Bullet Points: Dead Badge
At some point nearly every month, I find myself scrambling for ideas on what to watch and review for the site. That’s when I have to remind myself about the treasure trove that is the Bulletproof Action suggestion box.
1995’s Dead Badge was an in-house suggestion from Matt Spector. At first blush, I wondered why Matt thought I would enjoy this action thriller… then I saw some of the supporting cast members and it all made sense.
- Blame It On the Rain: The movie opens up with the sounds of pouring rain and windshield wipers. We then get the reveal of a couple making out, we then get the bigger reveal that it is not just a couple, it is a couple of cops, Dan Sampson (Brian Wimmer) and Joyce Deitz (Robin Riker), in the front seat of their black and white. But the cops’ romantic break is cut short when they hear gun shots nearby, Joyce tells Dan to call it in as she exits the car to check it out. Dan calls it in and then proceeds to back up Joyce, but as he arrives on the scene of the crime in the alley, he gets there just in time to see Joyce shot dead. Dan is stunned. Then the same fate almost happens to him, except the bullet hits his badge, which ends up saving his life.
- Desk Jockey: After the incident, Dan has to follow police protocol and spend time with the department shrink, Dr. Doris Rice (Olympia Dukakis, Death Wish). Dr. Rice is convinced that Dan is not completely opening up about the events of that rainy night where his partner was murdered. And she’s right… because the story that Dan tells does not match what we the viewer saw in the opening scene. So it is no surprise when Dr. Rice does not clear Dan to return to the field and instead has him reassigned to a desk job in the records department at the 29th precinct… a precinct so corrupt the mayor’s office has ordered a special investigation. When Dan arrives at the 29, he meets Captain Hunt (Yaphet Kotto, Eye of the Tiger) and the man he’ll be working with in the records room, Sgt. Miller Hoskins (M. Emmet Walsh, Missing in Action). Hoskins does his best to take Dan under his wing. Things take a turn for Dan when he finds out that the officer who had Badge #2424 before him, Manuel Torres, died of a drug overdose, prompting Dan to investigate…
- Trouble is Brewing: Dan’s looking into the death of Manuel Torres gets him assaulted by Detective Yerkes (who practically has a bright neon sign above his head that says “I’m Shady!”) in the basement storage area of the 29…. The investigation then leads Dan to go to Manuel Torres’ old neighborhood, where he talks to people who knew Manuel, most importantly Manuel’s widow, Billie (Marta DuBois). After some resistance at first, Billie agrees to talk to Dan about her husband’s death… which she damn well knows was no overdose, since Manuel didn’t mess with drugs. The two end up having a good time at a Latin restaurant, but it’s anything but a good time for Dan Sampson after he leaves Billie’s home later that evening. Dan is being followed, which leads to the most action in the entire movie, with a car chase that ends with Dan crashing his car into a forklift! Dan wakes up in a hospital, where his boss Captain Hunt is there to chews him out for sticking his nose into the Manuel Torres business (a recurring theme at this point).
- Muddy Waters: From there things take a turn as we get some pyschobabble about Dan Sampson assuming the identity of Manuel Torres from Dr. Rice… which is backed up when Dan ends up with the exact same tattoo on his forearm as Manny had, which freaks out Billie to say the least. Things get murkier and murkier, but like the say it’s always darkest before the dawn. And by the end of the film all the conspirators in the murder of Manuel Torres are revealed… and at least one of those was rather shocking (pic below related?!?!)
Dead Badge was only 95 minutes long, but it felt like a long 95 minutes. One more action scene and giving Yaphet Kotto more to do would have injected some much needed life into the movie. Classifying Dead Badge as an action thriller is probably being generous and while the premise was certainly interesting, it was not executed as well as it could have been. Honestly, if I had not seen that Yaphet Kotto was in the movie, I probably would have discarded this suggestion.
Before I badger the movie anymore, let’s go to the Bonus Bullet Points…
- Double Duty: I would have never guessed that Howie from The Fall Guy went on to become a director, but that is exactly what Douglas Barr did, starting with 1995’s Dead Badge. In addition to directing Dead Badge, Barr also wrote the movie.
- Bastard Count: Dead Badge had a single “bastard” to its credit.
- Familiar Faces: The ubiquitous Danny Trejo played the bartender at a strip club that Dan hits up during his off the record investigation of the death of Manuel Torres… During the course of his investigation, Dan also gets a call from a cop claiming to be a part of the special investigation of the 29th precinct, the cop identifies himself as Wheeler, I identified him as TV’s James Sikking… And playing key informant, Tomas Gomez, is Raymond Cruz of The Substitute and Blood In, Blood Out fame.
- Memorable Quote: “This place is as dirty as a pig’s tit.” – Sgt. Miller Hoskins
