Two prominent young(ish) actors face off for a gritty cop drama in 2008’s Pride and Glory. Set in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan, Pride starts with notice that four police officers got killed during a raid. Obviously this doesn’t sit well with the department, and it creates a lot of tension among the cops.

Chief of Detectives Francis Tierney (Jon Voight) wants someone he can trust to take the case, so he stays close to home: his son Ray (Edward Norton) receives the assignment. Still gun-shy after an event that left him with a nasty scar on his cheek, Ray resists the assignment, but eventually he succumbs to his father’s pressure.

As he investigates, Ray quickly tabs a thug named Angel Tezo (Ramon Rodriguez) as one of the culprits. However, the trail doesn’t end there. Before long, we learn that police involvement occurred – involvement that included Ray’s brother-in-law Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell) in a prominent role.

We’ve seen roughly 7264 dramas about corrupt cops over the decades, so Pride doesn’t exactly tread upon fresh ground. The question becomes whether or not the film manages to create something to set it apart from the crowd. Does Pride take us anywhere fresh, or is it just more of the same old?

Unfortunately, I think it largely falls into the latter category. If there’s a distinctive moment to be found here, I couldn’t locate it. The viewer can easily anticipate most – if not all – of the flick’s “twists”, so virtually none of them manage to surprise. The film lays out its characters in a pretty one-dimensional way at the start, and that doesn’t really change.

Perhaps if Pride took us on an exciting, involving journey I wouldn’t mind its predictability. It doesn’t manage to open things up in a terribly impressive manner, however. For one, I think it’s a mistake to reveal the nature of the corrupt cops so early. Perhaps if we encountered a mystery for a little bit longer we might remain more intrigued.

Director Gavin O’Connor tends to tell the tale in a somewhat rambling manner as well. Though my synopsis puts the focus on Ray, we also see a fair amount of Jimmy as well as Ray’s brother – and Jimmy’s superior – Francis Jr. (Noah Emmerich). The film jumps among them in a seemingly random way that fails to bring out the characters well.

Indeed, you’ll be forgiven if you forget some of the personalities; they can disappear for so long that we lose track of them. Pride wants to be a rich character drama about the way this deepening scandal emerges, but it fails to coalesce well enough to maintain our interest.

Take the big Christmas dinner scene, for instance. This is pretty much the only time all the film’s major characters – the three Tierney men and Egan – come together in one place. That makes it sound like an important sequence, but it really doesn’t go much of anywhere. It runs for an extended period but provides only minor exposition. We don’t learn anything here that couldn’t have been developed more efficiently elsewhere – or with a tighter dinner scene.

We find too many off-track scenes in Pride and not enough that keep us on target. No, I don’t demand – or desire – a film that focuses relentlessly on plot to the exclusion of all else, but Pride goes too far afield. It’s a crime drama with little tension and a character piece with little personality. It boasts a fine cast who all deserved to be in something richer and more intriguing than this flat, one-dimensional piece.

Pride and Glory appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. An often messy presentation, it became tough to tell how many of the image’s problems resulted from the filmmakers’ choices and how many came from the transfer.

Grain and artifacts created the majority of the distractions. I thought the movie often looked quite grainy, and that affected the accuracy of the other elements. The graininess tended to decrease as the flick progressed; much of the flick’s second half looked notably better than the first.

I noticed other concerns like jagged edges and a general blockiness. Overall sharpness was generally fine, though the artifacts made things chunkier than I’d like. Other than the grain, no source flaws appeared.

At the film’s start, it tended toward a chilly blue palette. As the movie went along and the action heated up, the colors went in the same direction; a warmer reddish-orange tint dominated the flick’s second half. Within the stylistic parameters, the hues looked pretty good.

Blacks were a bit inky, while shadows tended to seem moderately thick. A lot of that stemmed from the grain; low-light shots were generally murky. As I stated earlier, I found it difficult to differentiate between stylistic choices and transfer problems. Whatever the case may’ve been, I thought the image remained too erratic for a grade above a “C+”.

Happily, less equivocal feelings greeted the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Pride and Glory. From the opening football game through a mix of action and street scenes, the soundfield provided an involving environment. Cop sequences were the most active, as they featured good use of various vehicles and ambience all around the spectrum. Music demonstrated nice stereo imaging as well, and the mix meshed all five speakers in a satisfying, believable way.

In addition, the track boasted positive audio quality. Speech remained natural and concise, without edginess or other issues. Music demonstrated solid dimensionality, while effects were clean and bold. Bass response showed nice depth and power. Overall, this soundtrack served the film well.

A few ads open DVD One. We get clips for the Project Origin videogame, RocknRolla, Watchmen, and Blu-Ray Disc. No trailer for Pride appears here.

Over on DVD Two, we get a documentary called Source of Pride: The Making of Pride and Glory. The show runs one hour, seven minutes and four seconds as it provides remarks from director Gavin O’Connor, producer Greg O’Connor, NYPD undercover narcotics officer Tony Musicaro, former NYPD detective Bobby Hopes, executive producer Marcus Viscidi, Street Narcotics Unit detectives Kevin Roy and Armando Rodriguez, hip-hop producer Ray Acosio, Washington Heights locals Omar Echegaray and Gabriel Lopez, technical advisor Nemo Librizzi, hip-hop writer/producer “Cuba Libre”, casting director Randi Hiller, New Line Senior VP of Development Cale Boyter, second AD Colin MacLellan, NYPD officers Jason Lacayo and Mike Miller, co-producer Josh Fagin, script supervisor Christine Gee, director of photography Declan Quinn, production designer Dan Leigh, senior technical advisor Rick Tirelli, NYPD 1st Grade Detective Bob Allongi, and actors John Ortiz, Shea Whigham, Frank Grillo, Lake Bell, Noah Emmerich, Edward Norton, Flaco Navaja, Rick Gonzalez, Jon Voight, and Ramon Rodriguez. The show looks at research, training and attempts at authenticity, story, character elements, and rehearsals, cast and performances, action scenes, cinematography and sets, and various production concerns.

“Source” acts more as a production diary than as a traditional “making of” program. While it does include a lot of the standard interview snippets, it spends most of its time on the set, and it follows the production in chronological order.

It also provides a much less chipper look at the production than usual. Normally shows like this talk about how great everything was. Instead, “Source” seems to wallow in the problems. Gavin O’Connor constantly complains about the growing pressures and always seems one step away from jumping off a bridge.

There’s still plenty of happy talk, of course, and the participants love to congratulate themselves for the flick’s authenticity. Nonetheless, the frequent stream of negativity gives “Source” a more believable air, as we find out about the movie’s various problems. It’s not quite a “no holds barred” look at the production, but it seems more honest than most.

Finally, DVD Two includes a Digital Copy of Pride. It seems like every DVD provides this option these days; it allows you to easily transfer the flick to a portable device. I have no use for it, but I guess someone must dig it.

If you expect anything new and fresh from Pride and Glory, you’ll encounter disappointment. The movie seems too muddled and scattershot to ever overcome the predictable nature of its genre. The DVD presents average picture as well as very good audio and an interesting documentary. Pride isn’t a bad movie, but it never becomes a memorable one.