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The Pledge

The movie The Pledge was based on the book The Pledge.

Which one did you like better, the movie or the book?  There are 4 votes for the book, and 5 votes for the movie.

Movie details for The Pledge

The movie was released in 2001 and directed by Sean Penn. The Pledge was produced by Warner Home Video. More information on the movie is available on Amazon.com and also IMDb.

Actors on this movie include Patricia Clarkson, Benicio Del Toro, Dale Dickey, Wendy Donaldson, Adrien Dorval, Aaron Eckhart, Shawn Henter, Kathy Jensen, Taryn Knowles, Nels Lennarson, Costas Mandylor, J.J. McColl, Gordon May, Gardiner Millar, Helen Mirren, Adam Nelson, Jack Nicholson, Tom Noonan, Michael O'Keefe and Tony Parsons.

 

Read More About This Movie

Jack Nicholson is detective Jerry Black, a respected and well-liked veteran of the Reno police force retiring to a life of angling with more than a little apprehension. Thus he jumps into a murder case, the slaying of a little girl, a mere six hours from ... Read More
Jack Nicholson is detective Jerry Black, a respected and well-liked veteran of the Reno police force retiring to a life of angling with more than a little apprehension. Thus he jumps into a murder case, the slaying of a little girl, a mere six hours from retirement and makes a promise to the grieving mother to catch the killer. As his partner (an effectively abrasive Aaron Eckhart) squeezes a confession out of the severely mentally handicapped suspect (a thoroughly unsettling performance by Benicio Del Toro), Jerry is convinced that they've got the wrong man.

As in Sean Penn's previous work, this is an actors' piece. Nicholson plays Jerry with restlessness under his easy-going, smiling calm; his patient fisherman's heart leaps at every nibble while he casts for a murder suspect. And Del Toro, Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave, and Mickey Rourke make striking impressions in their single-scene appearances. Penn is less concerned with the mystery than the emotional turmoil and Jerry's state of mind, interrupting moments of calm with jagged cuts and discomforting images (including some especially disturbing crime scene photos). Jerry's instincts and methods are sound and his sensitivity is real--he takes in a battered single mom (Robin Wright Penn) and her little girl, and develops a rewarding family life--but his passion for justice turns to unhealthy, destructive obsession. That's ultimately what we're left with at the conclusion of this often off-putting but ultimately fascinating film. The truth will not always set you free. --Sean Axmaker

Book details for The Pledge

The Pledge was written by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The book was published in 1959 by Avon. More information on the book is available on Amazon.com.

Read More About This Book

"The creative art of detective storywriting that began with Edgar Allen Poe has attained a high point of development in the present work . . .THE PLEDGE is good, fast, and rather weird reading."~BALTIMORE SUN
"The creative art of detective storywriting that began with Edgar Allen Poe has attained a high point of development in the present work . . .THE PLEDGE is good, fast, and rather weird reading."~BALTIMORE SUN