Anyways, I was going to tell you to get ready for balls-to-the-wall action. But that's really not what this movie is about. In End of Watch, we get a front row view of the lives of police officers in the most dangerous and crime-filled section of Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena are two partners, brothers bound together by the uniform and the job.
Netflix: Sir, yes sir
Pick: Skid Mark
Dylan: This movie was not what I expected.
Mark: I know exactly what you mean. I came into this assuming I was gonna get an action-packed police drama with some handheld camera angles to try and make it overly realistic. Damn, I was wrong. I mean, I was right, but it did everything in such a way I did not expect.
Dylan: Well before I give you the wrong idea, let me just say that I don’t think I liked it. First of all, the camcorder gimmick was such a waste. Jake Gyllenhaal’s character Taylor turns on the camera and says how he is doing a law school project or something and that he and his partner are going to be wearing little cameras during their shift. So okay, for a while we see things through these cameras. For about half a second. And then we go right to additional cameras, taking away the documentary feel and making the shaky cam just feel cheap. And it irritated me that the handhelds kept making useless appearances, mainly so someone else could say "put that camera away". The project was never mentioned again. In fact, the amount of stuff happening in his life would indicate that a couple years has gone by. Or at the very very least, several months. I don't think there even was a law school.
Mark: Oh goody, another movie we’re at odds about. Mostly. For me this is the first film using camcorders that I didn’t think was completely useless. I do agree that it switches when things are convenient for the film. Those times are usually when things get insanely intense and believing that they have a camcorder or even using the cameras on their chests is just impossible. However, since everyone is using cameras, I mean, Taylor and Mike as well as the different gangs all use cameras for some reason, it helps to keep things somewhat consistent. The thing is, the other cameras, such as the ones in the cruiser, are just switching to the dash cameras that cop cars usually have, so I never felt that they left the core idea of handheld. So it did just try to add shaky realism to the more crazy moments, but on the whole, I thought it worked rather well. At least for what they were going for.
My biggest complaint comes with the (lack of) concept of time, like you said. There is absolutely no sense of time throughout this movie. It jumps throughout the movie, and big moment in their lives seem to come, but one would assume these would take months at the very least. But we have no idea. Could be months. Could be years. No idea. That being said, it didn’t take anything away from my overall engagement or enjoyment through the movie, but I did notice it a lot.
Dylan: I'd like to quote you: "for some reason". It could have just been a shaky-cam movie. But all the camcorders were there...for some reason.
My other complaint(s) is how unbelievable the story is and how underwhelming the bad guys turn out to be. The gist, ladies and gentlemen at home, is that some Mexican cartel has moved up to the block our two heroes patrol, and are shaking things up. And it irritates me that, even while explaining how boring and repetitive their job can be, they miraculously fall into the more exciting and wild scenarios. Human trafficking, shootouts, torture/murder cellars, etc; all, apparently, on the one block that they patrol. And then the bad guys, who we see a few times but don’t really care about, come out at the last minute with a special order to kill our two cops. I mean, we knew it was coming. But it all happened in the last fifteen minutes and wasn't very thrilling, in my opinion.
Mark: While I agree that the things they get themselves into seem to escalate over time to a degree that seems a tad ridiculous, I never thought it wasn’t thrilling. Then again, I don’t think thrilling is the word I would use. To me, it was engaging throughout. Yes, the bad guys were almost completely underdeveloped, but I think that just goes with how uncontrollable and unexpected this area of LA can be. We see them do a driveby at the beginning, and as you listen to them, you realize they’re working for a higher power. That power being the cartel. And for the majority of the film, this little bit of information isn’t fleshed out, not until the third act.
Now, concerning our heroes’ alarming tendency to find themselves in more and more crazy situations, really only one of them felt completely plot convenient, and that was when a house they happened to visit for one reason turned out to be something impossibly more sinister. Other than that, this area in LA is realistically this fucking nuts. So I didn’t feel like it was out of the realm of reality for them to find themselves in these situations. In fact, there were several moments that hammered in for me how realistic they took the police procedures. I had to look up what four fingers meant when Taylor showed them to the other cops and the helicopter. This and so many other things like that helped make the film more interesting for me.
Dylan: Alright, how bout I put it this way: what frustrated me was how it went to great lengths to show the realism, but then oh-so-slightly pushed the boundaries of believability. And, I don’t know, with this kind of movie, I either want complete realism or complete absurdity. But hey, that’s coming from a guy who has seen -- nay, experienced -- a little show called The Wire. But let’s talk about the one redeemable quality of this flick: Anna Kendrick.
Mark: Ok, I can understand that. It does push the boundaries of realism with some of the things that happen to them, but I feel like it never gets so far away from realism that it becomes a problem. And I totally agree that Anna Kendrick was really good throughout, I also thought that Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena were also great.
Dylan: Well I’m just saying that Anna Kendrick is adorable. As for her character, it seemed like in each consecutive scene she just progressed from girlfriend to wife to mother and that was it. But I enjoyed seeing her on screen once in a while.
Okay, I have one more complaint. And that’s the dialogue. There are certain movies where slang and banter can really emphasize the close bond between two people. But here I felt like I just wanted to see them doing cop stuff. Every time they were in the car cracking jokes and talking about women I just felt like I didn’t care. I guess it just serves to make them genuine, relatable people, but I never really cared enough to get into their chit chat.
I promise, after this, I’ll say some good things.
Mark: I honestly did not think this would divide us as much as it is. I found their dialogue and banter in the car one of the better aspects of the movie. I thought it did a great job characterizing them, defining them, through their jokes and conversations. We got a sense of what their beliefs are, how they see life and what they want from it. How they view the department and how they view their work. I thought all this was engrossing and did a great job making me care about the characters more. You really got a sense that these two have been together for a long time. And we’ve been able to have a look into their lives.
The last twenty minutes -- the action-packed, tense chase shootout and whatnot -- would not have been all that entertaining without all that time spent with these two. That’s just me. Now, be nice. Or whatever your definition of nice is.
Dylan: Okay, so I complained earlier about the gimmicky handheld thing. But really what I meant to criticize was the fact that we needed a reason for the handhelds; Taylor’s project or whatever. I do agree that the shaky cam style was used correctly, for once; it didn't make you dizzy and it wasn't used as an excuse to pull you out of the action. It went perfectly with the hyper action sequences. I just don’t think we needed them to explain why they had cameras, if five minutes in, there were other cameras there two.
And so yea, I thought all of the drama and action, while conveniently coincidental, was pretty exciting and intriguing. When things actually happened, they got pretty tense.
There, I was nice. Don’t make me do anymore. It hurts.
Mark: True, they didn’t really need to explain it, but I guess it just goes with David Ayer’s need for realism that it’d make it more so if the camera was involved as well. Hell, I’m forever a believer that handheld/shaky cam can be just gotten rid of altogether, but this is one of the few times when it works.
I really liked this movie, if you couldn’t tell. For me, great characters, intense action, great world building in a sense, which all came together to give me a movie I did not think would be as engaging as I was.
Dylan: I wish it had less focus on the main protagonists and their love for each other, and more on the department as a whole. We got some glimpses of the other cops, but not nearly to the same extent as Gyllenhaal and Pena. But Van Hauser had a few interesting lines to hint at the shit he's been through, and at the wedding, the Sarge was giving this heart-wrenching alcohol-induced speech that we only heard a brief snippet of. I guess the point is that they’re all cops with interesting stories, but we’re only here to focus on two.
Honestly, if I wasn’t scrutinizing the shit out of this movie for the purpose of this blog, I may have enjoyed it more. I think it probably belongs on the drunken movie list, which is not to say that it’s bad, but that I had some trouble taking it seriously. And the more it tried to take itself seriously, the more I drifted away from it.
Mark: If this movie gave as much characterization to the whole department as it did for the leads, I think this movie would vault to one of the best. I agree, we get a glimpse of it. When we see the other cop duo, the two women, we get a interesting look at who they are and the things they’ve gotten into. But not a lot, same with the Sarge, who for as little as he’s characterized, I really liked. If this actually had a defined plot and more time, it could have done that. For now, what it is is just fine. Really good actually.
Dylan: Agreed. It’s on Netflix. Go watch it. Trivia time?
Mark: Sure, why not. Since this movie is all about the realism, what do you think Gyllenhaal and Pena went through to prepare for their parts?
Dylan: Gyllenhaal’s character was supposed to be a Marine at some point, right? So I would assume they both went through police training, or maybe military.
Mark: Well yes, but to be more specific, for a period of five months, they rode on twelve hour shifts with the LAPD for three days a week. And the first shift that Gyllenhaal went out on, he witnessed a murder. So, yeah, they had a bit of preparation for this.
Dylan: A few 12-hour Grand Theft Auto binges probably would have been cheaper and safer, but hey, when in LA, do as the Los Angelenos do, which, having seen Drive, I assume consists primarily of murder, drug use, and movie-making.
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You know, for a blog about toilet paper arts and crafts, we sure do go on and on about movies. I apologize on behalf of Mark and myself for disagreeing about some of these films. Now you are sitting at home, with Netflix up, trying to decide whether or not to click play. Or, more aptly, you're probably scrambling for the 'close' button in the corner because god knows you never meant to open this blog in the first place. The real mystery is why you read all the way down to this point before figuring that out.
Our next film will be...well, we're not sure yet. But I can assure you that it will indeed be a movie, so that ought to narrow it down. "Au revoir, Shoshanna."
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