Customer Reviews

In the Line of Duty: The FBI Murders

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This is a very realistic true story of a group of Florida FBI Agents on the trail of 2 bank robbers. The robbers lead "normal" lives with wives and Saturday Bar-B-Que's.....while during the week they are very violent bank robbers. The FBI finally tracks them down and a shoot-out on city streets finally takes the lives of the two robbers at the cost of a couple of Agents. Based on actual events this is a don't miss action TV movie.

Based on the actual events that took place in 1985, The FBI Murders chronicles the events leading up to the largest FBI casualties ever suffered at one time in the history of the agency. Two well trained ex Green Beret buddies (played by David Soul & Michael Gross) team up and start robbing armored cars in Florida. Eventually they raise the stakes and start killing people during these robberies. The FBI tails these two and while attempting to arrest both men, one of the worst shoot-outs in law enforcement history ensues. When it's all over, several FBI agents are dead, there are several agents wounded and both suspects are shot and killed. This movie is made-for-tv, but it is still one of the hardest, most intense I've seen on network television. The ruthlesness and violence of these men is not toned down at all as in one scene, David Soul literally walks around looking for the surviving/wounded FBI agents and begins executing them on the ground. Highly recommended for fans of true stories or crime.

Finally out on DVD, fans of true crime dramas and action films will really enjoy this 1988 made-for-television production. Based on actual events in Miami, Florida (I'm not sure how embellished), "In the Line of Duty: The FBI Murders concerns a pair of military trained bank- robbers and the FBI task force who attempted to identify and apprehend them. This is a far cry from the fictional movies that attempt to glorify G-Men or violent criminals.

Both sides are portrayed in their real life bumbling glory as the robbers act stupidly and recklessly and the task force basically stumbles into them and is ill prepared for the confrontation. But this makes the story quite fascinating and if you connect with it you will probably want to watch it several times.

The film is structured as two parallel stories and what suspense there is stems from the viewers knowledge that the two stories will eventually intersect with each other, you just don't know how or when it will occur.

The strength of the film (besides its real life feel) is the characterization of the two robbers, played by David Soul and Michael Gross. Although their backgrounds are fragmentary, it appears that they bring out the worst in each other and their crime spree continues more for the adrenaline rush it provides. They begin to really get off on the violence and power, their crimes are almost random which tends to work in their favor as the investigation can find little logic or pattern behind their activities.

The film's weakness is the parallel story of the task force. This was a far cry from a cerebral Sherlock Holmes type investigation so you eagerly wait for them to cut back to Soul and Grace. The characterizations are generally shallow and weak so almost all viewers will end up identifying with the two criminals; even though they have a lot of mad dog qualities. Doug Sheehan is quite effective as the task force commander, but the Bruce Greenwood - Ronny Cox pairing (rookie and veteran) never really connects. Greenwood has gone on to do some amazing stuff under Atom Egoyan's direction, he obviously has far more talent than he shows in this role.

The violent climax is worth waiting for, although the violence is in real time, the confrontation has the slow-mo feel of a Sam Peckinpah production.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

If you love crime dramas,especially the one's based on true stories,then "The FBI Murders" is the film for you.Despite it's low-budget "Made-for-TV" trappings...I consider this to be just as powerful as the Al Pacino/Robert DeNiro thriller "Heat".

For those of you who don't remember, "In the line of duty" was a series of TV movies profiling the couragous and sometimes harrowing true tales of law enforcement officers and their bravery under fire.Over the years,the quality of these hard-hitting dramas have lost their luster...But the "FBI Murders" stands out as one of the best in the crime genre.

This particular movie centers on two Vietnam vets (David Soul and Michael Gross) who use their military training to pull off a string of violent,commando-style,bank and armored car robberies from the Fall of 1985 to the Spring of 1986 in Florida to support their families,mistresses,and lavish lifestyle after their series of hair-brained "get rich quick" schemes fall through.Their lightning-quick strikes and disappearances has left the police,and even the FBI's elite robbery task force,one fatal step behind.

Like the film "Heat",which I referenced earlier,the film focuses on the personal lives of the robbers and the agents.Michael Gross turns in a chilling character that is a far cry from his "sensitive dad" persona of "Family Ties".Gross's character is a scary psychopath who may or may not have been behind the brutal murder of his first wife and who is certainly abusive to his current wife and children despite his aura of Christian respectability.David Soul on the other hand is the opitamy of the "slow burning fuse".He's cold,calculating,and throughly dangerous.

On the FBI side,the focus is on the lead investigator in the robberies played by Ronny Cox.He's a straight arrow veteran who has no wife and kids...he's married to the FBI.What's worse is he's having to break in a hot-shot kid (Bruce Greenwood in an early role) as his new partner.The rest of the FBI unit is the picture of the "brotherhood of lawmen" cliche.They kid around with one another,they even have affectionate names and a few of them have interesting personal stories.For instance,when the head of the department (the actor's name escapes me, unfortunately) learns that a civilian who followed the bandits after one of their heists,traces the killers into the agent's neighborhood,the agent grow afraid that his family could end up victims and begins prowling the area for their getaway car.Another agent grapples with trying to make his young son understand that he doesn't go around getting into gunfights like the TV Cop Shows portray.

As the tension builds around these personal stories....the robbers are getting more and more desperate.And the agents are getting more and more determaned.And that climaxes into what has now been called one of the FBI's bloodiest shoot-outs.For high tension and high drama...this movie delivers.

I've been waiting for this to come out on dvd - sadly no major studio would release this tv-movie so we have no extras or remastered video quality, but what we do get isn't bad at all. Better that I could have from burning my original vhs tape that I recorded off tv when it originally aired, plus the commercials are gone and they didn't edit ANY of the gunfire/play out of it. For, make no mistake, this is one harrowing experience for a tv-movie. The final confrontation between these 2 sociopathic bankrobbers and the FBI agents is one of those "time stands still" moments that really stays with you once you've seen it. Highly recommended - grab this while it's still around - dvd's like this seem to dissappear quickly.
You'll never see Michael Gross and David Soul the same way again - they are THAT GOOD in this film as two criminals that have absolutely no remorse for their actions. All that play the FBI agents are excellent as well, plus Bruce Greenwood in a very early role. A classic crime film - that it was a tv-movie makes it even more of an oddity and statement of past American tv culture. Those times are long gone, folks.

The FBI blamed this tragedy on a single 9mm Silvertip bullet, that failed to immediately drop the rifle toting bad guy. They fail to mention, the bullet performed exactly as designed, and the wound was a mortal one.

Truth be known, it was very poor tactics that caused the single most deadly day in FBI history. It began with the agents failing to use good vehicle position when making a felony stop, and progressed to learning never just bring a handgun, when the bad guys have a military caliber rifle, with high-capacity magazines. David Soul plays the Ruger Mini-14 armed bank robber, and his acting is excellent. He truly is creepy, and lends a lot to the character.

In the end, the bravery of one badly wounded agent, saved the day. However, not before several were agents were killed, and the rest gravely injured.

This movie is a good police training tool, concerning an incident that every law enforcement officer has heard about. Unfortunately, it is one that shows what NOT to do, rather graphically.

I saw this movie when it first came on TV. Michael Gross gives a chilling performance, the best of the entire cast. It is based on an actual "case" and that lends credibility to the acting.

This was one of the CBS In the Line of Duty Series, I believe it was the first if I am not mistaken. It details the 1986 shootout between FBI Agents and two heavily armed bank robbers, which became known as the Miami Massacre.

All of the actors do a competent job in the rolls. The standout is Michael Gross, coming of his roll in Family Ties, does an outstanding job as William Mattox. This is one of Bruce Greenwoods early rolls and he does an ok job.

The movie glosses over the fact the most of the Agents were SWAT Team members and had better weapons than the armed robbers. But the weapons along with their heavy body armor was in their trunks. The final shootout is extremely accurate from the accounts I have read.

It was worth the $7.99 price I paid for it. Good movie, worth picking up.

An excellent addition to my movie library. The FBI Murders is an excellent depiction of this true, horrific event. Ronny Cox and a very young Bruce Greenwood are exceptional in their roles -- particularly Ronny Cox, a very under-appreciated character actor. But the true brillance is going against character: David Soul and Michael Gross (who makes you forget he ever placed Michael P. Keaton's father). These two guys are plain scary. One scene with Gross is downright bone chilling ... sitting at the table in the dark, telling his wife to leave.

You can't go wrong with this movie. It is truly outstanding.

Based on a true story, I saw this movie on TV many years ago and it was a good movie. David Soul played a great part in the movie I was very happy when I saw it was finally released on DVD. Highly Recommended.