Q&A casts Nick Nolte as a hero supercop who is known for cutting corners to get results. The film opens with him doing his own gangland style execution of a Puerto Rican drug dealer. But given his status in the NYPD he's expecting a clean bill of health.
As it is a homicide and the Chief of the Homicide Bureau in the New York County DA's office Patrick O'Neal assigns young ADA Timothy Hutton fresh to the Bureau on his first case there. O'Neal much like the Navy in A Few Good Men expecting Tom Cruise to plea bargain the defendants, expects Hutton to do a perfunctory job and clear Nolte. And why not, Hutton is a former cop who went to law school at night to get his degree and he's the son of a former colleague of Nolte's.
But Hutton has a string of idealism in him and that complicates matters all around. So do the homicide cops assigned to investigate Nolte and both know him, Charles S. Dutton and Luis Guzman. Also Hutton has an unknown connection to one of the chief witnesses Armand Assante who is another drug dealer, but way up on the scale. He's now married to a woman Hutton used to see when he was a beat cop in the 23rd precinct which is Spanish Harlem played by Jenny Lumet.
Director Sidney Lumet loves New York even the dark underbelly of the Big Apple. We've never seen it so systemically corrupt as it is in Q&A. In many ways the most idealistic character in the film is that played by Armand Assante. Another good character is that of Lee Richardson who plays an investigator with the DA's office who has learned to bend and not let things break him.
O'Neal has a vested interest in this outcome, but it's one I couldn't get my mind wrapped around. Still he is chillingly malevolent and has big political ambitions. Hutton has a vested interest as well, he's part of the corruption though he doesn't realize it until the end.
Nolte is one out of control racist, homophobic cop who like so many homophobes has those latent tendencies in him. Check his interaction with some of the gay and transgender folks involved in this case.
Q&A is not one of Lumet's best films, still his all seeing camera makes New York itself part of the cast and he gets some great performances from his ensemble.
As it is a homicide and the Chief of the Homicide Bureau in the New York County DA's office Patrick O'Neal assigns young ADA Timothy Hutton fresh to the Bureau on his first case there. O'Neal much like the Navy in A Few Good Men expecting Tom Cruise to plea bargain the defendants, expects Hutton to do a perfunctory job and clear Nolte. And why not, Hutton is a former cop who went to law school at night to get his degree and he's the son of a former colleague of Nolte's.
But Hutton has a string of idealism in him and that complicates matters all around. So do the homicide cops assigned to investigate Nolte and both know him, Charles S. Dutton and Luis Guzman. Also Hutton has an unknown connection to one of the chief witnesses Armand Assante who is another drug dealer, but way up on the scale. He's now married to a woman Hutton used to see when he was a beat cop in the 23rd precinct which is Spanish Harlem played by Jenny Lumet.
Director Sidney Lumet loves New York even the dark underbelly of the Big Apple. We've never seen it so systemically corrupt as it is in Q&A. In many ways the most idealistic character in the film is that played by Armand Assante. Another good character is that of Lee Richardson who plays an investigator with the DA's office who has learned to bend and not let things break him.
O'Neal has a vested interest in this outcome, but it's one I couldn't get my mind wrapped around. Still he is chillingly malevolent and has big political ambitions. Hutton has a vested interest as well, he's part of the corruption though he doesn't realize it until the end.
Nolte is one out of control racist, homophobic cop who like so many homophobes has those latent tendencies in him. Check his interaction with some of the gay and transgender folks involved in this case.
Q&A is not one of Lumet's best films, still his all seeing camera makes New York itself part of the cast and he gets some great performances from his ensemble.