The Badge (2002)

The Badge is a bit of a mixed bag. It's quite interesting as a ground-level look at the culture of corruption in pre-Katrina Louisiana and there's some human realism in its story of a simple man dealing with his complicated life. But the mystery that runs through this film is really put together out of spit and bailing wire and the story as a whole starts out reasonably smart, then gets dumber and dumber and dumber as it goes along until hitting an ending that's like something a 4th grader would come up with.Darl Hardwick (Billy Bob Thornton) is the good ole' boy sheriff of LeSalle Parish in rural Louisiana. He's got an alcoholic burnout for a father (Tom Bower), an ex-wife (Sela Ward) who's the county District Attorney and a daughter that dresses like a goth stripper. Darl likes to drink and then sleep it off in his truck. He's also more of a peace officer than an agent of law enforcement, meaning he sees the job of sheriff as being more about things like chasing off the kids who are loitering in front of the local grocery store and not about investigating crimes. As sheriff, Darl is also a cog in the parish's political machine. He's answerable to The Judge (William Devane), the richest and most powerful man in the local Democratic Party, but Darl is free to indulge in whatever little graft he can.Darl's life in LeSalle Parish is disturbed when he and his deputies discover a dead woman in a ditch. They're disturbed even more when the woman turns out to be a transgendered man. Darl isn't all that interested in finding out who killed what he considers a "freak", even after the man's wife, Scarlett (Patricia Arquette), shows up demanding justice. When The Judge makes it clear that he wants the whole thing hushed up because it might affect his plans to open a new casino, Darl is ready to let the whole matter drop. But then he finds out the Democratic Party is kicking him off the ticket and running his black deputy for Sheriff. That makes Darl a little more interested in what happened to his transgendered murder victim. Then Darl gets framed for statutory rape by the local powers-that-be, and that makes him very interested in finding the killer.Teaming up with Scarlett and getting an assist from his estranged brother (Thomas Haden Church), Darl uncovers a sordid tale of political intrigue that reaches all the way up to the governor himself and the even more seedy reason for the murder of Scarlett's husband. By this point in the film, things begin to get very stupid, very quickly, so I'll stop right here.I enjoyed the way The Badge depicted the commonplace, unquestioned venality and crookedness of life in LeSalle Parish. Louisiana has been renowned for its relaxed attitude toward ethics, good government and the law for long time and this movie shows you what that means at the local level, with public officials who don't think twice about enriching themselves and always make sure to spread a little around to keep everybody else happy. LeSalle Parish is kind of like a bayou North Korea; a closed society that runs things the way they've always been run and doesn't cotton to outsiders.Darl Hardwick is a part of that world and it's a part of him. He's not exactly happy, but he's comfortable and he doesn't think more than that is possible. Billy Bob Thornton does a good job portraying Darl with honesty. He's not a good person or a bad person. He's somebody who does moderately good things and moderately bad things without knowing enough or caring to distinguish between the two. Darl is the sort of man you condemn when looking at him from the outside, without ever being able to understand him.Unfortunately, as the movie rolls on it casts Darl as more and more of a generic noir hero. That robs the character of his uniqueness and Thornton appears to become bored with the role and just goes through the motions. None of the other characters are given enough to do to make any impression on the audience, one way or the other.And the mystery of the transgendered murder victim is…well, pathetic is the best word to describe it. It's the classic case of having every clue point in one direction and then throwing in a twist that completely changes things. The problem is that the twist involves people simply telling Darl what all the answers are while he stands there with the proverbial thumb up his butt. And those answers are things that neither Darl nor the audience could have figured out before hand because they're pulled in out of left field with nothing shown in the movie to support them. And the one question that isn't specifically cleared up for Darl is one the audience has figured out before the film is halfway over.The Badge does have a smattering of female nudity and Patricia Arquette in a thong, which added to its other virtues should have made this a decent movie. But its flaws are so noticeable, that it's impossible to know how anyone will respond to this film. I like and I can imagine someone else enjoying it even more. However, I can also imagine someone thinking The Badge is garbage and being justified in thinking so. So if you're thinking about renting this DVD, flip a coin. You might get lucky…or you might not.

A friend lent me this movie, and I'm glad she did. Didn't realize "whodunit" until Darl (Billy Bob Thornton) pulled all the clues together, and I enjoyed how the action and drama built. It's fascinating watching this story about values and politics in the South. The family relationships and especially dialogue with his gay brother seemed very realistic. I thought Patricia Arquette gave an especially convincing performance as Mona's wife. Given how little they showed the victim Mona (Cindy Roubal), and the fact that s/he is transgender plays so much into the plot, it's too bad they couldn't have cast a true transgender person instead of a former Playboy bunny!

Anyone who contributes to the blab that Mr Thornton's characterisation of Darl was too close to his equally excellent characterisation of Hank in Monster Ball is not really contributing, or thinking very deeply. I have said as much before and I will say again here; Mr Thornton is the very best character actor in the US today and one of the best in the world.It is no surprise to find a great actor tackling scripts that are well out of the main stream, this shows a thinking caring actor who is prepared to take risks and give more credibility to the work than to the star spin offs.This movie is not a great one, but it is a very worthwhile experience that is, at least, thought provoking and contains some very fine acting from most of it's cast. The only real problem was the writer/director combination. This is not to say that the writing or the direction was bad, on the contrary, the direction particularly was very sound and the writing was fine though a little too "formular" in its shape. It's nearly always a mistake to direct ones own work, like reading ones own poetry, it becomes very hard to let a line go in an instant, when one is aware of how long it took to birth it. The Badge is fine and has some real strengths, its weakness lies in the denouement where there is the sense of a rather obvious ball being suddenly rushed to the goal post before time runs out for the some what staged final scene.This work is worth the effort on many fronts, B.B.Thornton is excellent and that woman! what a sterling performance she gives in a very difficult role and against all kinds of odds. If you have not seen this movie and are thinking about it, then do it and do it now!

I loved the start of this movie. I think that's what carried my interest through to the end. The middle and endings were not as strong but did not disappoint me.I also loved the acting, especially Billy Bob's. There's something about his demeanor and appearance that is interesting despite what role he is playing.