Until pretty recently audiences haven’t really taken notice of Charles Burnett’s films post his debut Killer Of Sheep (1978). Luckily, some pretty decked out home video editions of his early nineties output has helped to change that. The Criterion Collection did a magnificent job with their release of To Sleep With Anger (1990) a few years ago (I maintain that this is Burnett’s real masterpiece). Around the same time, BFI put out a dual format special edition of The Glass Shield (1994).
The Glass Shield is very clearly drawing on the events in the early nineties surrounding Rodney King. This is Burnett looking towards the institutionalized racism in this country via the microcosmic arena of a suburban police precinct. The Glass Shield may function formally as a conspiracy thriller, but it has more to say about race politics than any contemporary prestige production.
Michael Boatman plays J.J., the “token Black man” and Lori Petty plays Deputy Fields the “token woman” on the force. These two characters serve as our guides and moral compasses. Though they are often at odds, their camaraderie and open exchange of ideas and values help illuminate various aspects of the conflicts within a social system based around oppression and victimization.
The world of The Glass Shield is tinged with visual cues from Film Noir. Against a backdrop of waning shadows and silhouettes J.J. navigates his portion of an infrastructure designed to marginalize him. It’s a bold stylistic choice that grounds Burnett’s messaging in the milieu of a genre picture.
Even in scenes where the dialogue or the action lays on Burnett’s political agenda pretty thick, The Glass Shield manages to get by purely on the earnestness of the filmmakers’ convictions. Add to that the fact that Burnett always imbues the most archetypal characters with something genuine, yet somehow elusive, and you’re left with a highly engaging drama.
The Glass Shield isn’t Burnett’s best picture, but it may just be his most accessible. By comparison with films like Dark Blue (2002), The Glass Shield feels almost contemporary. It is a good place to start getting acquainted with one of the greatest American filmmakers of our time.
