Conflicted cops protect and serve... themselves

Law-enforcement officers in fiction are equipped with two tools: a badge and a gun. Some bring more to the job: huge ego, addiction, a misplaced sense of duty and other attributes. Here are four cops who speak loudly about law and order and good and evil — and who also show how blurry the boundaries can be.

VIC MACKEY

Leader of the anti-gang Strike Team unit on the FX series “The Shield” (2002-08), Mackey came to life through Michael Chiklis, known until then for being the lead in the bland 1990s ABC-TV series “The Commish.” Chiklis left boring Tony Scali far behind when the bullets started flying and people began disappearing. With at least three murders under his belt (including a member of his own team) it’s hard to see Vic as being anything other than out of control and just plain evil. To him, though, the ends justify the means every time, regardless of the tragic results such consequentialism can bring — for instance, the disintegration of his family — as well as to the evildoers upon whom he seeks to impose his own brand of justice.

HARRY CALLAHAN

To this hard-bitten San Francisco detective, the lines are clearly defined: there are good people and bad people, and the bad people must be dealt with — even if he has to do it himself because the Powers That Be won’t. A total of 43 criminals are killed in the five “Dirty Harry” movies, but even that gruesome tally pales next to Clint Eastwood’s searing, iconic “make my day” portrayal of the lone wolf armed with a .44 Magnum handgun that “would blow your head clean off.”

"Do ya feel lucky, punk?!"

POPEYE DOYLE

Dirty Harry wasn’t the only cop on a mission. “The French Connection” introduced the world to James “Popeye” Doyle, for whom rule-breaking was a way of life. Based on real-life New York City police detective Eddie Egan, Doyle was xenophobic, drug-addled, unorthodox and disrespectful to authority figures while managing to chase — in a memorable scene — and catch a gang of international heroin dealers. Gene Hackman would also win the Best Actor Oscar in 1972 for the role.

BAD LIEUTENANT

This article would not be complete without Harvey Keitel’s nameless corrupt cop from the eponymous 1992 Abel Ferrara film. A gambler and an addict who all but ignores his family, steals money from a crime scene, and acts as much the horrifying perpetrator as the criminals he pursues, Bad Lieutenant is grotesque and disturbing — but it contains a powerful message of forgiveness and the potential of redemption.

Bryan Cranston breaks through stereotypes, and typecasting, as Walter White in “Breaking Bad”

Walter Hartwell White is the latest in an intriguing line of lead characters: the embodiment of the phrase “actions have consequences.”

The Albuquerque high-school chemistry teacher becomes a drug lord in the TV series “Breaking Bad” (Sunday nights on the American Movie Classics channel), and his journey has taken some amazing twists during the past three seasons.

What’s even more incredible is that of all people, it’s Bryan Cranston — also known as Hal, the moronic father from “Malcolm In The Middle” — who has accomplished a transformation few are able to do. Cranston has gone from playing a lovable, forgettable schmuck to perhaps the memorable role of a lifetime.

Depth? Conflict? That’s Walter White. Even though White is a genius with a Bunsen burner, he is “stuck” teaching the basics of chemical interactions to bored teens while each of his contemporaries has passed him by — including a Bill Gates-like character in Season Two. He also has Stage 3 lung cancer, no money, no respect and only the love of his family to see him through his troubles. Since lung cancer has no Stage 4, Walter wants to leave some money behind for his family prior to facing his fate.

So he decides he can make better crystal methamphetamine than anyone.

This is just the first of many extremely bad decisions made by a man desperate to find some sort of peace before suffering a horrible death. As it turns out, his cancer goes into remission... but in other ways, it’s too late.

The wheels are in motion: demand for his “blue ice” goes through the roof as people start dying around him, and this all adds to his growing street credibility as the mysterious supplier “Heisenberg.” His angst also increases over the mounting pile of bodies and the realization that he has used his powers for evil, not for good.

No such weighty issues roil Bryan Cranston’s soul. Instead, his portrayal is piling up awards — back-to-back Emmys for Best Actor in 2008 and last year — along with universal acclaim for his work as the latest conflicted protagonist eligible to enter the Antihero Hall of Fame. Cranston is making the rounds of talk shows and breathlessly insisting, as he recently did on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” that he is “grateful for being invited to the dance.”

The best part for Cranston as an actor? Through the Walter White character, he has found a way to break from the potentially perpetual stereotype of Hapless Hal the dough-brained dad.