Cast: Robert de Niro, Al Pacino; Director: Jon Avnet; Producers: Rob Cowan, Avil Randall Emmette, John Avnet, Lati Brobman, Alexander Michan, Daniel Rosenberg; Screenwriter: Russell Gewirtz; Music: Ed Shearmur; Editor: Paul Hirsch; Genre: Action/ Crime; Cinematography: Denis Lenoir; Distributor: Overture Films; Location: USA; Running Time: 100 min.;Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 2.5
CINEMA Rating: For viewers 14 and above
After 30 years as partners in NYPD, highly decorated Detectives David Fisk a.k.a Turk (Al Pacino) and Thomas Cowan aka Rooster (Robert De Niro) should be ready for retirement, but aren’t. Before they can hang up their badges, they are called in to investigate the murder of a notorious pimp, which appears to have ties to a case they solved years ago. Like the original murder, the victim is a suspected criminal whose body is found with a four line poem justifying the killing. When additional crimes take place with the same nature and trademark poem, it becomes clear Turk and Rooster are looking for a serial killer, one who targets criminals that have managed to go around the defective judicial system. The serial killer’s mission is to do what the cops can’t do on their own—take the culprits off the streets for good. The similarities between the recent killings and their earlier case raise a nagging question: Did they put the wrong man behind bars?
Righteous Kill can be a run-of-the-mill, forgettable crime thriller but the presence of De Niro and Pacino has made all the difference. As expected, the tandem of the two award-winning Hollywood veterans has pulled the entire feature off from start to finish. The storytelling has succeeded in misleading the audience’s gut feel, a true mark of a suspense-thriller. The secrets and revelations are sustained to the end. Although the script has the tendency to be a bit talky and dragging for the genre, it can be forgiven for as long as De Niro and Pacino are the ones seen delivering the kilometric lines.
Is there really such a thing as a “righteous kill”? The movie tells the audience how erroneous the judicial system can get even in a supposed to be progressive and sophisticated state as New York. Given such reality, one may resort to extra-judicial means like a modern-day Robin Hood and in the tradition of Dirty Harry. However, there really is no way an end can justify the means. A crime is a crime however one puts it. Righteous Kill does not condone crime in any form. Looking at the film in its entire context, justice prevails in the story amidst the dilemma of jeopardizing friendships and treasured relationships. Righteous Kill does not glorify criminals however noble their purpose and no matter how dark their past has been which has turned them into dark human beings. But then, audiences should be cautioned and guided on the presence of drugs, alcohol, racism and some scenes connoting hatred to Catholic clergy and the desecration of the church and its sacrament of reconciliation as these scenes may further cultivate the “mean world syndrome” among the young and vulnerable minds.
