Black is almost alone in this belief, which quickly becomes an obsession. His police friends pity or ignore him, closing the one case that fits the profile after their suspect kills himself in the police station. But Black won't give up, because he's convinced he's right. And because he made a pledge. Problems of morality and conscience should be paramount in our society, but you'd never know it from most of our movies. Director Sean Penn's version of a celebrated novel by Swiss novelist-playwright Friedrich Durrenmatt, "The Pledge" is a rare thriller -- and a rare American film -- that centers on both dramatic and moral issues, crises of conscience.
And, thanks to a superb central performance by Nicholson as detective Black, it's a film that compels, thrills and ends up coming very close to tragedy. Bleak, serious, unreservedly grim, set in ordinary working-class backgrounds and beautifully photographed and splendidly acted for the most part by the entire cast, it's exactly the sort of movie that rarely gets made in America -- much less made with a major star and a top supporting cast.
Yet Penn has been able to make "The Pledge" seemingly without compromise, without prettying up either the story, his magnificently unvain star -- or even his wife, Robin Wright Penn, who plays the main female part with a cosmetically broken tooth and no makeup.
Durrenmatt's book, published in a year before the Broadway run of his classic play "The Visit" , shows us a man who dedicates his life to eradicating an evil he is convinced exists but that the world ignores. And the movie, like the novel, lets us wonder for a while whether the world or the man is mistaken. Nicholson's Black covers the rape-homicide of a little girl on his last day before retirement and becomes convinced that the dead accused killer was innocent.
After making his vow to the victim's parents Patricia Clarkson and Michael O'Keefe , he begins investigating on his own, uncovering two unsolved cases with a similar modus operandi.
In one of them, the murdered little girl made a painting of a mysterious "giant" who gave her "porcupine gifts" near a forest. In Black's mind, this is the killer. So he buys a failing gas station in the area where he suspects the killer still prowls and sets up his private stakeout. In a more dicey action, he strikes up a relationship with a waitress and single mother named Lori Wright Penn , a woman with an abusive ex-husband and a blond little girl, Chrissy Pauline Roberts , who fits the victim profile.
Tenderly and considerately, he cares for them both. But he also sets up a roadside swing as a trap for the killer and keeps his eyes peeled for possible suspects -- including numerous drivers of black cars and one religiously inclined bachelor Tom Noonan whose mother makes carved porcupines. In the story, Nicholson plays Nevada homicide detective Jerry Black who goes to a surprise retirement party on his last day of work. He goes to a brutal crime scene in the woods near his own ice-fishing cabin.
The sexual assault and bloody murder of a young girl is devastating to him. The police immediately arrest a suspect, a mentally handicapped Native American.
Another policeman provokes a confused confession out of the poor man, who then grabs a gun and commits bloody suicide, in graphic detail. He begins to look for a tall man driving a black station wagon. That fact kills any chances he'll have of happiness and completion.
Sean Penn assembled a good cast that gives great performances, especially those I've mentioned. No Nicholson shtick here like you find in such classics as Chinatown and A Few Good Men, but a really good acting job. SnoopyStyle 18 January Jerry Black Jack Nicholson is retiring from the police force. A little girl's body is found, and he's asked to go in for one more case.
When the girl's mother Patricia Clarkson asks him to find the killer, she forces him to take a pledge. When brash cop Stan Krolak Aaron Eckhart gets a mentally weak Indian Benicio Del Toro to confess, Jerry isn't so sure and continues to investigate despite nobody believes him. It's obvious that director Sean Penn called in a lot of people.
This is filled wall to wall with top ranked acting talents. Every character is played by great actors no matter how small the roles. This movie takes its time. Maybe it takes too much time. It sets an interesting tone. It's moody. But the pace suffers. Sean Penn has an actor's instinct rather than a storyteller. He gets great performances from great actors. But the story meanders. It's more of a character study as the Jerry character oscillates from a superior police mind to a paranoid father figure.
The character study culminates in an unusual ending. Detective Jerry Black Jack Nicholson is retiring. While in his farewell party, his colleagues are informed that an eight years old girl has been raped and murdered.
Jerry decides to go to the crime scene with his colleagues. There, they realized that the child parents have not been informed about the crime, and Jerry goes to their home to give them the bad news. The child's mother Margaret Larsen Patricia Clarkson challenges him to promise that he would catch the criminal.
The fulfillment of this promise becomes an obsession to Jerry. A tragic and dark end finishes his haunting. This thriller is really great, having a excellent director, cast and screenplay. The end of the story is not for all tastes, but I liked it a lot. Fortunately this film was not produced by a big Hollywood producer, otherwise the end of the story would be commercial and the film would lose its impact. My vote is eight. Which makes "The Pledge" somewhat strange.
It's not a bad movie, just confusing. With Nicholson as a detective trying to find a killer, the movie delivers good performances from everyone, but I couldn't really tell what the ending meant. Maybe if I saw it again, I might understand it. See whether or not you can understand it. All in all, a very bizarre effort from all involved. Unsatisfying endings usually make for box-office bombs and I suspect this one bombed, too.
I don't particularly care for them, myself. I'd rather feel good at the end of the film, but I really liked this movie in a strange kind of way. It's weird but it's original and it stayed with me for several days afterward.
On the second viewing, knowing what to expect, it didn't haunt me but it was worth that second look I didn't care for some of the anti-Christian tones in here, however. That is my only complaint of the movie. A key character - a minister - is made to look evil typical film-world bias. The rest of the film has a lot to offer: a great performance by Jack Nicholson; a very nice music score; good cinematography; interesting characters and a different, almost-shocking twist at the end.
The best part of the film is Nicholson. As usual, Jack is very interesting, playing a low-key role here. The story might be too slow for a lot of folks but it kept my interest all the way.
On the second viewing, I appreciated the music even more - a great soundtrack! If you are looking for a crime film that is different, check this out, but don't blame me if you don't like the ending. Jack Nicholson is a retired cop whose last minutes on the job are ruined by the discovery of the mutilated and raped body of a little girl.
A retarded Indian Benicio del Toro is picked up for the crime. Del Toro has a record of child abuse and other offenses, some physical evidence linking him to the girl is found in the cab of his truck, an eyewitness places him at the scene of the killing, and under coaxing he confesses. Then he grabs a gun and shoots himself. The horrified Nicholson doesn't believe the confession and thinks Del Toro was innocent.
He pledges to the dead girl's parents that he'll find the killer. Soon a beautiful younger woman Robin Wright Penn and her daughter move in with him and they become a family. The problem is that Penn's daughter is a beautiful eight-year-old girl child who reminds Nicholson of the murder victim. He goes to such unusual lengths to protect her from the killer he believes to be still at large and operating in the vicinity that he alienates his friends on the police force and drives Penn and her daughter away.
He uses the girl as bait to trap the rapist who, the film suggests, was killed in a highway accident while hurrying to meet and harm the girl. Of course, no one realizes that the charred corpse in the burning car is the rapist, and that Nicholson's anxiety was justified.
I was unable to figure out what all the fuss was about. I don't mind tragedies but they have to develop out of something, don't they? He does what he can, even at the risk of his own family, and he appears to succeed, though he doesn't know it, and it costs him everything he has. Where is his tragic flaw?
His downfall, like the car accident that kills the rapist, seems entirely arbitrary. It doesn't flow out of anything that has preceded it. Okay, let Nicholson fall, but give us a reason for it, some hamartia -- Othello's jealousy or Caesar's ambition -- even on a small scale.
But what do we carry away from this film? Don't make promises you can't keep? Sometimes a film can get away with this kind of diffuse narrative if it's handled stylishly. I still have to concentrate in order to figure out the plot of "Chinatown. The director, Sean Penn, sets the story in and around Reno but we get no sense of place. Reno is a raffish, vulgar little city.
But, aside from a few shots of Nicholson fishing, we don't get much of an impression of it. I'm not asking for pretty postcards, just some atmosphere. Nicholson gives a performance that is slow and stiff or, let's say, thoughtful, but mostly he's Jake Gittes with a hangover.
Robin Wright Penn is more animated, perhaps the liveliest person in the movie, and she's just about the right age. The little girl is enchanting, like a painting of a beautiful child, and she seems like a natural actress. Other actors of note have small roles that don't add much. But Benicio Del Toro is great as the barely interpretable Indian, his face mostly hidden by a voluminous witch-like growth of hair. Penn seems to love close ups. There are a plenitude of close up. Not just close ups of faces, but close ups of eyes and close ups of noses and close ups of ornaments dangling from rear-view mirrors.
There's a close up of a hook being removed from a trout's mouth. The motivations are weak as well. What is it that convinces Nicholson's cop that Del Toro is innocent? And why does Nicholson so stupidly swear on a home-made cross, "pledge your soul's salvation", that he will catch the killer?
When Nicholson learns from the little girl that she has made a date with the "wizard" who gives her bon-bons, he lets her bicycle to the picnic site, and then surrounds it with policemen, including a SWAT team. At no time is she in any danger. So why does this drive Robin Wright Penn into hysterics so that she beats Nicholson, clutches her wailing daughter, and leaves him flat? Why doesn't she just heap her calumny upon him. The film is sluggish and unenlightening.
The story remains an interesting promise, unfulfilled. This haunting movie based on a Fredrich Durrenmatt novel concerns about a detective an obstinate Jack Nicholson in similar role played by Heinz Ruhmann who on the day of his retirement becomes involved in the case of a little girl's killing.
The retiring police chief pledges the parents Patricia Clarson and Michael O'Keefe in brief performances to catch the killer of the young child. Detective Jerry Black has made a promise he can't break, to catch a killer he can't find. At the beginning appears as suspect an unfortunate vagrant , a retarded Native trapper incomparable Benicio Del Toro in the role of Michael Simon. But the Nevada police detective doesn't believe the police detained the right man ; he investigates this is the third incident in the zone in the recent past with victims young , blond, pretty, and small for their age.
He gets some clues from a drawing by the killed girl , as the murderous can be a tall man who drives a black car , gives toy porcupines as gifts, and calls himself the wizard. In order to search the killer , the police buys a gas station to Floyd Harry Dean Stanton and takes employee a separated woman a sweet Robin Wright who married Sean Penn with a daughter, being his intention of use them as bait for the cruel murderous. The police detective trying to trap a child killer , at the same time his mind on the woman and the little girl.
It leads to the climax with the presence of the serial killer along with the kid and the possible tragedy. This is a well crafted movie plenty of suspense , thrills and psychological studio.
The picture functions on various levels with superb characters well played by an all-star cast and a well-paced screenplay. Its perfect developing resides not in displays of frenzied action and grisly violence like happen in modern cinema, but rather lies about interesting characters and suspenseful. The story as told in the novel is scary enough , but the picture manages to create an atmosphere of unbearable tension and palpable terror within the enchanting , brightly-lit outdoors of a small location.
Colorful and glittering cinematography by Chris Menges - The mission-. Sensible and touching musical score with some wonderful song by Hans Zimmmer and Klaus Badelt.
This fine-tuned motion picture is excellently directed by Sean Penn. In my opinion this is one of the best films to come out of America in the decade of the If you like thoughtful and brooding films that are exciting and rich pace with rhythm but no displaying a great deal of action, you'll like this one. Tough, demanding, but spine-tingling detective story from director Sean Penn. A modern-day retired police chief Jack Nicholson cannot let go of an unsolved serial murder case After the morose, dense "The Indian Runner" and the meandering "The Crossing Guard", Penn finally found his footing here as a filmmaker.
The last-act switching around of suspects may leave you scratching your head, perhaps requiring a second viewing, yet Penn keeps the narrative taut, and Nicholson aging nicely holds it all together firmly with his amazingly low-keyed demeanor. TxMike 30 June Some spoilers Nicholson's character, 6 hours from retirement as one of the the best police detectives ever, gets sucked into this case, the gruesome molestation, murder and dismemberment of a 7-yr-old girl in the woods, in the snow, and when the mother asks, about not giving up until the killer is found, "Do you swear on your soul's salvation", he unwisely says "Yes"!!
I could have lost interest at that point, because it was ridiculous for anyone to ask such a thing, and equally ridiculous for a sane person to say 'yes', but perhaps they thought it was necessary for the rest of the film to feel right. So he devotes his life in retirement, telling a doubting cop, "You're old enough to remember when a promise meant something.
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