The Glass Shield (Charles Burnett)

Rating: 2.0

Charles Burnett is an important and underrated director, so I'm dismayed 
to say that I found his latest film immensely disappointing.  THE GLASS 
SHIELD has a few provocative ideas, and there are scenes, here and there, 
that suggest the complex, incisive movie this could have been.  But most 
of the script is formulaic hogwash, and Michael Boatman's protagonist is 
so impossibly naive that one sometimes wonders on which planet he was 
raised.  The evil, racist, sexist, anti-Semitic cops lack only handlebar 
moustaches and sinister black capes.  None of the subtlety Burnett 
displayed in TO SLEEP WITH ANGER is evident here, sadly (especially not 
in Lori Petty's shrill, grating performance as Boatman's only friend on 
the force).  Great opening credit sequence, though.