Any regular practicing Catholic would be able to tell you that priestly vestments correspond to different liturgical seasons.  Ordinary time, which is less “ordinary” than the word might imply, is green.  The times of the year when we are preparing for the big Christian feasts of Christmas and Easter, respectively Advent and Lent, priests don purple.  The observance of those days also have their own lengthy periods, named after the holidays, during which those celebrating Masses wear white.  There are two days, one during Advent and Lent, when they put on rose colored-robes.  As of this writing, Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, just passed.  Its Advent equivalent is Gaudete Sunday, by the way, but be careful about referring to the robes as pink.  Finally, the rarest shade you will see is blue.  It is used so infrequently that I have never seen this used for any Mass, and I am a daily communicant.  There are also formulas for other special Masses.  I say all this because while looking for a film on Netflix, the preview for 21 Bridges (2019) was the first film on which I landed.  You will see in a moment why this is significant.

It was the white robes of a priest at the beginning of 21 Bridges that caught my attention.  He is giving a homily for the funeral Mass of New York City Police Department (NYPD) cop Officer Davis, killed in the line of duty.  His grieving widow, Vonetta Davis (Sarah Ellen Stephens), and young son, Andre Davis (Christian Isaiah), shed tears as they listen.  It is probably not surprising, then, that the adult Andre (Chadwick Boseman) goes into law enforcement as well.  When we first see him, he is before an Internal Affairs (IA) board answering questions about a recent incident in which he is responsible for the death of a perpetrator.  He is defiant, though, because the deceased was what the men in blue refer to as a “cop-killer.”  Around midnight the next day, a pair of armed men, Michael Trujillo (Stephan James) and Ray Jackson (Taylor Kitsch), pull up behind a wine shop in Brooklyn.  Putting masks over their faces, they gain entrance to the business and demand from the lone employee that they be shown where the cocaine is stashed.  They expect to find thirty kilos, but instead encounter a horde of three hundred packages of the material.  Michael advocates walking away, but Ray is adamant about continuing their heist.  Yet, before they can get out of the building, they are accosted by a group of eight patrolman.  Ray opens fire, and a reluctant Michael joins in, and they end up shooting dead all of the cops.  As soon as word gets to the police, Andre is dispatched to the scene.  After some wrangling with other authorities over jurisdiction, Captain McKenna (J. K. Simmons), who is in charge of the 85^th precinct, assigns Andre as lead investigator, along with narcotics officer Frankie Burns (Sienna Miller).  Hence, the chase commences.  Michael and Ray manage to make it to China Town where they meet Toriano Bush (Louis Cancelmi), the person who is meant to buy their pilfered drugs.  Yet, when it ends up being more than they bargained for, they force Toriano to take them to the person to whom he was going to sell.  That would be Hawk Tyler (Gary Carr), who gives them $1 million for the cocaine.  By this time, though, the NYPD has closed down the entirety of Manhattan.  Andre and Frankie have also learned their identities, owing to finding the owner of the car that Michael and Ray took to see Hawk.  Finding out this information should have led Andre and Frankie to Toriano, but he is killed by two 85^th precinct detectives before Andre arrives.  This pattern is repeated when Michael and Ray make contact with Adi (Alexander Siddig), a money launderer who takes the cash in exchange for new identities and offshore bank accounts.  Before they can head to Miami to take advantage of their pilfered gains, a group of cops from the 85^th precinct come knocking.  It is another shoot out as Michael and Ray get away again, but Andre and Frankie get there not long after Michael and Ray’s exit.  The criminals flee to a meat processing facility where Ray is eliminated by Andre, but Frankie is taken hostage by Michael.  Andre has his gun pointed at Michael and is about to pull the trigger when Michael begins talking about the officers who showed up at Adi’s apartment, and the thumb drives he took from the money launderer.  This stays Andre’s hand, giving Michael a window of escape.  He uses it by making it to a hotel where he attempts to alter his appearance.  He also looks at the thumb drives taken from Adi, and they contain lists of cops who seem to be taking bribes.  This is why they are so eager to kill him, except for Andre, who is not on the take. Andre tracks Michael to the subway, where the thief has managed to get to without dying.  His luck ends, however, when Frankie puts a bullet in his chest.  With his last breath, he hands Andre the thumb drives.  Andre is horrified by Frankie’s actions, and he is suspicious of all the pats on the back he gets as he leaves the scene, including from Captain McKenna.  It is to the boss’s house that Andre goes to that morning to confront Captain McKenna.  The high-ranking officer admits to using law enforcement to move drugs, using the money to give his cops a better life.  This includes Frankie, who has a daughter.  Andre tries to give Captain McKenna the opportunity to turn himself in, but Captain McKenna instead chooses violence.  He also has a number of co-conspirators arrive, all of which Andre manages to dispatch.  It is Frankie who is the last to come, but she gets there shortly before Andre’s back-up, and he convinces her to do what Captain McKenna could not do.

What I appreciated most about 21 Bridges is Andre’s steadfastness to doing the right thing.  It is suggested that his seeming penchant for killing criminals like the ones who murdered his father is integral to his character.  Yet, the movie gives him an arc by believing what Michael has to say about the 85^th precinct, and trying to keep Michael alive, instead of immediately opening fire on these cop killers.  Though the movie does not make this case, I am going to credit Andre’s apparent Catholic upbringing for his good judgement.  Those who made this movie would likely tell you that it has more to do with his dad’s example.  Yet, early on we see an ailing Vonetta (Adriane Lennox), crucifix prominent around her neck, reminding her son to always follow his conscience and to act with justice in a cruel world.  The film uses a Biblical reference for Andre’s resolve by giving us Romans 13:4.  It is quoted early on, but I will give it to you here: “But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer.”  I am not trying to paint Andre as some kind of religious zealot.  Nor does the Church teach that one needs to wield a literal sword in dispensing His justice.  God desires the conversion of sinners rather than their death.  At the same time, sometimes the sword will be necessary.  This is how Andre defends his actions to IA during his hearing.  With the passion he exhibits, you might expect him to be ready to immediately gun down Michael and Ray, but that is not how he operates.  Instead, he offers them the chance to amend their ways through incarceration.  The same choice is given to Captain McKenna.  It reaches its apotheosis with his confrontation with Frankie.  He does so unarmed, and she lowers her weapon.  This is significant because our vehicle for leading to a better life is best done with words than the sword.

If you are in the mood for a cop drama, you could do worse than 21 Bridges.  It is also bittersweet to see Boseman in one of his last roles.  The research I did for the film revealed that he donated money to Miller when she did not get the salary she wished for her role.  That was the kind of man he was.  There is some foul language and violence, but Andre’s character is worth seeing.