New on Blu: "The Guard" (2011)

Sgt. Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is an unconventional cop, in "The Guard".

“The Guard” opens with an almost-literal bang, the words “fuckin’ posers” blaring on the soundtrack, as a group of young ruffians—chivalrous-less chavs—speed down a country road. The camera sweeps across the vast, green countryside, as the boys’ red coupe drifts between the lanes on the weaving tarmac—a strip of black cutting through the lush landscape of West Ireland. The speeders whiz past a white-and-yellow Ford, a cop car, but the camera stops on the officer, the Garda, or Irish policeman, inside. His face emotionless, in a daze, we hear the speeders horrific crash off screen and he guard’s stone face turns to a grimace, as he rolls his eyes in disgust. The guard leaves his roadside post to inspect the accident. It’s a horrific scene. The red car now mangled, upside down, bodies—the car’s recent occupants—strewn everywhere. He looks inside the ruined vehicle, then turns back to the first body on the road and starts rummaging through the corpse’s jacket pockets. He finds a baggy, shakes it, opens it, examines one of the tablets for a moment, cocks his head and then, satisfied, places the tab on his tongue. The screen flashes for a brief flicker of a frame with a smiley face, an editing flourish that establishes one thing: the guard just dropped acid. He walks a short distance away from the crash, turns his gaze towards the oppressive gray sky and utters the words, “what a beautiful fuckin’ day”.

The thick irony in his voice, and unconventional police work at his hands, not to mention that hit of acid, quickly conjures up the idea that Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is no ordinary policeman. And, although its plot is fairly conventional—really no more complex than your typical prime-time crime drama—writer/director John Michael McDonagh’s “The Guard” is no ordinary film either. A superbly acted, finely tuned action-comedy-drama, that’s as funny as it is poignant, McDonagh’s feature-length debut is well worth the hype and definitely worth seeing, especially for Gleeson’s career-defining performance.

As a policeman, and even just as a man, the surly Sgt. Boyle’s days are dreary. But he makes the best of his cozy-cottaged, decidedly unlovely livelihood, turning a blind eye to illegal gunrunning by the IRA and instead imbibing in a bounty of booze and the companionship of pretty prostitutes. But when a man turns up gruesomely murdered in the sleepy small town of Connemara, Boyle’s investigation into the crime, which has oddly occult-ish overtones, opens a can of worms. And his parcel of peaceful West Ireland is about to get a whole lot more like the Old West than you’d imagine, helped there by a Morricone-esque score by Calexico and a whirlwind of gunfights (okay, really only in the third act) and wide vistas framed in expansive cinemascope.

The baddies

When his partner Aidan McBride (Rory Keenan) is gunned down shortly after the duo begin digging into the murder, Boyle learns that a much bigger game is afoot. One that involves the FBI and an agent named Everett (Don Cheadle, in fine form), what he believes to be half-a-billion dollars in drugs and a gangster (Liam Cunningham) and his two loyal thugs (David Wilmot and Mark Strong). Boyle and Everett team up—in the typical corrupt cop and straight-laced stooge fashion familiar to many a fish-outta-water buddy-cop formula—and take the bad guys out. But not without a booty of barbed insults and noxious non-sequiturs peppering Everett and particularly Boyle’s procedural police work (whose skewed view of the FBI is influenced too much by modern media, and TV in particular.)

On the surface, like Boyle, John Michael McDonagh’s view of policemaning seems to be a startlingly straightforward, and almost sickeningly simple view of crime fiction. His script—and sturdy, yet slightly stylized direction—appears influenced by the dreaded primetime plodder “CSI” (2000-present). Only set in Ireland. And with considerably less censorship, as to let the expulsion of expletives overflow the pages of his screenplay, every fuck falling off the frayed frames of the finished film. But that’s not at all what “The Guard” really is. McDonagh—a playwright like his Academy Award winning brother Martin McDonagh—is much too keen a craftsman to placate the primetime crowd. And, if I’m not mistaken, the straightforward plot, full of predictable tropes, is actually parodying, if not outright satirizing, the genre. After all, although “The Guard” is a mix of genres, and a mixing which McDonagh handles quite handedly, it is first a foremost a comedy. An at times delicious dark, and other times dramatic, comedy, but a comedy nonetheless.

Much praise has been heaped upon Gleeson by the critics in regards to his performance, and rightfully so. This is a career defining, and rare lead, role for the celebrated actor. Although he’s had top billing in other films, the trained thespian, who turned to acting relatively-late in life at 34, is perhaps most famous outside of the UK for his memorable supporting turns—as Frank, the doting father, in “28 Days Later” (2002) and for his portrayal of Mad Eye Moody in the Harry Potter films, and also in the underrated “In Bruges” (2008) from director Martin McDonagh, an executive producer on “The Guard”, where Gleeson played the straight-man opposite Colin Farrell (although that last one is criminally under-seen; I mostly just mentioned it so that I can tell people it exists and that they should see it). Here, in “The Guard”, Gleeson is great. He manages to make Boyle a really complex, and wonderfully witty, character.

Amid the chaos, the women, the booze, and the ripple of racial epithets that he excuses with the simple remark, “I’m Irish. Racism is part of my culture”, we learn that Gleeson’s terse flatfoot isn’t all that bad. Boyle loves his Mum (Fionnula Flanagan), who’s dying of cancer and has recently been given weeks, and no longer years, to live. And although he has a particularly painful way with words, it’s clear Boyle really only says what he does—and does what he does—because he knows he can get a rise out of people by being flippant. And, if not, maybe he has a reason to be such a crabby old cop: he did come in fourth in the Olympics once (or so he says). And everyone knows—they don’t give you a medal for fourth place.

The Blu-ray
The 2.35:1 widescreen 1080p AVC MPEG-4 image is vibrant, with impressive color and decent detail. A pristine transfer of the 35mm-to-DI source, the faultless, artifact-free, encode has a healthy film-like layer of grain, untouched by noise reduction or edge enhancement. In most respects—a few shots of banded sky aside—most of the transfer’s “issues”, like an intermittent softness and a bleak flatness, seem inherent to McDonagh and cinematographer Larry Smith’s original photography. the film can seem a bit drab and dreary, with most exteriors under gray, overcast skies, lending to some of the flatness. But, on the upside, blacks are deep and shadow detail surprisingly strong. Facial detail isn’t as rewarding as I was expecting, but fabrics—like the pattern in Boyle’s purple night-time robe—are nicely rendered even in medium shots. Colors are also strangely bold in many of the interiors, popping with unexpected vibrancy. The disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is adequate, with the film's score and atmospheric use of the surrounds both notable highlights.

Extras include an audio commentary with McDonagh, Cheadle and Gleeson; a standard making of featurette, a Q&A with the director and stars recorded in 2011 after a screening of the film in Los Angeles, deleted & extended scenes and alternate takes, a gag reel, the original theatrical trailer and a short film by McDonagh from 2000. The short, called "The Second Death", is essentially an early draft of “The Guard”, with several actors from the latter picture appearing in prototypical parts. The plot and themes are also similar. It stars Liam Cunningham.

"The Guard" is a great film, filled with excellent performances. The blu-ray is pretty fine too: vibrant video, reserved but satisfactory audio and a solid selection of extras. Highly Recommended.

**** (4) out of ***** (5) stars

Directed and written by: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham with Rory Keenan, David Wilmot and Mark Strong
Music by: Calexico
Runtime: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
Rating: R, for language, violence and sexual situations
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Blu-ray (and DVD) Release Date: January 3, 2012
Price: $34.95 MSRP