Customer Reviews

Badge [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Reminiscent of "Monster's Ball" once again Billy Bob Thornton plays a man who is forced to confront his prejudices and deal with the idiosyncrasies of his dysfunctional family members in "The Badge", to be released in September, DVD to soon follow, no doubt.

Thornton's homophobic character (Darl Hardwick), following in the footsteps of his father, Bull, (Tom Bower), wears the badge of sheriff in the LeSalle parish in Louisiana.

In addition to his hard-drinking father, Darl's family consists of: estranged wife, Carla (Sela Ward) [in what may be one of the most bizarre casting decisions ever made], who just happens to be the local district attorney; daughter Ashley (Jena Malone); and brother David (Thomas Hayden Church), ran out of the parish by Billy Bob. LeSalle is populated by sharply drawn characters that embody all that is the deep south: Sister Felicia (Julie Haggarty); corrupt Judge Pendergast (William Devane); Ornell, the owner of a gas station with a pay phone in front; and once again Billy Bob's friend from Arkansas, Rick Dial, appears in the character of Doc, local M.E. of sorts.

As a small-town sheriff fighting big-time crooked politics, so prevalent in deep south, as well as his own dissolving reputation and narrow-minded bigotry, Hardwick becomes entangled in solving the case of the death of a transsexual, Mona, from New Orleans. Murdered in the swamps of his jurisdiction, embracing a life-style that he loathes, and carrying baggage of her own, as well as a Jesus tattoo, Mona in death becomes the leader of Hardwick's journey through the colorful streets of New Orleans, the gaudy transvestite clubs, and into the company of a stripper called Scarlett (Patricia Arquette).

As the investigation continues, the entanglements of dirty politicians, the untangling of years-old family conflicts, and a clearer understanding of those who populate the sex-conflicted world of the victim, the Sheriff finds more than the killer. He finds within himself a kinder man. A man who can not only accept others as they are, but a man who has a better understanding of himself as well.

Dithering about the main plot there is; shoe-thievery, a 'born-again' fighting again the impending construction of a local casino (assisted by the Sheriff's father armed with a shotgun and decked out in Indian head-dress), the loss of the sheriff's sunglasses, and other local small town intrigues and interactions.

This film richly populated with interesting and vivid characters presents a whodunit (the resolution of which isn't all that easy to see coming), and treats us to great Louisiana music and local New Orleans scenery. As always, Billy Bob Thornton 'becomes' his character. He settles into the sheriff's uniform, and the less than admirable psyche of his character as if he were born there, and then every so subtly unveils the changed man. All made to look so easy we each think we could be actors ourselves.

If you're a Billy Bob Thornton or Patricia Arquette fan, or you just enjoy a good murder mystery with atmosphere so thick you can feel the suck of the swamp, you will want to get a copy of this DVD as soon as it is released.

(I am slightly confused about why this movie is called "Badge" on Amazon and "The Badge" on IMDb and the rental site Netflix.) That being said...The Badge is a movie about small-town Louisiana politics, about family struggles, about coming to terms with suicidal mothers and homosexual brothers, and about the life-long struggle for justice in crimes against strippers and transsexuals. The plot focuses on the murders of a New Orleans transsexual within the conservative LaSalle parish. The reigning politicos of the parish don't want the alcoholic, local-boy sheriff (played by Billy Bob Thornton) to investigate the matter _too_ seriously and draw too much negative attention to the parish. Sheriff Billy Bob is willing to play along with the game until his party tries to run him off the ticket for the next election.

The action is truly about Billy Bob's sheriff character finding his own true self among the corrupt local and state politicians. He manages both to find himself and to serve justice to the underground sex community (which serves the state politicians in a no-questions-asked deal).

The filmmakers perfectly portray the atmosphere of lose parishes in Louisiana. The viewer will be absorbed into the good-old-boy network of doing business, as well as the desperation of anyone who tries to buck the system or hurt Louisiana's political advancement.

Anyone who enjoys this movie should check out Billy Bob Thornton in the sleeper Chyrstal.

Billy Bob Thornton stars in this this 2002 TV movie that is now available on DVD. He's cast as a sheriff in a small Louisiana town and he has lots of personal problems. It seems that a woman is found dead. But when the coroner examines her, he discovers it's really a man. Now the plot thickens as the politicos want to keep the fact of this transvestite being murdered in their town out of the papers. This is not going to happen though because Patricia Arquette shows up looking for the murdered person as she considers herself the murdered person's "wife". In spite of pressure of leaving the investigation alone, Billy Bob travels to New Orleans where Patricia Arquette works in a men's bar. There's more to the story of course and a lot of subplots. Eventually, of course, justice prevails.

I consider Billy Bob Thornton a fine actor. His presence alone brings up the quality of this film and the theme was a bit thought provoking. I could never consider this a work of art but I enjoyed the experience of watching it.

Excellent acting, direction, writing, editing, photography and a story full of the unexpected. This one is memorable for several reasons. Number one...the twists, you will be surprised throughout this film because it doesn't go in the direction you think it will. Try to guess what's going to happen a scene or two ahead and you can't. Billy Bob plays a very believable, somewhat lethargic lawman who'd just as soon take a nap in his pickup as solve a bizarre crime. Number two... the conflict, Billy Bob vs. the powers that be who want a baffling crime to remain unsolved. In most films Southern Politics either makes for good drama or it comes off as silly and pretentious. In this case it's the basis for numerous tense situations involving ethical questions. Number three...the humor, drama just doesn't work as well without it and this film gives the giggles when it counts.

Overall, this is one of the most underrated, overlooked films of 2002 and I'm glad I came across it on the new releases shelf at Hollywood Videos. If you want to get drawn into a different sort of mystery, this one will do it for you. It's refreshing to see Billy Bob, Sela Ward, Patricia Arquette and a few other big names show off their talents outside of the predictable Hollywood Blockbuster loop. Kudos to writer/director Robby Henson on another successful film project. I hope to see more from him soon.

I was an extra in this and to this day have never seen the completed movie. I do remember Steven Webber (from the TV show, "Wings") being in it, too. Some scenes filmed on location in The French Quarter... in a "Lids" hat store converted into a sex shop if I recall correctly. Billy Bob was great, though! The working title of this movie was "Behind the Badge."

THE BADGE (2002) is something I'm not really sure I can review with a clear head. It was insulting and condescending, it treated a real problem in our society with all the dark humor it could, and ultimately because of its rotten director, it made mincemeat of a story that could have become a cult hit.

Billy Bob Thornton (big red flag, though he was fresh off 2001's Oscar winner Monster's Ball) plays Darl, the sheriff of a small Louisiana parish. The mysterious shooting death of a transsexual and the subsequent arrival of her wife to identify the body will unfurl a sordid tale. Political duplicity and every kind of cold, dirty human facet will be revealed.

Though I will spoil nothing, I can certainly criticize a few things here:

1. Billy Bob Thornton may be the best thing in this film. Patricia Arquette could never act her way out of a paper sack and I wish someone would tell her before it is too late. (Oops!)

2. This thing needed to stop being a darkish comedy the moment the death occurred. However, the entire cast continued wisecrackin', a-hootin' and a-hollerin'. It was quite the sad stereotypical cast, vastly sub-par.

3. Am I the only human being besides transgendered/transsexual people getting tired of the nasty, negative portrayals in film? Is this community to remain 2nd-class forever?!

4. This rotten film - well, what was it? A parable about how we see the whole gay community as subhuman and unworthy? Was it about redemption, or simply the rotten corruption of politics that is as old as the hills anyway? Funny thing is, this film, no matter what, was always going to stink anyway.

And as I keep insisting, this kind of garbage is always the director's fault.

Let me try to conclude with a positive light: the film does illustrate the cold, hard world we have become. It illustrates the terrible police system as it stands now, and it also points up every form of corruption. To its credit, it attempts to show us the good of innocence - but that fails. And I'm very tired of that creepy William Devane!!

I hadn't even heard of this little thriller before I saw it on the video shelves. I was drawn to it by the star presence of Billy Bob Thornton, Sela Ward and Patricia Arquette. They don't disappoint. It was nice to see them in an independent little potboiler involving murder and politics in steamy Louisiana.
Billy Bob is a small town sheriff whose "good old boy" handling of a truck accident uncovers something more unpleasant - the murder of a transsexual dancer. It turns out the dancer was present at a party that could implicate the Democrat governor and upset the town rich guy's plans to build a casino. Billy Bob's position as sheriff becomes inceasingly precarious as he changes his mind about a murder investigation he initially didn't want to put much effort into.
There are a lot of twists and turns as the sherrif moves from self-preservation to seeking true justice. There is even some humor, not all of it intentional. One scene where I laughed out loud is when Arquette's character tells Thornton's sheriff that she and the dead she-male were married. That was even before the weirdness of the situation registers on Thornton's face.
William Devane delivers a satisfying performance as the rich guy manipulating local politics. Sela Ward is good in a small if predictable role as Thornton's ex-wife, now the assistant DA. It's an entertaining film, but the ending is a bit too melodramatic and preachy to get a higher star rating.

Billy Bob Thornton is superb in this film. He plays a man who was once respected by his wife, but is now sheriff in a small town because he is seen as not too competent. The local judge does not want him to pursue a murder and is not worried that he will do so because he is just the person to handle the case, because he will mess it up. Billy drinks too much and, like his father, who was a sheriff and is now a drunk, he hates homosexuals and any person who is in any way deviant. He even ran his own brother out of town because he is a homosexual.

A truck turns over and shoes fall from the truck. Billy illegally and foolishly, but openly, gives out some $20,000 of shoes to all comers. His deputy finds a body beside the road. The person, who had been shot, has the body of a woman, but also a penis. This is the case the judge does not want pursued because of fear - later shown to be justified - that publicity would hurt the mayor's run for governor. A woman comes to town and persuades Billy to find the killer of her "husband." When the judge sees that Billy is continuing with the case, he has him framed for statutory rape and Billy is dismissed from being the sheriff.

Viewers will be interested in seeing if Billy can overcome his homophobia and solve the murder.

I liked this movie because it was a little different acting for Billy Bob Thorton. I had seen this on tv a long time ago, but I haven't seen it since. My husband and I were talking about Billy Bob's movies one day, and this movie came to mind. He had never seen it before and I searched on Amazon and found it...so I bought it.

Billy Bob Thornton is Darl Hardwick, a morally bankrupt sheriff of the small Louisiana town of Lassale. Though the town isn't that much likeable on first sight (sure it's pretty, but its leaders are good-ole boy types, and the rest of the population run the gamut of amoral or extremist fundamentalist) but Hardwick seems to stand-out. Incompetent, and on the verge of getting tossed out of office, Hardwick finds himself the only person capable of cracking a beguiling case of murder. When the victim is found not to be a beautiful woman but a shockingly deceptive trans-sexual, the case becomes known as "the freak" and is quickly filed away with little expectation that anyone will bother to solve it. Unfortunately for everybody, the murder occurs during election season - when everybody from the Governor to Darl will be campaigning for their political lives. Because elections tend to bring out the hidden trash of the past term, Darl finds himself facing attack from different quarters - for stealing shoes from a truck involved in a vehicular accident, for having an affair with the wife of one of his deputies, for an outburst at the Governor. When Darl finds himself in danger of losing the local party's endorsement for Sheriff, he becomes driven to solve "The Freak". Instead he's "set up" on statutory rape charges (Darl's wanton ways make him an easy mark) and loses his job. Obsessed with the idea that solving "The Freak" will restore his job, Darl pursues leads that will take him to New Orleans, to the victim's "wife" (Patty Arquette) and the gay brother Darl ran out of Lasalle many years ago.

This was a good flick, but despite the talent it never goes further than being a TV movie, something for Lifetime. Though "The Badge" is a mystery, Darl's story soon takes over the main focus of the flick - Darl's shady connections, his crazy father (a former sheriff who drove Darl's mother to suicide) his tenuous relationship with his deputies, the judges (the chief being a shady character played by William Devane), his politically connected ex (Sela Ward) and just about everybody else. By then, the mystery only has a secondary role (to save Darl's career), and anyway, you'll be able to solve it by then. Still, Darl's a character you can't quite stay away from, and Thornton brings out some pathos in a guy who inflicts suffering on others, but no more than on himself.