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| Cop Land
Year: 1997
Classification: Drama
Directed:
- James Mangold
Actors/Actresses:
- Robert De Niro
- Edie Falco
- Janeane Garofalo
- Harvey Keitel
- Ray Liotta
- Robert Patrick
- Michael Rapaport
- Sylvester Stallone
- John Spencer
- Peter Berg
Sorta like Wild Animal Park in bloody blue
Director James Mangold makes good use of Sylvester Stallone in this cop corruption saga while capturing the mentality of a small New Jersey town atmospherically named "Garrison" (Fort Lee?), a town that serves as an inbred bedroom community for the NYPD blue. I could tell by the foliage that most of this was filmed during an eastern seaboard summer: I could feel the humidity and it made me want to wring out my shirt and slap some mosquitoes.
Stallone is very good as Sheriff Freddy Heflin, who was rejected for the NYPD because of a bum ear suffered saving a beloved girl's life. He's the simple sap who's not so simple, slow to anger, but once aroused, look out! (Compare to the ingredients of the Stallone Formula.) De Niro plays an Internal Affairs investigator while Harvey Keitel is his mortal enemy, a corrupt sleaze-ball cop. What I want to know is, was the choice of the name Figgis for Ray Liotta's part a director's inside joke? Incidentally, Liotta is entirely believable as a testosterone/coke-hyped cop wanting OUT.
The story is reasonable as these things go, and the old style Western shoot 'em up near the end tolerable. I found some of the plot devices, such as Figgis finding Freddy in the burnt out house, and one of the corrupt cops popping up in the back seat of Freddy's patrol car, a little too convenient. (But a contrivance is better than lollygagging the plot.) I also thought the rationale for the cops' violent turning on their own a little underdeveloped and especially difficult to appreciate near the beginning of the film. The ensemble of corruption and degeneracy fully revealed however made sense. The sound track is excellent and the cinematography and backdrops make New Jersey along the Hudson almost picturesque.
What Mangold proves here is he can conjure up an action/adventure ditty with the best of them. He's already made an excellent art film, Heavy (1995), and a superior and original coming of ager, Girl, Interrupted (1999). I believe that the romantic comedy and the epic cannot be far behind. For a young director with his talent, the only question (aside from money, chance and the availability of the box office buffos) is does he want to be a cinematic artist or a commercial artist? I hope he can be both.
Best joke: "I didn't know they allowed classical music in New Jersey."
A memorable movie with an even more memorable cast !
The movie Cop Land combines long lost talent in its leading star, Sylvester Stallone; top notch performances from its supporting cast, Ray Liotta, Robert Deniro, Harvey Keitel, and Annabella Sciorra; wonderful cinematography by Eric Edwards; and brilliant direction of James Mangold who later went on to direct such hits as Kate And Leopold, Identity, and Girl Interrupted.
Cop Land is a fictional tale of crime and corruption in a city run and occupied by New York's unfinest cops. Stallone pulls it off excellently as the city's overweight sherrif, Freddie Heflin, who couldn't get into to the force on account of his deaf ear. When the police force covers up a cop shooting that leaves two innocent men dead and stages a hero story, its up to Sherrif Heflin to reveal the truth and bring order to the city known to everybody as Cop Land.
The movie features an outstanding performance by Robert Deniro as an FBI agent trying to uncover the deceptions and opens Heflin's eyes to the corruption around him.
A memorable film with an even more memorable ensemble cast.
Underrated
Great little movie. Amazing cast, great performances. Nicely underplayed. Will be curiuos to see the directors cut with 11 extra minutes added.
Buy Cop Land at Amazon.com
Buy posters at Allposters.com
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