Cop Land

I saw Cop Land in the theater sometime in 1997, most likely on a date, or possibly with roommates. I remember seeing the trailer and thinking, holy shit, who isn't in this film? And who's the director? James Mangold? Who? Didn't matter. I had to see this movie.

This was only James Mangold's second film. This guy has some chops as a writer-director. He was 34 years old when he made Cop Land. I'm 35 now. I try not to think along these lines. Keep moving forward, keep my head up, keep writing, do what I can, and don't look backward.

For some reason, maybe my own naivete, I still have this belief that if you write a solid story, great things can happen, and in my head, Cop Land is an example. (Of course, when Miramax is behind you, and if the year is 1997, all kinds of stuff can happen and all kinds of people will show up to play roles. It was the '90s. Free indie film love, baby. Or something.)

Let me throw some names at you: Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport, Janeane Garofolo, Annabella Sciorra, John Spencer, Peter Berg, Debbie Harry, and Method Man are all in this film. If that's not enough to get you interested, then I'm not sure why you're still reading. You like movies, right?

Robert De Niro brings back his Rupert Pupkin look for this film. He plays a great Internal Affairs guy, and seeing De Niro in scenes with Sylvester Stallone is a real thrill, second only to De Niro and Al Pacino together in Michael Mann's Heat. De Niro owns the role, even though this isn't exactly a reach for him, and seeing him here makes me wonder why he hasn't gotten better roles recently. Answer: The stories aren't there. Films like Heat and Cop Land don't come along nearly as often as, say, Meet the Fockers.

Stallone plays a schlub sheriff in a Jersey town full of New York cops, many of whom are crooked but found a loophole that allows them to live across the water. Stallone's character turns a blind eye to their dealings. He's a pushover. He's deaf in one ear because he saved a girl from drowning in a car accident. He can't be a "real cop." He can't be with the girl, either, because she's with some abusive douchebag. So he does what he can as a sheriff, and he looks out for her, sort of, and he goes home alone to listen to Springsteen's The River album.

People forget Stallone can actually act. People forget that Rocky won Best Picture, and Rocky Balboa put a great button on a Rocky series that really needed a button. Stallone spent the bigger part of the last 25 years doing bad sequels to good films, hyperviolent, Reaganized drek, and unfunny comedies confined to the D-movie dustbin. But put him in a role he can own and he shines. This is the best work Stallone has done since the first Rocky film. His scenes with Annabella Sciorra are just heartbreaking.

"You know, you can get this on CD...in stereo," she tells him as they listen to "Stolen Car" off The River. She's forgotten about his ear for a moment.

"It wouldn't matter to me," he says, and something tells me he's not talking about his ear anymore. He's talking about holding on to the past, the music he played around the same time as the accident, and how Springsteen lets him live a life he never got...a kind of parallel thing in his head.

"Oh, right," she says, just as Springsteen's lyric, "We got married, and swore we'd never part." Of course, Freddie and Liz never did either of those things, but something in the song says they should've, and maybe they did in another life, if you believe that sort of thing.

"Why is it you never got married, Freddie?" she asks.

"All the best girls were taken."

With writing like that, I totally see how this film got made. Fair play to James Mangold. I re-watch Cop Land about once a year, and if I catch this film on television, I can't change the channel. Cop Land is one of those films.

There's nothing particularly earth-shattering about the storyline. In fact, the ending is pretty ham-handed, with the news reports that just scream "Oh, shit, we forgot to tie up some loose ends. Let's have voice-overs from broadcast journalists fill in the holes as the credits roll!"

But that's a small complaint, and as that comes at the very end, I can't complain. Otherwise, this is good storytelling with an original approach, and seeing all these great actors, all these guys who have made a living playing heroes, villains, and the grey between, all together in the same film, well, that's why I watch movies.