The use of violence only begets more violence. That's what Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) discovers as he investigates the death of four police officers in a drug bust gone wrong. Unfortunately, and the audience gets that in the first twenty minutes, that investigation will put him in a direct confrontation with his brother-in-law, Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell), who is well-respected. Pride and Glory inspects the space where truth, justice and family collide.

When I first saw the movie, I saw it as a whodunit (even though the audience already knows what's going on) and a battle in family dynamics. The second time through, I see the moments where good men go wrong, where power corrupts, and the choices you make splinter out into the lives of those around you. Gavin O'Connor, director and co-screenwriter, is the son of a NYPD police officer, so his display of what it means to be a cop, and what it means to exist in the family of cops, must have some validity to it, right?

I'm sure that the real-life counterparts of Ray Tierney, his older brother, Franny (Noah Emmerich), and his father, Francis (Jon Voight), the Chief of Detectives, all bear the scars of past cases and past hurts. Ray has obviously covered up corruption in the department in the past to protect other cops from getting hurt, so why can't he do it this time when it involves family? Franny has seen the gradual decline of his wife, Abby (Jennifer Ehle), to cancer, while he watches his brother-in-law, Jimmy, corrupt the whole department. Francis has become so jaded that he longs to have the good guys win and the bad guys lose no mater what the cost is.

All of them love their families, work hard to provide for them, and do anything to protect them that they can. But their hearts have grown cold to the violence they perpetuate, until they can't see how their brand of justice is in fact threatening to tear their family apart. Don't some sins result when a good thing gets taken to such excess that it goes bad?

While we're bound to see the drug dealers as "evil-er," Angel Tezo and Eladio Casado (Ramon Rodriguez and Rick Gonzalez) have families and peddle the drugs and violence they provide to take care of their families. But the drugs each side does, whether it's illicit or alcohol, to numb the pain of what they've done can't block out the ghosts of the past or the reminders of how far they've fallen from who they once wanted to be.

While Ray pushes through toward the truth, the film ratchets up the tension and you know that some explosive end is the only resolution. While most of Jimmy's crew ends up dead, it's Jimmy's choice that will take your breath away. It's unavoidable to see that, regardless of how many times you see the movie or how you interpret it. I tried to see it another way, as giving up or giving in, but it always boils down to a lost soul who makes a choice to be saved, who chooses to be redeemed at the strike of midnight.

I did find a certain amount of humor, some old school hoo-rah, in the bar in the moment before the last, as Jimmy and Ray do their thing. While hearts have been broken, this is still an exercise in stereotypical "guys working things out" and the Irish jaunt in the background lends it some style, as Christmas lights crackle while punches land. It's been an entertaining ride throughout, but it's much more serious than you might expect from a cop flick... til you realize that Norton never makes throwaway art.

What we're left with in the end is a challenge to look in the mirror. What sins are we condoning for the "right reasons?" How have our pure motives been corrupted by the darkness of the world that threatens our hearts? Have we let sin overcome the beings created in the image of God? The answer is yes. Thanks be to God, we have a savior, Jesus, who showed us the way, who sets the example for Jimmy to be a "Christ-figure," who walked the way of death in our place, so that we can be free from sin. Pride goes before the fall, but the Glory of God lasts forever.