The detective story has been a staple of movies for years.
Everything from the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes to the down and
dirty Phillip Marlowe have been on display, making the private detective a
character that can be either slick or down and dirty. Author Lawrence Block has
made a career of writing about one detective in particular, Matthew Scudder.
While the character has been around since 1976, only one movie has been made
featuring him, 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE. That is until the release this last year
of A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES which has just arrived on DVD.
Liam Neeson plays the title character, a police detective
when the film begins in 1991 and then a private detective 8 years later shortly
thereafter. Scudder is a recovering alcoholic due to scenes we witness in the
opening. Peter (Boyd Holbrook), a fellow addict who met Scudder at an AA
meeting, shows up one day and asks for his help for his brother Ken (Dan
Stevens). Scudder reluctantly agrees.
It turns out that Ken is a high end drug dealer whose wife
was kidnapped. When Scudder tells him he doesn’t handle kidnapping cases Ken
informs him that he’s already paid the ransom and that the kidnappers returned
his wife in pieces. He wants Scudder to help him find the kidnappers/murderers.
While looking into the case Scudder discovers there have
been more cases of victims cut into pieces and dumped around town. As he
researches the information at the library he meets T.J. (Astro), a young
homeless boy. The pair gradually help one another as T.J. helps Scudder
navigate the library’s computer. In return Scudder pays T.J. Eventually this
becomes a situation where they pair help one another as the film progresses.
Using clues to track down information about the past murders
Scudder comes to realize that they have all been connected. Each of the victims
was tied to a drug dealer in one form or another. This prevented those the
ransom was demanded of from contacting the police. With each piece of
information Scudder gathers the closer he gets to the kidnappers/murderers. But
will he turn them over to those whose loved ones were kidnapped knowing full
well they’ll seek their revenge or will he contact the police?
While these are the basics of the story found in this movie
it’s more about the journey taken by Scudder that is the heart of the film.
Scudder has been a rudderless person when we see him in 1999. He lives but
isn’t alive. The combination of helping the families of the victims and his own
helping of T.J. bring him back to the real world, one he gets involved in
rather than merely walks through.
The movie and the performances reflect the gritty streets
that exists as opposed to the glamorous cityscapes seen in most detective
movies these days. Scudder is no slick hustler with a quick $20 in his pocket
dealt out to tons of connections. He is instead a diligent investigator who
claims it’s more about luck while delving into the problem at hand. The world
he walks in is drab and dirty, more grays, brown and blacks for a color palette
than the bright neon’s we’re used to seeing. This is the truth of what the
occupation offers instead of the glitz most movies offer. In the end it helps
rather than hurts the film.
Neeson does a fine job here, never yelling or doing the
acrobatic styles of fighting most films, including his own TAKEN series, offer.
He remains calm in most situations and doesn’t carry a gun. When he does arm
himself it’s the last thing he does. There is even a section of the film where
he warns T.J. about the dangers of walking around armed. With Neeson’s recent
comments on guns in America he still has no problem walking around shooting
people when the character calls for it. But the fact is this is a movie and
he’s entitled to his opinion.
The movie harkens back to some of the detective films of the
seventies rather than the typical gumshoe of the thirties and forties. Streets
are dirty, killers are despicable and drug dealers live in nice houses but not
mansions. As with those films it is the diligence on display by the detective
that helps him find the bad guy. In a world overrun with numerous car chases
and enough arms to supply a small army it’s nice to see a return to this kind
of detective. Here’s hoping we see more of Matt Scudder.
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