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End of Watch, a Movie Review by Michael L. Johnson

Buddy-buddy cop movies, especially those set in Los Angeles, have been done to death.  However, in cinematic terms, End of Watch is not a dead man walking. It’s fresh.  That surprised me, almost as much as the easy parking space I found in Georgetown when I went to check out David Ayers’ latest movie at the AMC Loews Georgetown 14 over the weekend. It was a good day. It’s the time of year when mercenary mosquitoes in this part of DC (next to the C&O Canal) are heading to bed for a time. It’s fall.  Happiness.  What was also happiness was the popcorn I bought (without whining about it). What can I say?  I gave in to the call of the corn, the salt, the butter and the tub.  

The good: Gifted actors.  Jake Gyllenhaal (of Brokeback Mountain) and Michael Peña (from Crash) have great chemistry, charisma and magnetism on screen. They play cops, teamed together (arguably adrenaline junkies) who are working to do well in the neighborhood.  Police work, especially police work in high crime areas, is a very dangerous thing. That’s widely known.  I have nothing but respect and admiration for them. Its ranks are filled with heroes (not all of them, but many of them).  They often risk their lives to help others and face the possibility of death as an everyday part of their jobs. End of Watch successfully places viewers emotionally in and out of the squad car with its protagonists as they face ever-present danger.  It is clear that Ayers has a knack for creating exciting action films that are full of drama and suspense.  He can add this one to the list.

What is also cool about this movie is its “shake n bake” (intentionally unsteady) camera work.  It is reminiscent of Look, a 2010 TV series that followed the lives of ordinary people who were being recorded, mostly without their knowledge, because video cameras are so much a part of our twenty-first century lives. Ayers riffs on this idea in his film. And although the title of his movie is, ironically, End of Watch, he makes the point that there is no “end” of surveillance in most aspects of contemporary human existence, whether that filming is self-imposed, or imposed on us.  

Another subtext of End of Watch is the suggestion that heterosexual affection between men is a commonly accepted thing when that love is framed in fields of battle (brotherhood).  And in the context of battle, Ayers further makes the point that bonds of love displayed between men, whether heterosexual or homosexual, have much in common.  This subject matter is not something often seen in film (and the casting choice of Gyllenhaal, who is so closely related to another story about love between men, could not have been lost on Ayers, in this regard).  

What Ayers does for the men, he also does for the women in this movie. Most of them are very strong, some lesbian, some straight.  All are accepted as equal, without judgment (whether in gangs or in law enforcement), as long as they are good soldiers, show heart and loyalty in the war-zones of the street.  Again, this is something fresh to witness in a mainstream film.

The bad: Stereotypes.  Stereotypes.  Stereotypes.  To quote a recent Bill Clinton DNC speech, when I saw Ayers’ characterization of blacks and Latinos in this movie, “I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”  If you didn’t know better, you would think that every shiftless person, or horrible crime that is committed in South Central is committed by black and brown people (and that the LAPD is a band of angels).  Such a depiction of reality is kind of like suggesting that the late Rodney King was given flowers by the police who stopped him for speeding in 1991.  End of Watch does an excellent job of demonizing all people of color (despite Peña’s presence in the flick).   In that way Ayers’ End of Watch is, unfortunately, very much like Training Day.  This part of the film is straight-up racist, cliché and reflects a lapse into lazy screenwriting.

Also, the ending of the film is anticlimactic.  I saw several people throw up their hands at the conclusion of the movie, as if to say, “Is this really it?” “Is this all?” I hate it when that happens.

The Most Important Question: Was it a good movie?

Yes.  Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña are two of the finest actors working. Even in imperfect films, their performances shine.  Their in-car dialog makes the movie.  I think it’s fair to say the same of David Ayers' writing and directing, even if some of his characters tend to be predictable stick figures.  It’s good, not great. If I were asked to give the film a rating, numbered from 1-5 with 5 being the best, I'd give it a 3.75.  That said, I must offer a bit of a disclaimer.  This film has some extremely gruesome sequences.  If ever there were a film intended for grown folks, this is definitely one. However, police work is violent work.  Any movie that aims to capture that world will not be a wide screen of pixies and rainbows.

--MLJ