The Big Easy - New Orleans Police Thriller
The Big Easy - New Orleans Police Thriller
He was great as the police lieutenant in New Orleans - the "Big Easy."
Thanks to Hurricane Katrina, it now has some historical value as recording a way of life washed away and which, also, helps to explain what happened.
It's a romance and thriller that centers around the theme of police corruption, but not in the simplistic way of Serpico. It portrays how good policemen are treated to meals by local businesses as a way of rewarding and appreciating protection.
As a local Cajun Irish boy, Remy is one of the local community and, as he says, they have a certain way of doing things. It's not new or confined to New Orleans. The police have always enforced the law selectively. Sometimes not arresting a young kid but giving him another chance is just the human, common sense thing to do. Sometimes it's about keeping the current social order. Sometimes it's about receiving a payoff from someone who belongs in jail.
Quaid meets Ellen Barkin, in probably her sexiest performance, who's from the state district attorney's office investigating police corruption, and of course they fall in love despite their differences.
Their first date is funny. He takes her to a famous New Orleans restaurant Tipitina's, where the owner at first refuses to give Remy a check. So Quaid has to introduce him to Ellen Barkin "from the DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S office."
Of course she's not fooled, and soon Remy is up on charges, which he escapes because the other police back him up. She's outraged, but he has her brought to a Cajun dance to be his date there. She's angry, but still captivated by the sense of community, which she doesn't have in her world. They eventually marry.
There are no easy answers. Our sense of law and order and equal treatment under the law mandate the police enforce the law the same for everybody, but they are humans, not robots. They enforce the law selectively, or almost everybody would be in jail.
Yet if the community judges them as totally corrupt in conflict with the community, that can lead to many problems. During Katrina, New Orleans police reportedly joined looters or simply fled the city. One Katrina refugee told me they were corrupt. He had no use for the police, and it's evident they could not help maintain law and order in the 9th district because they were not accepted.
I don't know the final answer. In many countries the police are nearly as dangerous as the criminals. In many ways, because they're wearing the badge, they're more dangerous. Yet if they weren't around, the criminals would be running the show entirely in their own interests, without even a cursory attempt to protect the innocent. I once met a man from Hong Kong who told me how his parents always told him, "If you want to be a good man, don't join the police."
But it does remind me of how, in Timothy Mo's novel Sour Sweet, the Chinese triad members in England refer to all government employees -- even a mailman -- as the "official" criminals.
Next: Learn how to survive no matter what on freeze dried foods and eat well with freeze dried camping foods.
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