Proud and Glorious

DVR Alert

• First up, Action 3 News tells us Edward Norton will be appearing on Live with Regis and Kelly on Thursday, October 16 to promote Pride and Glory. Be sure to set your TiVo.

Woodstock News Feed

• Pride and Glory has been generating quite a bit of excitement since it was shown at the Woodstock Film Festival on Thursday night. The Times Union's blogger Graeme McKenna, for instance, writes about Day 2 of Woodstock:

  So, the big buzz today has been around the film Pride and Glory starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell and John Voight with a release date of October 24th. This is one to keep on your radar.

• Similarly, Filmonista reports:

  Another feature getting rave reviews is Pride and Glory starring Edward Norton and Colin Farrell and directed by Gavin O'Connor. I've been hearing folks compare the pulpy cop drama to James Grey's We Own the Night [...]

• A third blogger in attendance thought the acting was "superb," but felt the movie as a whole had "too much gore."
  
  
• An article in the Daily Freeman provides us with some quotage from Gavin O'Connor's post-screening Q&A session:

  Even though most of the police depicted in the Woodstock Film Festival's opening movie "Pride and Glory" were corrupt at some level, Gavin O'Connor, the director and co-screenwriter, described it as "a celebration of honest cops."

  Speaking at a question-and-answer session following Thursday's 6:15 p.m. screening, O'Connor, who also directed "Miracle," said he was nonetheless worried about how New York City police would take the script when he approached the department for guidance, but was pleased to find "they understood what we were trying to do."

  . . .

  O'Connor noted he was "committed to the language of the world" and that he resisted the studio's desire to add subtitles to scenes in which characters speak in Spanish, as the movie would be more "truthful." Language is unimportant, he said, when the emotion and orientation of a scene is properly expressed.

  O'Connor and his brother said they were interested in exploring the world of New York City police, as their father worked for the department. The project came to explore "institutional corruption" and the "impenetrable ... blue wall of silence." [...]

  Read the rest of the article for comments from a couple of regular folks who had the good fortune of seeing the film. (I should warn you that one of these comments contains a major spoiler!)

Film Festival Circuit

• Pride and Glory will be hitting two more festivals prior to its US/UK release. First, it will be shown at the Chicago International Film Festival on Wednesday, October 22 at 7:30pm. Then it's off to Italy for the International Rome Film Festival, which will take place October 22-31. I can't find the relevant screening date/time, but according to Variety and AFP, Pride and Glory has the distinction of being the only American feature film included in the lineup. Woot!

Predictions

• GoddOSS.net speculates about how Pride and Glory will fare once it's released on October 24:

  Lost in the shuffle this weekend is likely to be Pride and Glory, a crime drama starring Edward Norton and Colin Farrell. They play police officer brothers in the NYPD who get embroiled in dirty cop deeds. Norton investigates the wrongdoings and family strife ensues. Jon Voight plays their father.

  In truth this looks like a fairly solid effort, showcasing the acting talent that Norton has (especially in his smaller fare) and a possible second wind for Farrell’s career. It could be a very good film and an attempt at a relatively early awards contender.

  However, the release date is pretty bad. The weekend is already crowded and marketing space is going to be limited. The one strength Pride and Glory has is that it might serve as good counter-programming. With younger-skewing crowds going for any of the other three films, older (mostly male) audiences may choose this instead. If they know about it.

Non-P&G news:

• Jim Booth of Scholars and Rogues includes John Ehle in a list of authors he deems worthy of winning the Nobel Prize for literature!