Cheap Badge (Video) (Robby Henson) Price

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Customer Reviews of Badge

TV movie that doesn't match the leads
Billy Bob Thornton is Darl Hardwick, a morally bankrupt sheriff of the small Louisiana town of Lassale. Though the town isn't that much likeable on first sight (sure it's pretty, but its leaders are good-ole boy types, and the rest of the population run the gamut of amoral or extremist fundamentalist) but Hardwick seems to stand-out. Incompetent, and on the verge of getting tossed out of office, Hardwick finds himself the only person capable of cracking a beguiling case of murder. When the victim is found not to be a beautiful woman but a shockingly deceptive trans-sexual, the case becomes known as "the freak" and is quickly filed away with little expectation that anyone will bother to solve it. Unfortunately for everybody, the murder occurs during election season - when everybody from the Governor to Darl will be campaigning for their political lives. Because elections tend to bring out the hidden trash of the past term, Darl finds himself facing attack from different quarters - for stealing shoes from a truck involved in a vehicular accident, for having an affair with the wife of one of his deputies, for an outburst at the Governor. When Darl finds himself in danger of losing the local party's endorsement for Sheriff, he becomes driven to solve "The Freak". Instead he's "set up" on statutory rape charges (Darl's wanton ways make him an easy mark) and loses his job. Obsessed with the idea that solving "The Freak" will restore his job, Darl pursues leads that will take him to New Orleans, to the victim's "wife" (Patty Arquette) and the gay brother Darl ran out of Lasalle many years ago.

This was a good flick, but despite the talent it never goes further than being a TV movie, something for Lifetime. Though "The Badge" is a mystery, Darl's story soon takes over the main focus of the flick - Darl's shady connections, his crazy father (a former sheriff who drove Darl's mother to suicide) his tenuous relationship with his deputies, the judges (the chief being a shady character played by William Devane), his politically connected ex (Sela Ward) and just about everybody else. By then, the mystery only has a secondary role (to save Darl's career), and anyway, you'll be able to solve it by then. Still, Darl's a character you can't quite stay away from, and Thornton brings out some pathos in a guy who inflicts suffering on others, but no more than on himself.

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Thought provoking theme but a but a bit oversimplified.
Billy Bob Thornton stars in this this 2002 TV movie that is now available on DVD. He's cast as a sheriff in a small Louisiana town and he has lots of personal problems. It seems that a woman is found dead. But when the coroner examines her, he discovers it's really a man. Now the plot thickens as the politicos want to keep the fact of this transvestite being murdered in their town out of the papers. This is not going to happen though because Patricia Arquette shows up looking for the murdered person as she considers herself the murdered person's "wife". In spite of pressure of leaving the investigation alone, Billy Bob travels to New Orleans where Patricia Arquette works in a men's bar. There's more to the story of course and a lot of subplots. Eventually, of course, justice prevails.

I consider Billy Bob Thornton a fine actor. His presence alone brings up the quality of this film and the theme was a bit thought provoking. I could never consider this a work of art but I enjoyed the experience of watching it.

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Interesting southern thriller
I hadn't even heard of this little thriller before I saw it on the video shelves. I was drawn to it by the star presence of Billy Bob Thornton, Sela Ward and Patricia Arquette. They don't disappoint. It was nice to see them in an independent little potboiler involving murder and politics in steamy Louisiana.
Billy Bob is a small town sheriff whose "good old boy" handling of a truck accident uncovers something more unpleasant - the murder of a transsexual dancer. It turns out the dancer was present at a party that could implicate the Democrat governor and upset the town rich guy's plans to build a casino. Billy Bob's position as sheriff becomes inceasingly precarious as he changes his mind about a murder investigation he initially didn't want to put much effort into.
There are a lot of twists and turns as the sherrif moves from self-preservation to seeking true justice. There is even some humor, not all of it intentional. One scene where I laughed out loud is when Arquette's character tells Thornton's sheriff that she and the dead she-male were married. That was even before the weirdness of the situation registers on Thornton's face.
William Devane delivers a satisfying performance as the rich guy manipulating local politics. Sela Ward is good in a small if predictable role as Thornton's ex-wife, now the assistant DA. It's an entertaining film, but the ending is a bit too melodramatic and preachy to get a higher star rating.