Brooklyn’s Finest Trailer Kicks All Kinds of Butt | Clothes on Film

4 Dec ’09 Filed under News. Tagged Antoine Fuqua, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, flat cap, gangsters, Juliet Polcsa, leather, Richard Gere, sportswear, Wesley Snipes. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment. Leave a Trackback (URL).

Check out the trailer HERE

A thumping good trailer for Brooklyn’s Finest starring Richard Gere and Don Cheadle has hit town. Write this off as ’just another cop drama’ at your peril.

Straightaway there are overtones of influential nineties crime thriller New Jack City (1990) with branded sportswear, expensive loose fit shirts, 1920s-30’s style hats and heavy bling.

Plus note how leather is used to signify the dark side of human nature. Don Cheadle, playing a cop who has been undercover too long and journeyed too deep, in an omnipresent leather flat cap; also when Ethan Hawke’s financially burdened officer ‘goes bad’ he dons a black leather blazer. This sort of textural identification harks back to Death Vader in popular cinematic culture. Men in leather, especially black, are men on the dark side.

However, aside from the obvious parallels, Cheadle’s style is quite rightly decades removed from New Jack City’s Nino Brown (a young Wesley Snipes). His preppy white shirts and Ralph Lauren polos are indicative of the relaxed American style revival. He is, after all, pursuing the American dream one way or another. Yet evidently logos still matter. It is important to wear your money in the drug business.

Of course that is also Wesley Snipes appearing in the trailer alongside Cheadle – dressed in Fila – even if you might have struggled to recognise the now 47 year old. We’re sure the New Jack connection has not entirely escaped him either.

Juliet Polcsa, once upon a time costume designer on The Sopranos, knows a thing of two about gangster style, whether it’s gaudy satin shirts worn by fat Italian mobsters or here, with criminals on a mish-mash designer trip with cops dressed by Target and The Gap.

Out of uniform, Richard Gere is totally dressed down in this trailer. It is refreshing that he is not afraid to appear a little out of shape either. His drab khakis and cotton zippers are dead ringers for an off duty TJ Hooker.

Though don’t expect much in the way of laughs with Brooklyn’s Finest; this is serious police business.

And it is not like you need to be told ‘from the director of Training Day’. Antoine Fuqua is a signature filmmaker, the signs are all there: gritty 3 boroughs locations, good cops, bad cops, grey cops, bad guys at a crossroads – basically borderline burnout characters on their way south.

Judging by this snippet, Brooklyn’s Finest looks to be most promising (as early chatter seems to confirm). We can all find out for ourselves come 5th March 2010 (U.S).