As a Black man living in America, these past few weeks haven’t been good.
The African-American community has once again had to endure images of Black men and women being terrorized and/or tragically killed by the police. There’s Daunte Wright getting gunned down during a traffic stop in Minnesota, Caron Nazario – an army lieutenant – being threatened and pepper-sprayed at another traffic stop in Virginia, and 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant killed by police during an altercation with other women in Ohio. All this was happening while people were hoping and praying that a jury found Derek Chauvin guilty for the murder of George Floyd, an act of tragic police brutality that was captured on video and set off a wave of protests and riots that took over the world last summer.
All this blatant racism doled out over and over again by people whose job is to protect and serve got me thinking about the movies that have been made on the subject. Over the years, especially after the era of Rodney King and the Los Angeles riots, many films have shown renegade cops using their authority to screw over minorities. (David Ayer has made it his career writing and/or directing most of them, from Training Day to Dark Blue to Street Kings to the fantastical Will Smith flick Bright.)
There is one film in particular that has been basically forgotten, but definitely deserves a second look in these racially charged times. Released in 1995, The Glass Shield is practically the first post-Rodney King film to tackle racial injustice and police corruption. Based on a true story, it’s written and directed by Charles Burnett, the much-revered, African-American film-maker behind Killer of Sheep and To Sleep with Anger.
Burnett basically gets his B-movie on here, tuning out the kind of pulpy, suspenseful thriller that’s obviously influenced by noirs of the 40s and 50s. But this film is not black and white by any means. A wide-eyed, rookie deputy sheriff (Michael Boatman, formerly of the sitcoms Spin City and Arliss) joins a Los Angeles station brimming with aggressive, alabaster, authority-mad cops. He tries to be part of the team, even aiding in setting up an innocent Black man (Ice Cube, acting more annoyed than worried) for the murder of a wife of a very guilty-looking white guy (Elliott Gould). Along with the station’s lone, female deputy (Lori Petty), our flawed hero seeks to right this wrong, eventually discovering the immense web of secrets and lies this place has stashed in its files.
It’s kinda surprising how Burnett wasn’t called on to do more thrillers after The Glass Shield. He takes a highly stylized approach with it, working with veteran cinematographer Elliot Davis (who has worked extensively with Steven Soderbergh and Alan Rudolph) to create a look that’s as sharp and shadowy as a graphic novel. (The movie does begin with a title sequence that includes comic-book illustrations.) Despite its shiny, vibrant colors, the movie is mostly framed like a dark, scary dream, where the monsters are the corrupt senior authority figures (played by long-time character actors Richard Anderson, Michael Ironside and M. Emmet Walsh) on the force.
As melodramatic as the movie gets, it does present a sadly accurate view of what it’s like to be a member of law enforcement in a heavily broken system. Both Boatman and Petty’s characters are the odd cops out at their frat house of a station, constantly getting chewed out by their superiors, hit with racist and sexist jabs by their fellow officers and eventually getting threatened for simply doing what’s right.
If you’ve never heard of this movie, it’s because of one man: Harvey Weinstein. Shield was unfortunately released by the disgraced studio chief’s Miramax Films, which dumped the movie in theaters after delaying its release for nearly a year. The studio tried to market it as another hip-hop-heavy ‘hood movie, which it’s obviously not. There were also rumors that Weinstein wanted a more conventional (read: happier) ending.
Considering how we’re still living in a time when cops continue to take out people of color, whether they’re innocent or guilty, and there are usually no consequences for their actions, Shield’s cynical ending is also an authentic one. As happy as we all are that Chauvin got a guilty verdict, seeing a trigger-happy police officer get theirs is a rare occurrence. Out of the many cop dramas that have been made, The Glass Shield effectively shows how, unless we get rid of the rotten core that protects the myriad bad apples with badges, none of us will get a happy ending.
The Glass Shield is available to rent digitally in the US and the UK
