The Glass Shield (The Johnny Johnson Trial) (1994)
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64% of critics liked it
(22 reviews) -
42% of users liked it
(1,150 ratings)
In this crime drama, an honest lawman has to decide where his loyalties lie in a corrupt system. All his life, J.J. (Michael Boatman) has dreamed of being a cop, and after graduating from the Police Academy, he gets his wish, becoming the first African-American policeman based out of Los… More In this crime drama, an honest lawman has to decide where his loyalties lie in a corrupt system. All his life, J.J. (Michael Boatman) has dreamed of being a cop, and after graduating from the Police Academy, he gets his wish, becoming the first African-American policeman based out of Los Angeles' Edgemar station. However, J.J. discovers that his race makes him an outsider among his fellow officers. His presence is not welcomed by his superior, Massey (Richard Anderson), and the only colleague who is truly hospitable to him is Deborah (Lori Petty), the only female cop at Edgemar and the target of as much abuse as J.J. Hoping to somehow fit in, J.J. digs into his work and tries to be "just one of the guys," ignoring the racism and corruption around him. However, one night J.J.'s fellow officer Bono (Don Harvey) pulls over Teddy Woods (Ice Cube), an arrogant and uncommunicative young black man, and in the midst of an illegal search of his car, he finds a gun; even though he knows that Bono acted improperly, J.J. put his loyalty behind the force and lies to support Bono's story. The gun's serial number matches that of a weapon used to murder the wife of Mr. Greenspan (Elliott Gould), a prominent Jewish businessman, and Woods is charged with the killing. However, J.J. discovers that the number of the gun had been altered, and he has to decide what to do when he realizes that Teddy could be sentenced to death without having committed a serious crime. The Glass Shield also features Bernie Casey, Sy Richardson, and M. Emmet Walsh. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Charles Burnett
- Written By
- Charles Burnett
- Genres
- Drama, Action & Adventure
PG-13,
- In Theaters
- Dec 31, 1994 Wide
- On DVD
- Feb 5, 2002
- Studio
- Miramax
Critic Reviews
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Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Ambition is something to respect in an artist, but Charles Burnett's police-corruption drama The Glass Shield is such a maladroit piece of filmmaking that its weighty themes and sclerotic tangle of a plot end up making it a trial to sit through.
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Todd McCarthy, Variety
A powerful moral drama that tries to deal with the racism at the root of many problems in contempo American society.
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, Time Out
The movie feels sketchy, as if Burnett chopped the flesh off his screenplay and left us only the bare bones.
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Peter Rainer, Los Angeles Times
It's a rigorous, angry piece of work, but it misses out on the psychological depths that have made Burnett's previous films among the glories of recent American independent moviemaking.
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Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
An implausible, wearisome clunker trying to ring true but making only dull thuds.
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Cast
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Michael Boatman
as J.J.
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Lori Petty
as Deborah
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Ice Cube
as Teddy Woods
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Michael Ironside
as Baker
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Richard Anderson
as Massey
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Elliott Gould
as Greenspan
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Bernie Casey
as Locket
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M. Emmet Walsh
as Hal
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Don Harvey
as Bono
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Sy Richardson
as Mr. Taylor
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Natalia Nogulich
as Judge Helen Lewis
- Wanda De Jesus
- Victoria Dillard
- Biff Yeager
