Cop Land (1997) is an American drama film written and directed by James Mangold with an ensemble cast featuring Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Robert Patrick, Peter Berg, and Michael Rapaport.
Story
The film takes place in fictional Garrison, New Jersey, a small town across the Hudson River from New York near the George Washington Bridge where a large number of residents are New York City Police Department officers. Stallone plays the quiet Freddy Heflin, the hearing-impaired sheriff of Garrison who admires his friends who are cops. Helfin had wanted to join the NYPD, but was rejected due to his injury. Although nominally the sheriff, Freddy's actual authority is limited to handling minor civil issues.
The real power in town belongs to the corrupt NYPD cops, primarily Ray Donlan (Keitel), who constantly reminds Heflin that he is only a local sheriff and is not really one of them. Consequently, Heflin spends most of his days listening to his vinyl records and longing for his high school sweetheart (Annabella Sciorra), who he saved from drowning at the cost of his hearing and who dumped him for a dysfunctional marriage with another cop, Joey Randone (Peter Berg). Matters are further complicated by 'Figgsy' (Liotta), another corrupt NYPD officer who is a friend of Heflin's. Figgsy also has an ongoing rift with Randone, and is convinced his former partner was killed before he talked to Internal Affairs about Donlan and his group.
Starting the action off, Murray 'Superboy' Babitch (Michael Rapaport), Donlan's nephew, gets sideswiped on George Washington Bridge by a couple of kids. Thinking they fired on him, he returns fire and they are killed in an ensuing crash. Worried about a possible racial incident, Donlan decides the best solution is to fake Babitch's death by suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. When another corrupt cop is caught red-handed trying to plant a weapon on one of deceased motorists to justify the shooting, their fellow corrupt cops (Harvey Keitel, Robert Patrick, John Spencer and Arthur J. Nascarella) fear Babitch will testify to internal affairs about police corruption.
De Niro plays Lt. Moe Tilden, an NYPD internal affairs officer investigating Mafia connected corruption amongst the officers living in Garrison. His jurisdiction ends at the George Washington Bridge, but the men he watches live across that bridge. Smelling a coverup in Babitch's "death", Tilden asks Heflin to provide internal affairs with information on the corrupt cops. Even though they are corrupt and work in a different city, Heflin views them as allies and brothers, able to accomplish what he could not. His reluctance to betray his friends derails the investigation.
Although the cover up at first seems successful, Donlan is told by his PDA President Vincent Lassaro that without a body, the case will not stay dead. Donlan decides that Babitch should be killed. However, they botch the job and in doing so reveal to Heflin that Babitch is actually alive. Heflin is forced to confront the truth about his childhood friends and try to bring them to justice. When he realizes his error he returns to Tilden seeking help, but Tilden rejects his plea, having completely closed the whole case down earlier due to Heflin's hesitation in helping. Heflin steals several NYPD files on the cases when he is leaving the office. He returns home to find Figgsy packing to leave, and admonishes him for abandoning him.
Returning to work, Heflin recognizes a man in one of the old case files, and realizes that it is an officer and a friend of Donlan, who works in the prison where Figgsy's partner was killed. The case is Figgsy's partner's murder, which clearly implicates Donlan. His deputies listen to his discovery with skepticism, and one, Cindy Betts (Janeane Garofalo), also abandons him. Following up on the leads he talks to Rose Donlan (Cathy Moriarty) who gives him Babitch's location. Heflin finds Babitch and takes him to jail, where his second deputy abandons him in fear that the corrupt cops will come to take Babitch by force. Now alone, Heflin attempts to take Babitch to New York to turn in to Tilden, but is ambushed by Donlan and the other corrupt cops, who take Babitch and deafen Heflin's good ear before leaving him at the station in pain.
The film's climax involves Heflin staggering through Garrison, injured and now totally deaf, knowing they've taken Babitch to Donlan's house. A shootout follows, and Heflin is saved from potential death when Figgsy arrives, having had a change of heart. The two gradually kill all of the corrupt cops in the house and recover Babitch. They successfully take him to New York, where Tilden accepts Babitch into custody, giving Heflin all of the credit for bringing him in. The film ends with Heflin overlooking the city of New Jersey from across the river.
Cast
Production
De Niro and Keitel had worked together on three previous films, Mean Streets in 1973, Taxi Driver in 1976 and Falling in Love in 1984. Due to the film's modest budget, all of the actors worked for scale. The entire main cast (with the exception of Robert Patrick), and most of the supporting cast and extras, were born or raised in New York City or the New York metropolitan area. Numerous supporting actors in Cop Land would later appear in The Sopranos, including Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco, Frank Vincent, Robert Patrick, Frank Pellegrino, John Ventimiglia, Arthur J. Nascarella, Bruce Altman, Janeane Garofalo, Paul Herman and Tony Sirico.
Two melancholy songs from Bruce Springsteen's 1980 album The River, "Drive All Night" and "Stolen Car", along with an effective Howard Shore score, help set the atmosphere.
Reception
Stallone's understated performance against type - he gained considerable weight for the role - was praised by critics and he received the Best Actor award at the Stockholm International Film Festival. Cop Land was accepted into the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival, but Miramax declined the invitation.
Despite critical praise for the film and Stallone's acting, and opening at number one, the film's $45 million domestic gross ($65 million in 2006) was portrayed as a disappointment. However, in retrospect, the film's $25 million budget made the take a fine return, especially considering the dark content and tone. Since then, the film has found a second life on cable television and home video and DVD and is considered to be one of Stallone's best performances and an important film in Mangold's portfolio.
Director's cut release
Cop Land: Director's Cut was released to DVD in June 2004. Features include the original 112-minute cut, restoration of deleted scenes and scenes extended, addition of New York band Blue Öyster Cult's "Burnin' for You" to the soundtrack, and a new audio commentary with James Mangold, Sylvester Stallone, Robert Patrick and producer Cathy Konrad. Also included are a "Shootout Storyboard Sequence" and "The Making of an Urban Western" documentary.
Legacy
Stallone stated on the Opie and Anthony Show in 2008 that the film "hurt" his career, and that he had trouble getting roles for eight years, due to the film's failure and the mix of views on whether he was leaving action movies for more character-driven content. Stallone has described this as "the beginning of the end, for about eight years".[1]
The 1957 film 3:10 to Yuma is one of Mangold's favorite movies, and the character Freddy Heflin is named after the lead actor of that film, Van Heflin. In 2007 Mangold remade 3:10 to Yuma with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.
References
- ^ Opie and Anthony Show, 1/17/08, Stallone interview.
External links
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