D: James Mangold
S: Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro
Cop Land is a story about police corruption set in a town entirely
populated by police. It concerns the awakening of slow-witted New Jersey
Sheriff Sylvester Stallone to the hypocrisy around him and his decision
to do something about it. Pitted against him are local heavies Harvey Keitel
and Robert Patrick, who are involved in a cover-up involving young white
trash cop Michael Rappaport and the murder of two black youths on the George
Washington Bridge. Egging him on are cocaine-addicted burn out Ray Liotta
and manipulative Internal Affairs cop Robert De Niro. Watching from the
wings is old flame dream girl Annabella Sciorra, who is married to an unsuitable
partner even though Stallone saved her life when she was a girl, and Keitel's
beaten wife Cathy Moriarty who leaves garbage bags outside Sciorra's house
as part of an extra-marital vendetta. It climaxes in a shoot-out which builds
up like something from High Noon or Rio Bravo though its execution
is rather more downbeat and concludes with the stern moral warning that
no one is above the law, a legend used extensively in the film's advertising.
This film might have worked if it were made twenty years ago. At that time,
Sylvester Stallone was appearing in films like The Lords of Flatbush,
Rocky, FIST and Paradise Alley. People were still uncertain
if his laid-back, slack-jawed on-screen ambulations masked a true performer
whose greatest work was yet to come. At that time Harvey Keitel and Robert
De Niro were edgy young actors also, both of whom were lucky enough to have
linked up with the Scorsese kid and made a couple of good movies. Though
all three men would have been too young for the parts, they might well have
worked together in a low-key mould typical of the time. It was also the
tail end of the New Hollywood era. Morally ambiguous thrillers about official
corruption were rife, and a whole new visual style was being evolved in
American cinema to deal with it. In this atmosphere, a muddled script with
strong potential like Cop Land's would have been assumed to be part
of the film's artistic licence in challenging audience and critical expectation.
It might even have worked if it were made twenty years later. At that time
Sylvester Stallone would have aged and matured as an actor (don't laugh.
Jerry Lewis was once Jim Carrey, Jack Lemmon was once Tom Hanks, Kirk Douglas
was once Arnold Schwarzenegger). He would have developed the instincts of
an older man, and gained weight with the passing of time instead of a runaway
eating binge, and would move, talk and act like the character he's playing.
He might also have developed a dramatic actor's sense of rhythm and timing,
which would at least allow him to play alongside De Niro and Keitel, who
have those things now. As seasoned character actors, these latter two would
have been even more interesting in their parts. One can picture Keitel as
an elder statesman of police corruption, presiding over the little town
like Brando in The Godfather, only on a smaller, more sinister scale.
But all of this is speculation. At this time, in this place; Cop Land
doesn't work. The reason is Sylvester Stallone. Now, pointing the finger
at Stallone is not taking a cheap shot or choosing the path of least resistance.
Writer/director James Mangold is complicit in making his character the focus
of the film, often allowing the sub characters and sub-plots to go astray
in favour of allowing him the freedom to develop his characterisation, of
which he never avails. He is simply the weakest link in the chain, and the
most crucial. Therefore the film rests on Stallone's performance, and he
simply can't carry it.
I have never said a word against Sylvester Stallone's acting. He does what
he does very well. It's not easy to be an action star. It takes a particular
brand of screen presence and hard-edged heroics which not everyone can get
away with, and Stallone is one of the best in the business. You don't hand
a Lawgiver to Harvey Keitel and send him out into Mega City One (granted
Robert Rodriguez handed him a shotgun and a crucifix and pitted him against
Mexican vampires in From Dusk Till Dawn, but
it had unfortunate effects on the film's already skewed tone). Robert De
Niro made a successful crossover into comedy with Midnight Run, but
went totally overboard in We're No Angels.
Stallone has spent so long making action films that he has missed out on
his chance to develop the necessary skills to tackle dramatic material at
this point in his life. He made Cop Land with the intention of being
taken more seriously as an actor, and we'll grant him that. No one will
deny a man the right to grow and change. But next to a supporting cast of
this calibre, all of whom are working in their native genre, he is an amateur.
And it is never advisable to let an amateur anchor a professional production
(The Godfather Part III leaps to mind).
He is trying to pick up where he left off in the early eighties. The soulful,
hangdog look and droopy-eyed puppydog Italian-American brown eyes are back.
The meek, uncertain shambling of the younger actor is also there, underneath
the sick staggering of the middle aged actor trying to fit himself into
a role he is not physically suited for (presumably inspired by co-star De
Niro's excesses in Raging Bull and The Untouchables). But
it's strictly an acting exercise for him rather than a fully realised performance.
He also seems to be on the verge of barfing all the way through and looks
queasy more often than he looks moody and introspective. This hurts the
film very badly, and the excessive focus on him means that a lot of screen
time which could be spent sorting out the various strands of plot and character
is wasted on lingering shots of Stallone struggling to come to terms with
what he's trying to do as an actor in each scene.
The result is that a film which begins interestingly enough and which occasionally
seems to be quite good never quite comes together. It finishes up little
more than an assemblage of scenes and moments linked by a very personal
experience for Sylvester Stallone which may or may not interest the general
public.
There are some bits which stand out for each of the supporting cast. Ray
Liotta has fun doing a curious variant on Doc Holiday, though he goes over
the top as all actors do given such a role. Robert Patrick is a real surprise,
nicely fleshing out an aimless henchman into a menacing character. Though
Keitel and De Niro share only one brief scene, they are totally at home
with what they are doing. Granted, neither character is properly developed
and so the actors get precious little chance to stretch themselves, but
they fit into the fabric well enough. Sciorra and Moriarty face the challenge
of the Hollywood female actor as best they can, having been given roles
which don't properly motivate the action and simply fill in the background,
but both are memorable in the roles. A plethora of other familiar faces
turn up in various smaller roles, and everyone seems to be tuned in.
But it all turns on Stallone, and posits him as the agency for moral retribution.
As the layers of corruption are revealed to him, he awakens from his slumber
to bring justice and order to the community. The film occasionally generates
menace and tension, but there is no prevailing sense of the moral order
with which Stallone can interact, even as a sleepwalking semi-imbecile (which
is how he is initially portrayed, in what one would presume is a self-parodic
gesture). The community is just a tad too star-studded and too far removed
from everyday experience to generate a convincing stage upon which the drama
would unfold. His motivations are too vague and his sense of place too ill-defined
to allow the character to emerge with righteous indignation. The flashbacks
which explain his partial deafness and sense of grievance about Sciorra's
desertion are clumsily worked in and seem fairly pointless in the long run.
Though he saves the day, he seems to do so for no reason other than it ought
to happen. He never seems to engage with the world and consciously assert
positive social action. In many ways his journey resembles that of Russell
Crowe's character in L.A. Confidential, but
this film lack's the latter's focus and ensemble acting. Even when he finally
comes to life at the climax and chooses the path of righteousness, he stumbles
as if in a daze, never convincing us that he understands and embraces the
concept of justice he nominally upholds. It becomes a tapestry of casual
brutality, revenge and redemption, with Liotta chipping in like Victor Mature
in My Darling Clementine. This makes the film morally unsatisfying,
and makes the violence seem exploitative rather than justified. The evil
is not so much punished as accidentally trodden on, and the finale with
Stallone staring happily across the river, now satisfied with his lot in
life is merely convenient rather than deserved.
All in all Cop Land is an interesting film to watch, simply because
it wants to be so many things it simply isn't. It is not pretentious, but
neither is it effective. Stallone does his best, but he simply does not
have the level of skill required to pull it off. It is, eventually, a waste
of terrific potential, but there are enough pleasing elements to allow you
to enjoy it if your expectations are not terribly high. In time, perhaps,
it will be an important watershed in Stallone's career, but only as a restarting
point, not a significant development. Then again, it may not, and he may
return to where he has always done best. Perhaps that would be just as well.
Review by Harvey O'Brien copyright
1997.