Line #1 Film/DarkBlue


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dark_blue_poster_7746.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Maybe a little too literal.]]
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4	->''"This whole damn city is gonna burn."''
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6	''Dark Blue'' is a 2002 cop thriller directed by Creator/RonShelton (''Film/BullDurham'', ''Film/WhiteMenCantJump'') and based on a novel by Creator/JamesEllroy set in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles in 1992, days before the city erupted into rioting following the Rodney King verdict. It stars Creator/KurtRussell as Eldon Perry, a highly corrupt veteran detective in the LAPD.
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8	[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused]] with the [[Series/DarkBlue series of the same name]].
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10	----
11	!!This film provides examples of:
12	* TheAlcoholic: Perry’s wife Sal. She drinks to mask and numb her unhappiness in the marriage due to Eldon’s obsession with the job and his assholish personality.
13	** Eldon himself as he has no problem drinking on the job or off it.
14	* AssholeVictim:
15	** Perry frames a couple of known hoodlums-sex offenders for another crime to quickly solve the Jack O’Hearts case on Jack Van Meter's orders. He convinces Bobby to kill one of the escaping suspects by pointing out that no one will miss the guy anyway, but Bobby is visibly stricken by the act as he points out that this still doesn't make it right.
16	** [[spoiler:[[EvilRedhead Gary Sidwell]], one of antagonists, is thrown out of his car and beaten to death during the 1992 riots.]]
17	* TheAtoner:
18	** [[spoiler:After Bobby is coerced to kill an innocent man, he breaks down until he confesses his crimes to his cop ex-girlfriend Beth and her superior.]]
19	** [[spoiler:After Eldon Perry gets his partner killed, he atones for his crimes at his promotion ceremony by exposing all the corruption taking place under Jack Van Meter inside the department.]]
20	* BadassBoast: A villainous example. Jack’s dirty as hell but he awesomely and rightfully mentions to both Orchard and Sidwell the only reason the two are allowed to breath and walk the streets of LA and are not rotting away in cages is because of him and him alone. [[JerkassHasAPoint The two thugs submissively yields "yes sir" knowing they can't argue his point.]]
21	* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler:Jack Van Meter sets up Perry's murder despite having known him for years and having been best friends with Perry's father, which fails when Bobby is killed instead.]]
22	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Jack Van Meter presents himself as a model leader who's tough on crime but behind closed doors??? He's the ringleader behind all the dirty dealings in the department. Not to mention he has no problem throwing people who works for him or who’s close to him under the bus to save his own ass.
23	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:More bitter than sweet. The case has been closed. Jack's career in law enforcement will finish, but Bobby has died and Eldon may go to jail for a long time, all after realising the dirty duties he made during all those years. Four of their fellow officers were acquitted on beating Rodney King but many people in the City of Los Angeles aren't too happy about it...]]
24	* BlackGalOnWhiteGuyDrama: Bobby strikes up a relationship with Beth (unbeknowst to him, also a cop), which his racist partner Perry harasses him over.
25	* ByTheBookCop: Assistant Chief Holland, who is dedicated to fighting corruption within the department.
26	* CowboyCop: Deconstructed. Perry flouts all the rules because he figures that to catch bad guys his town was "built on bullets" and doesn't object to framing and flat-out murdering suspects to quickly close a case. He's also protected by the patronage of Jack Van Meter, a department head who unofficially sanctions his methods. This ends up gradually destroying his life and reputation [[spoiler:and gets his partner killed.]]
27	* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler:Bobby dies in his ex-girlfriend Beth's arms after sharing some last words with his partner Perry.]]
28	* DirtyCop: The main focus of the film, which provides several examples.
29	** Eldon Perry frames people for crimes, shoots suspects, and behaves like an all-around {{Jerkass}}. [[spoiler:Later on he becomes repentant of his actions and atones with a speech that uncovers all of his and Van Meter's shady dealings.]]
30	** Perry's supervisor Jack Van Meter is one through and through, and oversees and orders all of Perry’s corrupt actions. [[spoiler:He's even revealed to be the person Orchard and Sidwell answer to.]]
31	** Bobby Keough [[spoiler:subverts it when he has serious moral qualms with the illegalities committed in the department.]]
32	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Maniac, who's a crip expresses his disgust to Perry and Bobby about Sidwell and Orchard killing Mr. Kim's unarmed wife and the other innocents during the robbery. He also mentions that if the cops ain't going to handle it, then him and his crew will because they are pretty cool with Mr. Kim and they take it personal when innocent civilians in their neighborhood are killed.
33	** Jack himself scolds both Orchard and Sidwell for killing the innocents and takes their half of the money they stole for being so reckless and not controlling themselves but it's more because of the [[PragmaticVillainy unwanted attention it will attract and that he will have to pin the murders on a couple of other guys.]]
34	* HappilyMarried: Subverted. Perry thinks he has a good marriage, but his wife and son are actually afraid of him. Midway through the film his wife breaks up with him when he finds her packing up her stuff to move away with their son. Perry elects to let them stay and move out of the house himself instead.
35	* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Eldon Perry has a change of heart near the end and exposes the crimes he committed under the immensely corrupt Jack Van Meter.]]
36	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Perry himself. He's thought for many years that he was doing the right thing by being rough and ignoring the rules to put the bad guys in jail but in the end? Getting dirty and ignoring the rules have cost him his morality, happiness and marriage. His wife even mentions that he has [[YouAreWhatYouHate become just as bad if not worse as the criminals he loathes.]]
37	* InternalAffairs: Assistant Chief Holland, heading the IA department, is a major actor trying to expose Jack Van Meter's department for their constant abuse of power in the name of the law. The movie opens with Perry and Van Meter getting Bobby through an inquiry for alleged excessive use of force. [[spoiler:Later, Bobby helps them to atone for his homocide of an innocent man whom he and Perry framed for another crime.]]
38	* ItGetsEasier: After Bobby kills his first suspect. His partner, Eldon, recounts his first kill, and how much it affected him. He says that, even though killing is a normal part of his job now, he still thinks about that first one.
39	* KickTheDog: Sidwell and Orchard during the robbery gun down four unarmed and innocent people. The store owner's wife, an LAPD Dispatcher and a married couple but Sidwell gets a very nasty moment by shooting a homeless man who didn’t even witness the robbery or the murders in the neck area, which shatters his larynx.....
40	** Not to mention the two thugs let a hooker overdose and die in their hideout after using her for sex and god knows what else they did to her.
41	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Perry has a poignant moment of this at the end of the film. While overlooking the destruction being wrought on the city of Los Angeles by the riots, it's pretty clear that he's contemplating whether the corrupt lifestyle of him and his partners may have caused it]].
42	* NobleBigotWithABadge: Detective Eldon Perry sees himself as one of these, being a casual racist who catches bad guys. Others, including several black cops, point out that he's just a vile scumbag who abuses his power. [[spoiler:It isn't until his younger partner is killed by two criminals in a shoot-out meant to target Perry that he finally chooses to atone for his actions.]]
43	* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Although "Hero" is stretching it quite a bit but Perry does not shy away from racist, sexist or homophobic remarks and is very unrepentant about it all considering that's how he was raised by his Dad and his Grandad and how most White Cops in the LAPD was for years but [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone at the end he finally realizes what his casual racism and abuse of minorities have caused for the City and himself.]]
44	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Among his other unpleasant qualities, Jack is also very racist. He even calls Holland a nigger to his face during their encounter in the elevator and uses other slurs for Black People like "gorilla" and "apes" and he was the one who helped teach Perry to be the racist and abusive Cop that he is. The irony is that Orchard one of the scumbags who answers to him is Black.
45	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Holland is the only administrator in the department who isn't corrupt or an asshole and he dedicates his time and efforts to exposing Perry and Van Meter's dirty dealings.
46	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Sal delivers an absolutely BRUTAL one to Eldon in the goodbye letter she had wrote and details all of his abrasive, unhealthy, selfish and cowboyish behavior that has poisoned their marriage and his relationship with their son just as she's about to leave him for good. Eldon is left at a total loss after she reads it all and knows she's right and he elects to and moves out of the house instead.
47	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Bobby comes clear about his crimes to Beth and Holland, and they arrange for him to expose his department's corruption in a public inquiry. Bobby is later shot to death in a botched arrest of the criminals Orchard and Sidwell. Perry witnesses Bobby's murder and is apologetic, but Beth points out that Perry poisoned Bobby's mind to begin with and that it]] [[YouShouldHaveDiedInstead should have been Perry lying on the ground with a bullet in his gut instead]].
48	* TrailersAlwaysLie: Holland's quest to bring the corrupt cops to justice plays a much smaller role in the actual film. It's much more of a [[spoiler:redemptive]] character study about Eldon Perry.
49	* TragicHero: Eldon Perry is the type of corrupt CowboyCop who caches very bad criminals, but he also frames suspects, is excessively violent and a casual racist. However, he comes from a long line of cops in his family who raised him into their beliefs. His wife leaves him and takes their son because they're both terrified of him, and most cops outside of his corrupt friends are disgusted by his behavior. [[spoiler:He ultimately chooses to expose his own shady dealings to do one last good thing before his days are over. The film ends as he watches over a burning Los Angeles with remorse.]]
50	* TurnOutLikeHisFather: Subverted. Perry and his father and grandfather were all cops using the same methods that he himself became notorious for, but his own son wants nothing to do with it nor follow the same career choice.
51	* YouMonster: After [[spoiler:Perry's partner Bobby is gunned down on the streets due to Perry's corrupting influence]], Beth calls him out on his actions and blames him [[spoiler:for Bobby's death.]] It's capped off with this declaration:
52	-->'''Beth:''' I hope that you burn in hell, Eldon Perry, you ''evil'' motherfucker.
53	* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: [[spoiler:Beth makes it clear that this is what she thinks of Perry after Bobby died in her arms after being shot by Orchard and Sidwell.]]

Context Film / DarkBlue