Movie Moles, Joe Clement and Frann Michel, review the 1994 Charles Burnett film The Glass Shield. Jonny Johnson, played by Michael Boatman, is an idealistic rookie assigned to an all white LA County Sheriff's office as its first black officer. JJ, as he's called, befriends another officer who is like him at odds with the in-group: Deborah Fields played by Lori Petty. Together they investigate suspicions they have of a cover-up within the ranks of the station that pull them into a deeper network of corruption.
Joe and Frann consider how off-screen plot development as an advantage for portraying racism, in-group out-group dynamics, patriarchy, intersecting oppressions/privilege and resistences, de-romanticizing police action narratives, and questions the film may raise about policing in general.
- KBOO