A Most Violent Year (Movie Review)

New York City’s masterful crime dramas of the 1970’s weren’t just epic battles between the forces of good and evil.  The very best movies of that genre were poetic morality tales played out on the big screen.  In between sporadic scenes of bloodshed — godfathers, gangsters, policemen, and prosecutors paused to soliloquize about personal honor and so-called sacred codes of conduct.  Cops weren’t always the good guys, and criminals were necessarily bad.  Perpetually clashing worlds were a murky shade of gray.  The clouds never cleared.