The Seven Five

Michael Dowd is a patrolman in New York's seventy fifth precinct in the eighties. The precinct is one of the busiest places in the drug trade. Dowd takes small money at first, then collects cash on raids, then starts working directly with dealers. His partner Ken Eurell is in it too. They are not caught for years because nobody informs on a policeman. The documentary tells it in Dowd's own words; the man sits in front of a camera, laughs, and recounts what he did one item at a time. Tiller Russell directs. Michael Dowd, Ken Eurell and other figures from the period speak in it. It is an American production. Dowd served a prison sentence and was long out by the time the documentary was made. The matter it treats is loyalty; these men have a rule of their own and betrayal counts as worse than the crime. The documentary moves through archive footage, news recordings and interviews. The narrative also describes the institutional side of the corruption; how the system saw the problem and stayed still. Dowd's manner of telling is the most uncomfortable thing in the film; there is no regret and the narrative does not correct it. The film sets the partners' testimony against each other. The narrative is paced like a crime film and the music supports that. The ending closes with the records of the inquiry commission. Its limit is distance; the narrative makes the criminals interesting and gives little room to the neighbourhood that suffered. Who it is for: viewers who like true crime documentary. Who it is not for: it is one sided, uncomfortable, and the ending cold.