Dark masterpiece

Agreed. Rediscovered this dark masterpiece a few years ago when it started making the rounds on cable again. Whereas when I first saw it I didn't appreciate all the mind games at work and just thought of it as this somewhat artsy dirty cop movie, this time around Richard Gere really scared me. His Dennis Peck is this force of darkness capable of corrupting anyone by subtly needling their weaknesses. That kind of evil is very real in the world. Real because it is next to impossible to expose. Always a step ahead. Always working the scenario. Always above reproach.

I liked it when I first saw it and watched it many times throughout the 90's. Didn't watch it for a long time until today and I forgot how much I liked it. I think it's a great show, I feel the same way about Black Rain.

I thought this was a brilliant movie 26 years ago when I saw it in the theaters. It was sold as being more action packed than it actually was. It's more of a psychological thriller than anything. But it is a very dark and scary look at complex characters who do the things that are right and wrong. Raymond and Dennis were flip sides of the same coin. One was doing the right thing and the other one wasn't. They both had their reasons, but they got under each other's skin because they were basically very similar people. You see this complexity because of the brilliant writing. There are not straight lines, or plain black and white. There is a whole lot of shades of grey and that is Internal Affairs brilliance. By the end of the movie you see these characters in a different light. Yes, there is a bad guy and a good guy, but you see them not as traditional one dimentional characters. You see them as people who have chosen to do the right thing or the wrong thing for reasons all their own.

I love this film and it is my favourite Richard Gere film. I was about 12 when I saw it at the cinema and it left a lasting appreciation of corrupt cop films.

The one thing I always wished this film had was an instrumental soundtrack available which included that incredibly emotional synthesizer piece from the nightclub dream sequence and a proper long car chase.