'Narc' pulls the big guns on DVD

"Narc" is one of the best cop flicks I have ever seen. As such, it went woefully ignored during its all-too-brief theatrical run this past winter. Now that the film is available on a jam-packed DVD, it'd be a crime for any cineaste worth his or her salt to miss it.\n The movie kicks off in jolting Grand Guignol-fashion with Nick Tellis (Jason Patric) pursuing a violently drug-addled perp via foot. Eventually, the chase escalates towards tragic violence. In lieu of the bloodshed, Tellis is stripped of his badge, and what remains is the drug-induced shell of a former narcotics officer. Flash forward a year: another narc is killed. Tellis is commissioned to rejoin the force alongside the slain man's disgruntled partner, Henry Oak (Ray Liotta). Together, these scruffy, hard-edged Detroit cops break protocol and all else in bringing the killer(s) to justice.\n What reads as a third-string plotline to some retread cop show pilot, unfurls as something much deeper. "Narc" is a meditation on ethics, love, racism and other weighty issues. The flick also boasts the finest performances of either Patric or Liotta's already impressive careers. This mark of quality extends well beyond the film itself. \n The DVD is loaded with cool, informative special features. Writer/director Joe Carnahan and his skillful editor, John Gilroy, team-up for a surprisingly light and funny commentary track given the movie's dark nature. Additionally, there's a collection of short yet interesting documentaries aptly titled "Making the Deal," "Shooting Up" and "The Visual Trip." Though, my favorite is entitled "The Friedkin Connection," in which prolific '70s auteur William Friedkin praises and draws parallels between "Narc" and his own seminal cop flicks i.e. "The French Connection" and "To Live and Die in L.A."\n "Narc" is a film that both embraces and subverts its well-worn genre conventions. Fans of police yarns such as Friedkin's aforementioned flicks, as well as "Serpico," "Heat," "L.A. Confidential" or TV's "The Shield," would be well-advised to seek out this arresting piece of cinema.