Whenever filmmakers hit the mean streets of the Big Apple, the uniformed men and women who are supposed to be upholding the law are bending it beyond all recognition.

Pride And Glory pounds the beat with a band of brothers for whom intimidation, extortion and murder are badges of honour.

If a suspect refuses to co-operate, they beat them to a bloody pulp or, as in the film’s most shocking sequence, threaten to press a steam iron into their newborn child’s face.

Gavin O’Connor’s gritty thriller centres on a multi-generational police family based out of the fictional 31st Precinct in Washington Heights, whose rise comes at the expense of the truth.

When four men from the department are ambushed and slain during a drug bust, Chief of Manhattan Detectives Francis Tierney Sr (Jon Voight) assembles a crack task force to identify and capture the shooter.

He implores his son, Detective Ray Tierney (Edward Norton), to lead the investigation, working alongside brother Francis Jr (Noah Emmerich), the dead men’s commanding officer, and brother-in-law Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell). Ray reluctantly agrees and his meticulous work uncovers undeniable evidence of police involvement in a drug war between Angel Tezo (Ramon Rodriguez) and Eladio Casado (Rick Gonzalez).

Meanwhile, the entire Tierney clan prepares for the death of Francis Jr’s beloved wife Abby (Jennifer Ehle), who is in the final stages of terminal cancer.

Pride And Glory employs handheld cameras to maintain uncomfortable close proximity to the action, shadowing detectives as they work a crime scene or hunkering down during a standoff with an armed man.

Director of photography Declan Quinn opts for a grimy, colour-bleached palette that makes the city seem cold and foreboding.

Violence is graphic though not gratuitous, the most basic means of communication between dirty cops and criminal low-lifes.

Norton and Farrell are solid but are out-gunned by Emmerich, whose scenes with his dying wife leave a lasting impression.