Although somewhat eclipsed by 2012 winter released Hollywood blockbusters such as The Hobbit, Django Unchained, and Les Miserables, David Ayer’s End of Watch is a fast-paced, quick-witted police drama that has received a great deal of praise in the film festival circuit around the world. The film’s main stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Jarhead) and Michael Peña (Crash, The Lincoln Lawyer) both deliver critically acclaimed performances. They present a relationship between two young LAPD partnered police officers in South Central that is not only believable, but displays a bond created by shared bravery through traumatic experiences that leaves the audience very emotionally invested in these two dynamic characters. The documentary style of the film makes you feel as if you are in the squad car right alongside these officers, witnessing the action and feeling the intensity as it happens. We’re accustomed to seeing the generic police drama from a more detached place. They are glamorized as unshakable heroes who glimmer through their sweat and deliver momentous one-liners that are none too subtle in their attempts to tell us, “These are the good guys.” However, Ayer’s film brings a new perspective to the cop drama, one that shows us that the protectors of our streets are far from invincible.
Far from the crime-ridden streets of South Central, writer and director David Ayer used to be a native of our own Champaign, Illinois. Credited with such films as Training Day, The Fast and the Furious, and Harsh Times, it is clear that the common themes running through his films are not exactly for the faint of heart. However, in End of Watch we see more than just gritty violence embellished with endless profanities. The chemistry between Gyllenhaal’s Taylor and Peña’s Zavala can best be described as ‘bromantic’ if anything else. As Taylor documents their daily lives as cops on his digital camera, we see the two partners crack dirty jokes in the squad car, play pranks on other officers in the station, and even share feelings about love and marriage toward their respective love interests, played by Anna Kendrick (Twilight, Up in the Air) and Natalie Martinez (Death Race, CSI: NY). Overall, these elements of the film work to depict cops as not just flat figures of law enforcement that are to be blindly followed, mocked, or despised like they so often are. They are men and women with ordinary lives, hobbies, families, and friends. This is expressed quite plainly and perfectly in the opening line that Gyllenhaal’s character narrates: “Behind my badge is a heart like yours. I bleed, I think, I love, and yes I can be killed. And although I am but one man, I have thousands of brothers and sisters who are the same as me.”
With non-stop, highly vivid suspense and action sequences and a poignant ending that will surely leave anyone watching moved, End of Watch is a complex film that has something to offer to anyone who wants to watch and enjoy the ride. A ride in a squad car through South Central, that is.