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Regency Enterprises
Not part of a collection.
When the questions are dangerous, the answers can be deadly.
A young district attorney seeking to prove a case against a corrupt police detective encounters a former lover and her new protector, a crime boss who refuses to help him.
tmdb28039023
Sep 10, 2022 · via TMDB
Q & A is the third entry in Sidney Lumet’s loose trilogy about NYPD corruption, and by far the most pessimistic. While Al Pacino and Treat Williams are given an admittedly tough choice in Serpico and Prince of the City, here Timothy Hutton comes to learn that one man can’t make a difference after all. The ending is as frustrating to the viewers as it is to he hero, because we find out that the character’s hands were tied all along; instead of going over people’s heads and behind their backs, Al Reilly (Hutton) might as well have played ball from the get-go, which would have at least had the consolation that a low fewer people would have died in the process. In Serpico and Prince of the City, Lumet addressed corruption as a problem that one had to have the balls to attack head-on; in Q & A he seems to have given up, as if saying: "this is the way things are and there is nothing anyone can do about it" — and you know what they say about being part of the problem if you’re not part of the solution. The film is not without its pleasures, though; not surprising considering the people involved. Nick Nolte is the original Bad Lieutenant (he has two great back-to-back scenes in which he tells a scatological anecdote to the same people he is about to relate his official account of an incident wherein he shot a Puertorrican kid to death. In both instances he has the audience — his and the movie’s — eating out of the palm of his hand; needless to say, the shooting is ruled as self-defense), while Armand Assante is a precursor to Pacino’s Carlo Brigante (both Q & A and Carlito's Way are based on novels by former New York State Supreme Court Justice and author of Puerto Rican descent Edwin Torres).
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Nick Nolte
Mike Brennan
Timothy Hutton
Al Reilly
Armand Assante
Bobby Texador
Patrick O'Neal
Kevin Quinn
Lee Richardson
Leo Bloomenfeld
Luis Guzmán
Luis Valentin
Charles S. Dutton
Sam Chapman
Jenny Lumet
Nancy Bosch
Paul Calderon
Roger Montalvo
Dominic Chianese
Larry Pesch
Leonardo Cimino
Nick Petrone
Fyvush Finkel
Preston Pearlstein
Thomas Mikal Ford
Lubin
John Capodice
Hank Mastroangelo
Frederick Rolf
District Attorney
Gloria Irizarry
Mrs. Bosch
Victor Colicchio
"After Hours" Alvarado
Anibal O. Lleras
"After Hours" Patron
Olga Merediz
Mrs. Valentin
Edward Rowan
Ed
José Alvarez
Nightclub Dancer (uncredited)
G.W. Bailey
Bartender (uncredited)
Janis Corsair
TWA Supervisor (uncredited)
David Hummel
Police Officer (uncredited)
Vincent Pastore
Man Sitting in Bar (uncredited)
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Director of Photography
Ann Roth
Costume Design
Neil Spisak
Costume Design
Sidney Lumet
Director
Miguel Arteta
Location Assistant
Arnon Milchan
Producer
Rubén Blades
Original Music Composer
Sidney Lumet
Screenplay
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Stripper Wives
1999
Sally's Beauty Spot
1990
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Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
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