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Carver: Did You See It Coming? SPOILER

posted 16 years ago by tabbycat
8 replies | jump to latest

"What's the difference between a black man and a (n-word)?"

That's our introduction to the man.
He asks the question three times.

When Laurence Fishburne answers, Carver smiles.
We get it now. Just his unique way of shaking up the recruits a little, seeing what they're made of.

Following is an hour of speeches by Carver, the good cop. A little strict, a touch anal? That's okay. We trust him now.

When Fishburne asks what he should do with the first shipment of drugs, Carver tells him, "You're a dealer. So deal." A little gut twitch, maybe?

And then the shoe drops: yes, he admits. It's all been a charade. "It's all sh!t." Out comes the hip flask.

It gets worse, of course. By the end, this guy is actually willing to blackmail Fishburne into perjuring himself to protect a corrupt government and an international drug kingpin!

So the question: Did you see it coming?

I didn't. Hit me like a karate chop in the stomach.
Should I have seen it coming?

Probably should have known that a cop who starts interviewing black applicants using the N-word -- no matter what his reasons -- probably isn't one of the good guys.

[–] Woodyanders 16 years ago

I didn't see it coming as well. I thought Carver was a decent guy until the last third of the film.

"We're all part Shatner/And part James Dean/Part Warren Oates/And Steven McQueen"

[–] mail-2775 15 years ago

No. I thought it was a good twist, and I didn't see it coming at all. The quality of this picture surprised me all around. Charles Martin Smith is outstanding, and was really good in Da Vinci's Inquest, the best cop show of all time.

[–] 249 15 years ago

At some point..Carver's superiors change the assignment on him.

can't quote the exact line.....but he tells John that "no, he(our target) is our friend, NOW"

There was a detente and the priorities of the mission changed....Carver explained it to John when they had their confrontation and John said F this..and bounced.

[–] franzkabuki 12 years ago

Come on, he was such a sneering, arrogant, wasp of a little bureaucrat it was obviously only a question of time when he was gonna screw Fishburn over completely. A very broadly drawn character, just like the black saintly cop who kept following Fishburn around. It´s cliches like those and the preachy tone & moralizing that kept surfacing time and time again, which kept the film from being something extraordinary.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] Times_Up 12 years ago

Agreed, but I don't see it as a flaw. The way the character was introduced with his "do you know the difference—" speech should be enough I guess. For me, it was when he balked at John when he pressed the Guzman issue.

Am I unreal? Am I a character who can’t possibly exist? – Alissa Rosenbaum

[–] Doom 12 years ago

I'm in the camp that still feels like Carver was a guy who was looking to do the right thing... at first.

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Wait a minute... who am I here?

[–] famousmortimer-2 12 years ago

I think Carver was always an amoral agent of the war on drugs. Get a big arrest. Get a promotion. Mission accomplished. John asks right at the beginning why they don't go after Gallegos/Guzman from the start. This makes Carver uncomfortable and he explains away his discomfort as John's strategy not being proper procedure. HE'S TOO BIG.

[–] Rayvyn 8 years ago

I know this is seven years late in commenting, but I just had to. I saw it coming, in fact it came in his first speech where he was showing the pictures. John asked if they were going after Guzman and Carver said, "No he's too big." You can hear his voice tighten and the volume lower like he kind of felt exposed. This was a great piece of acting on Birdges' part. But from that moment on I knew he was a snake. What hit me was when he just laughed off how John killed Ivy. No punishment, no report, just, "How was it popping Ivy?"

Carver: Did You See It Coming? **SPOILER**

Carver: Did You See It Coming? SPOILER