Badge of Betrayal

A female deputy is hired by a corrupt sheriff in small town Washington

Released in 1997, this is about the best that can be done with a movie debuting on Lifetime and the limitations thereof (TV budget, formulaic parameters and so forth). It explores the “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” theme with the milieu of a police station in the rural Northwest.

I’ve heard it criticized that the abuse by the sheriff (well played by Harry Hamlin) is too overt to be believable, but I found it convincing for a movie that condenses a month of events into a mere 1 hour, 28 minutes. See “Deadfall” (2012) for an example of the same thing done unconvincingly.

Another criticism is that all the males in the story are bad or, at least, weak. Yet the mortgage banker is a good guy, as are a couple of the male deputies, it’s just that they don’t want to rock the boat and lose their livelihoods; or worse. They understand the power structure and understandably acquiesce; but some male characters are introduced in the last act that obviously don’t acquiesce.

It was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia.

GRADE: B