a 24-hour period in the gang neighborhoods of South and East Los Angeles.The film was a box office success and...
, he had a great relationship with Antoine. And once Antoine attached himself to the script ... Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes, and Ethan Hawke followed. Within weeks it received a greenlight."
By way of inspirations for the Finest script, Martin named three Italian neorealist
Italian neorealism
Italian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
films – Nights of Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria is a 1957 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini. Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, plays Cabiria Ceccarelli, a feisty but naive prostitute in Ostia, then a seedy section of Rome...
, Umberto D.
Umberto D.
Umberto D. is a 1952 Italian neorealist film, directed by Vittorio de Sica. Most of the actors were non-professional, including Carlo Battisti, who plays the title role...
, and The Bicycle Thief – and two directors, Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio de Sica
Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....
who directed Umberto and Thief among others, and Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch
James R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
.
In the interview, Martin identified his South Shore film teacher as Mr. Braun.
Release
Brooklyn's Finest premiered at the Sundance Film FestivalSundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
in January 2009, and was picked up by Senator Distribution with a price "in the low seven figures". Due to some financial distress, Senator Distribution wasn't able to fund its release in 2009.
The film was sold again to Overture Films
Overture Films
Overture Films, LLC is an American film production and distribution company. It is a subsidiary of Liberty Media ....
at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
in September, and was released in North America on March 5, 2010.
Critical reception
The film was met with mixed reviews. It currently holds a 43% approval rating based on 131 reviews collected by Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, with an average rating of 5.4/10.
The film also received a weighted average score of 43% at Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, based on 33 reviews from mainstream critics.
In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film three stars out of four, concluding that "The film has a basic strength in its performances and craft, but falls short of the high mark Fuqua obviously set for himself."
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle is an American Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] [[film reviewer] and the author of two books on pre-[[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Code]] Hollywood...
of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
praised the actors for "bringing dimension to these stock characters", but criticized the film for being "a melodrama about three cliches in search of a bloodbath."
A. O. Scott
A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
of the New York Times also gave the film a mixed review, stating that "the sheer charismatic force of much of the acting keeps you in the movie", but "Mr. Fuqua and Mr. Martin dig themselves into a pulpy predicament, and then find themselves unable to do anything but shoot their way out."
The Los Angeles Times reviewer commented that "Brooklyn's Finest is an old-style potboiler about desperate cops in dire straits that overcooks both its story and its stars."
Box office
In its debut weekend in the United States, Brooklyn's Finest opened at #2 behind Alice in WonderlandAlice in Wonderland (2010 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American computer-animated/live action fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and released by Walt Disney Pictures...
with $13,350,299 in 1,936 theaters, averaging $6,896 per theater. As of September 3, 2010, the film has grossed $27,163,593 in the United States theatrically, – a good result for its United States distributor Overture Films
Overture Films
Overture Films, LLC is an American film production and distribution company. It is a subsidiary of Liberty Media ....
which paid less than $3 million to acquire this film's United States rights.
The film also grossed $36,027,986 in theaters worldwide, and achieved an eleventh-place on a "Cop – Dirty" genre ranking, 1973 – present.
Home media
Brooklyn's Finest was released on DVD and Blu-ray in July 2010, and topped the United States home video charts for its first week of release ended July 11.Awards/Nominations
- BET AwardsBET AwardsThe BET Awards were established in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate African Americans and other minorities in music, acting, sports, and other fields of entertainment over the past year. The awards are presented annually and broadcast live on BET...
- Nominee, Don CheadleDon CheadleDonald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. is an American film actor and producer. Cheadle rose to prominence in the late 1990s and the early 2000s for his supporting roles in the Steven Soderbergh-directed films Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven...
Best Actor
- Nominee, Don Cheadle
- Black Reel AwardsBlack Reel AwardsThe Black Reel Awards began in 2000 and were designed to annually recognize and celebrate the achievements of black people in feature, independent and television films...
- Nominee, Best Picture
- Nominee, Best Ensemble
- Nominee, Antoine FuquaAntoine FuquaAntoine Fuqua is an American film director. He directed the film Training Day as well as Tears of the Sun, King Arthur, Shooter and Brooklyn's Finest...
Best Director - Nominee, Michael C. Martin Best Screenplay: Original or Adapted
- Nominee, Don CheadleDon CheadleDonald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. is an American film actor and producer. Cheadle rose to prominence in the late 1990s and the early 2000s for his supporting roles in the Steven Soderbergh-directed films Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven...
Best Actor - Nominee, Wesley SnipesWesley SnipesWesley Trent Snipes is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist, who has starred in numerous action films, thrillers, and dramatic feature films. Snipes is known for playing the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy, among various other high profile roles...
Best Supporting Actor
External links
- On Directing (Brooklyn's Finest) with Antoine Fuqua nthWORD Magazine Interview by Gina Ponce, April 2010