The Pledge

Sean Penn directed this tense drama of loyalty, honor, and obsession, based on a novel by Friedrich Durrenmatt. Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) is a veteran police detective who lives and works in a small Nevada town. On the day of his retirement, it falls to Jerry to handle an especially unpleasant ...more

The second collaboration between star Jack Nicholson and director Sean Penn results in a quiet, absorbing character study of the psychological effects of obsession. Nicholson is the great lion of cinematic acting, America's answer to Britain's rapidly disappearing Shakespearean luminaries. Here he earns his mantle once again with one of his best and most subtle performances, as a man stripped of power and respect, desperately clinging to both as he convinces himself he's upholding a sacred oath. ...more