Sheriff of Cop Land

OK its about time for another one of those reviews which finds it way onto this blog, and this one is on the film crime drama film Cop Land, starring Sylvester Stallone in one of his most acclaimed performances.  So let's give it a look and get on with it....

The story is set in the town of Garrison, New Jersey, which is located across the Hudson river from New York city where most of the residents are NYPD officers.  During one night at a party in New York, one of the cops, Murray "Superboy" Babitch (Michael Rapaport) having had a drink or two leaves the party and as he drives of the George Washington Bridge two black teenagers crash their car recklessly into the side of Babitch's.  Babitch tells them to pull over and one of the teenager pulls out what appears to be a weapon (but turns out to be a steering wheel lock) which prompts Babitch to open fire on them, and they are killed as a result.  On arriving at the scene, Babitch's uncle Lt Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel) decides to fake Babitch's death as a suicide, claiming that Babitch jumped off the bridge, in order to avoid a possible racial incident.  One of Donlan's men and corrupt cop Jack Rucker (Robert Patrick) is caught trying to plant a gun inside the dead teenager's car to make it look like a justifiable shooting.

Among the residents of Garrison, the town sherrif Freddy Heflin (Sylvester Stallone) maintains good relations with the other cops.  Freddy however is deaf in one ear as the result of saving his childhood friend Liz (Annabella Sciorra) with whom Freddy is secretly in love with, and Liz is now married to one of the NYPD officers, Joey Randone (Peter Berg) and with his ear he is unable to become an NYPD officer.  As a result of the incident with Babitch, Internal affairs investigator Lt Moe Tildon (Robert De Niro) pays a visit to Freddy and asks him to find out information on Ray and the other cops in the town, but Freddy out of loyalty to them refuses to betray them.  Babitch however in reality is still alive is kept undercover, despite promises for the Patrol Defense Association (PDA for short) setting up a new life for him, its president Vincent Lassaro (Frank Vincent) is concerned that the case will not hold up tio scrutiny unless they find a body in the river and he insists that Babitch needs to be killed, and the case will be suspended.  Babitch however receives a handwritten note from his Aunt and Donlan's wife, Rose (Cathy Moriarty) who overheard Ray conversation with Lassaro, and Babitch survives an attempt on his life by Ray, Rucker and fellow corrupt cop Frank Lagonda (Arthur Nascarella) who flees.

Babitch turns up at Freddy's apartment and asks for his help, but he runs away when he sees Freddy's friend and fellow NYPD officer, Gary "Figgs" Figgis (Ray Liotta).  Freddy realising his mistake travels to IA department in New York and speaks to Tilden, who by this time has had his investigation shut down.  Freddy tries to plead with Tilden to help him re-open the case and try find Babitch but Tilden angrily tells him that he had a chance but he blew it.  On leaving, Freddy steals some of the Garrison files and looks through them to try and do a bit of his own investigating and realises the extent of his fellow police officers corruption.  After this Freddy sets about trying to find Babitch and bring him into IA to expose the town's corruption, but Freddy soon finds its not that easy....

As far as crime dramas goes, Cop Land is very solid and effective one which features a terrific cast and also one of Sylvester Stallone's finest performances as the slow witted but well meaning sheriff Freddy Heflin.  Stallone himself gained quite a fair bit of weight for the role and he plays the part in a nicely understated way, as a man who rarely raises his voice and is almost naive in the faith and trust in which he puts into his fellow cops.  Stallone has several great moments in the film and he also has a touching friendship with the character Liz Randone (Annabella Sciorra) who he is in love with, and in one scene she turns up at his door after she has a row with her abusive husband Joey Randone (Peter Berg).  In the scene Liz asks Freddy why he never got married and he quietly responds "all the best girls were taken" which really does echo a truism in life about missed opportunities.

Harvey Keitel is also great as the corrupt cop Ray Donlan, who is forced to put his nephew into hiding and later he attempts to murder him in order to ensure the case holds water (no pun intended as they try to drown Babtich).  Keitel also get's some good lines of dialogue as he often puts down Freddy's lack of activity and importance in the town, when he turns up at his wife's house and he sees Freddy speak to Rose about garbage bags that have been dumped outside their house and Ray asks what he is doing there and Freddy tells him and Ray sarcastically replies "Ah a felony!".  Later on Keitel has a terrific scene where Freddy confronts Ray and asks him to go into IA together with Babitch to try and work things out, which leaves Ray less than impressed by Freddy's naivety.  And Ray says "You're plan is the plan of a boy!  You made it up on the back of matchbook without thinking!  Without looking at the cards!".  Keitel also shares a brief scene with De Niro early in the film when Tilden bumps into Donlan in a coffee shop, and they quickly say hello and Tilden leaves, with Donlan looking on in contempt, angrily says "fucking rat!". 

In other performances Ray Liotta is terrific as the burnt out cop Figgs who is addicted to coke and also tries to help out Freddy in how to deal with Donlan.  Liotta also get's plenty of good dialouge in the film, such as in his first scene where a drunken Freddy opens a parking meter to try and get some more coins so he can play a pinball game in the bar, and Ray says "there are two kinds of people in this world, Freddy.  Video game people and pinball people.  You are definietly pinball people, Freddy!".  Liotta's best scene in the film comes in his argument with Donlan as he confronts him over the death of his former partner and he says "don't shut me out, Ray!".  Robert Patrick also delivers an excellent performance as the corrupt wise cracking cop, Rucker, who keeps making sleazy put downs at his fellow cops.  Patrick also get's some great lines, in one scene Freddy stops Donlan's car for speeding and Freddy's deputy, Cindy (Jeanne Garofalo) asks them for ID, Rucker says "We are heading towards the hills.  I'm John Mcenroe and this is Jimmy Connors!".  Also later when Freddy asks Rucker if he had anything to do with the bombing of Ray's place, Rucker replies "I had nothing to do with it.  That would be retribution, and that I would leave to God almighty.  I'm Ghandi!".  Peter Berg also puts in a good performance as Joey Randone, one of the fellow cops who refuses to help out Donlan with killing Babitch, and is also having an affair with his wife Rose.  Berg also has a funny line when Figgs winds him up about making a bet on a baseball game and Figgs says his inner child made that bet, and Joey says "tell you what, Figsy.  Why don't you open my fly and take out my inner child and give it a bite, bite it hard and bite it thick!".   

And finally Robert De Niro does a fine job as the hotheaded IA investigator Moe Tilden, who approaches Freddy and asks him in his best scene in the film to find out some information on Ray and the other cops.  And De Niro get's one of the film's best lines when he says to Freddy "And aprt from the cats and the trees and all that other bullshit there isn't much here for you to do.  And I look at you and I see a man waiting for something to do.  And here I stand, Sheriff, saying "Sherrif, I've got something for you to do!".  Tilden's short temper allows for De Niro to have some great moments, one of which is when Tilden hears that the Garrison case has been closed, he yells at his men "Go to lunch! GO TO LUNCH!!  Everybody get the fuck out of here!  The case is FUCKING CLOSED!!".  Also in his scene later with Freddy who approaches Tilden after the case has been closed is another great moment, when Tilden angrily responds "listen you deaf fuck, I gave you chance when we could have done something about it, and you BLEW IT!!!".

So getting onto the film's niggles (or flaws if you like) well for me I kind of felt that Freddy's character showed incredible naivety as he operates in the open, and he even goes to tell Ray the events of what happened, such as Babtich coming to see him and also that he wants to bring Babitch with Ray together.  I just don't buy that Freddy would be so naive as to expose what he is doing in trying to find Babitch so much to the corrupt cops who are trying to kill him anyway!  So for me I just think Freddy's character has too much blind faith in their town and his fellow police officers, although I guess the whole point of it as he says later "everybody just keeps their eyes closed and their mouth shut like me!" when he realises what they are like.  But even at this point Freddy still thinks he can reason with these men when we know for a fact that can't, however I guess that's Hollywood for you.

As for the direction and writing, James Mangold despite those niggles has done a terrific job with the film as his script is terrific and his direction is pretty taut and he keeps the mood of the film dark and rather unsettling at times.  And while the action in the film is quite sparse its is well staged and Mangold does a solid job in cranking up the suspense in the climactic scene where Freddy confronts his fellow police officers, armed with a shotgun, and defeaned by a gunshot (fired by Rucker when they grabbed Babitch from him).  And finally I can't finish without mentioning the music score by Howard Shore which is excellent, as its morose tone suits the film perfectly, although it is somewhat repetitive, but it does show again that Shore still is one of the best film composers in the business today.

So that's it for my look at Cop Land which as far as crime dramas go its definitely one to watch.

And well I shall leave it right there.