The Gang in Blue

Some thoughts I didn't complete for the End of Watch review.

JG's character, in the voiceover narration at the beginning of the movie, talks about him and his partner being part of the thin blue line that protects the rest of society from criminals. What if we abstract from their status with respect to the law and just look at the "sociology" of the two groups. Could a comparison be made using the movie between the gang-bangers and the police officers, two different sort of fraternities or tribes? Some libertarians and anarchists look at law enforcement as just another armed gang which is sanctioned to use violence against others. For now I still think the division between the two is as clear as that between black and white, but will things change if the state begins to collapse?

As I said in the review, the movie may be too close to reality in its depiction of people's characters and the state or our morals. Rather than vicariously experiencing the friendship of the two police officers, would it not be better for us use the time to actually form and deepen friendships with other men? Women may enjoy the film because they yearn for that sort of manliness, but how many of them would tolerate it in their own lives or in society at large?


*spoiler warning*


I thought of the car chase that starts the movie - it ends with the shooting of the two gang members drawing pistols on the the two main characters and they are shot and killed. Is this a foreshadowing of what happens later? "Live by the gun, die by the gun."