‘Being right is not a bullet proof vest!’ Cop Land 1997. A 90's gem you've never heard of.

They don’t make em like they used to!

It’s imperative that we celebrate great movies, older movies (sorry over 50’s, yes this is considered old by those younger than me) so they are preserved, remembered, learned from for the improvement and growth of future cinema and art.

If you are under the age of 25 you may have heard of Goodfellas, Casino, Heat ,.... but I would guess or even guarantee that you have never heard of Cop Land.

Cop Land is a lesser known and a hidden gem of a 90’s Cop Movie, it is an extremely impressive piece of cinema. Many consider this film to be one of the most underappreciated and underrated 90s movie.

I’m sure you have heard of... Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta.

Well, I bet you never knew that these Hollywood Giants star in this fascinating movie.

It begins quickly and explosively...

A Shoot-out!

Scandal!

Slease!

Suicide!

Switch!

Silence...

Garrison, New Jersey is home to a host of corrupt ‘dirty’ Cops, who made dealings with the mob to finance their homes in soft suburbia. They also put themselves above the law...but is anyone truly above the law or does their time always eventually come?

Their actions and corruptions start to bubble to the surface...do they face a rude awakening?

The trigger for the chain of events, one of their up-and-coming officers (Rapaport), is involved in a shoot-out where he kills/murders two unarmed men. It becomes a very public scene. But through manipulation and deceit, his senior officers tamper with the crime scene and create a chaotic distraction, they exit him from the scene.

PURE CORRUPTION!

The film begins...

Do these cheating, lying bastards get their comeuppance?

Credit Miramax

Robert Patrick’s Jack Rucker tampering with the scene.

If I could summarise the message and themes of Cop Land, I would use three words... Integrity, Courage and Duty.

The film brings us to Freddy Heflin played by Stallone who is the ineffectual Sheriff of Garrison. A lame-duck if you will. Garrison is inhabited by the dirty New York City Cops played by the likes of Keitel and Robert Patrick.

Freddy always had the ambition to become an NYPD Cop but due to an unfortunate accident (from his own bravery) is half deaf and but also scarred emotionally. His disability disqualified him from being accepted as a force officer.  

Resultantly, he is plagued with regret and low confidence and sees himself as lesser. He allows these city Cops to live scot-free, walk all over him and degrade his authority.

But in the midst of a cover-up and conspiracy orchestrated by the City Cops, Freddy is presented with the opportunity by Moe Tilden (De Niro) to carry out ‘real police work’ to expose the cover-up of the Cops in his town.  

The tension, Freddy’s position as Sheriff in the town is tied to his relationship with these Cops. They appointed him as the town Sheriff, conveniently for them it’s worth noting, they see him as a dim-witted pushover. Notwithstanding there is familial and community relationship and quasi brotherhood between them all and a sense of care and kindness towards Freddy. They do recognise his past bravery, diving into a river to pull Liz (Annabella Sciorra) out of her sinking car. This as mentioned was traumatising physically and emotionally for him. He then fell for her but she ended up marrying someone else (on the force of course). Yet, Freddy must rise above their spectre and enforce his authority.

Why do I like this film so much?

It may not quite be a ‘masterpiece’ but I would say that it is close, and does not receive the praise or recognition it deserves.

The film is quite brilliant at showcasing different contrasting world views and philosophies. And as someone who is constantly thinking about and challenging the world and interpretations of it. When I watched it for the first time at 17 years old I was hooked.

Purists, Principalists, Pragmatists, Politicians and Machiavellians.

The real world and of course world in the movie is certainly grey and not clear cut. One can understand the motivations of each of the characters. New York in the 1970’s was very very difficult and the surrounding suburbs experienced a lot of ‘White Flight’, which the film interrogates.

Cop Land asks you various questions...

What are you willing to do, face, stomach and sacrifice in the name of real justice?

Are you willing to sacrifice yourself?

Are you willing to challenge your environment?

Are you willing to see the crimes of those closest to you?

Do you have the confidence to stand up for what is right?

Do you have the confidence to stand up for yourself?

Firstly, there were fantastic performances all around.

De Niro is spiced healthily across the body of the film and steals every scene he is in as the Internal Affairs investigator Moe Tilden.

Robert Patrick is devilishly good at playing Ray’s (Keitel) right hand man, he is one pure asshole in the movie, an antagonist to everyone in the film.

Ray played by Harvey Keitel, is commanding. He portrays tremendous depth and thought in Ray, whilst he is a bad guy, Ray is still thoughtful and commits to making his stance and judgments. He is extremely self-serving, aggrandising and cutthroat.  

Parts of the film display the world/system to be crooked, dark and brutal. Indeed, this is part of the reality too. Whilst there is always a view to fighting for justice, light, positive change, truth and betterment- to say it is an uphill battle would be an understatement.

It is extremely difficult to do anything and make paths towards justice and positive change and to some extents it involves putting ourselves on the line which is quite scary.

Standing up for oneself and others requires courage at any level.  Indeed, as Figgis (Liotta) proclaims at one point in the film ‘Being right is not a bulletproof vest’, the pursuit of truth and being right can be difficult due to the prospect of pain, loneliness, ostracization and at worst, actual danger you can put yourself and those close to you in.

People have different philosophies to approach it but we also have different coping mechanisms. Three ways of coping are represented by three characters in the film.

·       Gary Figgis- Addiction- Ray Liotta who plays 'Figgsy' also shines in this movie.

·       Ray Donlan- Machiavellian Self Preservation and Elevation- (Keitel)--- a charitable interpretation would be that Ray is a pragmatist.

·       Freddie (Stallone)- Variations of Ignorance: head in the sand, passivity, wilful ignorance, benefit of the doubt and blind faith.

These characters are archetypal of the ways we ‘cope’ with the everyday impurities and excrement of the real world, whether it be in the workplace or seeing it in the news as opposed to actually doing something about improving the everyday and doing the right thing we ‘cope’.

Credit: Eye for Film.  Original Credit Miramax

Figgis

Figgis (Liotta) addiction, escapism-

Filled with anxiety, regret and anger, feeling trapped with guilt for being a part of the crooked reality of ‘Cop Land’ Figgis abuses drugs and alcohol for an escape from his feelings. Looking for a way out of a system that has broken him. Indeed, he still is corrupt in his own personal life, he’s accused of insurance fraud after his house burns down which kills his wife in the process. Yet, Figgis does have some redemption in the end...a message of hope in the movie and a testament to the redemptive aspect of human nature.

Ray (Keitel) politician/Machiavellian (Pragmatist?)-

Embraces a Machiavellian and Darwinist worldview in which the strong act over and for the weak. Everything is morally grey and therefore action is justified, and in order to survive plus thrive in today’s world, you need to be a part of the dirt and flout the rules to protect yourself.

He convinces himself that he is doing right by himself and his friends. His world outlook and worldview is his way of coping- framing reality to suit himself. He is also willing to eat or kill, he has a dog-eat-dog world view and believes the more people accept that, the better...

Freddy (Stallone) wilful ignorance, self-preserving passivity and blind faith-

Due to personal tragedy, slightly lesser intelligence and confidence he adopts a naïve and simplistic world view to protect himself from further pain. But despite his internal good nature, deep down he knows he is wilfully turning a blind eye to the corruption in his town.

He does not ask questions to those he views as powerful and above him (the city cops) who he imputes good intentions on to and allows himself to trust that all they do is for the good.

He saved a person’s life but that left him with pain and disability in his hearing loss. Whilst the other officers who engage in nefarious behaviours, cowardice and corruption, have their needs met; married, settled, loved, appreciated, Freddy who is ultimately good, is; alone, belittled, degraded and devalued.

This presents an unfortunate truth about society...goodness and doing the right thing can often get you nowhere, whilst cheating, lying and immorality can get you everywhere.

Being an upstanding citizen and saving someone’s life, gets you to the status of being an ineffectual and disrespected low-grade town Sheriff. Whilst cheating, being a criminal and covering up the truth makes you a top city cop with accolades, respect, women, families and wealth.

As a way to cope with the pain, he focuses on the mundane and uneventful- traffic violations and littering. All whilst being plagued by regret and pain at chances that he missed in the past. His wilful ignorance and being distracted by the mundane is his coping mechanism

Yet, Freddy eventually transforms and becomes active and proves his pure, just and strong moral character when Moe Tilden comes into his life.

Audience Self-Reflection

Whilst these archetypes are not exhaustive accounts of how we cope with a complex and morally challenged world, they are representative and manifest in many of us in certain contexts.

We might feel the need to go out on the weekend with ‘our boys’ or ‘our girls’ and get utterly pissed to ease the pain of the prior week. When dealing with tough decisions at work we might frame the situation to suit ourselves (almost Machiavellian of us). Sometimes we naively just trust that grave choices made by authority/ies are made with good intentions and with the good in mind. Or we just distract ourselves with mundane activity- cleaning, admin, gossip.

All these approaches certainly serve a purpose, but their appropriateness and justification is certainly questionable.

Like the characters in the film, in our own lives, the prospect of living to our moral optimum is often blocked by certain interests or stakes that we have in our lives- family, security, job, community, status or our even our personal wellbeing.

It makes one reflect and think, what truth or conspiracy am I wilfully ignoring or not willing to engage with due to existing barriers or those that I have created myself.

However, when Tilden (De Niro) comes into Freddy’s (Stallone) life he pulls away the veil of ignorance from Freddy and forces him to confront reality. His town is crooked, corrupt and criminal. Now Freddy’s whole sense of being comes into question, he has to reckon with himself... he changes... and becomes active!

This leads him to challenge his own community of citizens, friends and their families. This takes astonishing integrity and moral courage. Indeed, physical courage as they attack him and eventually try to kill him.

Credit: The Hollywood Reporter. Tilden and Freddy

Review

This is one of my favourite movies.

I am constantly charmed by filmography of the actors of the pre-2000’s.

Cop Land is thoroughly engaging, some scenes are genuinely horrifying, some are extremely intense, some are amusing and others have me morally conflicted.

Indeed, it’s a cop film of the 90’s, many common themes are presented....

Enforcing the law whilst simultaneously being above it, duty conflicting with self-preservation and self-interest, police violence, criminal violence, racism, profiling.

On paper, Cop Land had all of the makings to be one of the great films of its era. Crime-drama about police corruption with an A list cast of actors what’s not to like.

But it does not have the cultural impact, critical praise and lasting effect that other 90’s films of that era have today. The films ideas, themes and characters are all very impactful and thought provoking. But clearly something must be lacking if did not punch itself into popular culture the way other films of that era did.  

Naturally like any film there were limitations, weaknesses and criticisms. These elements might have been what held it back.

Firstly, it did adequately at the box-office but it did not explode either. So, it’s initial punch into culture was arguably subdued. Moreover:

1.       James Mangold the director was lesser known at the time and so was the studio.

2.       Action hero star Stallone was entering into a different newer realm/genre. The action hero playing a meeker role, this could have turned viewers off.  Additionally I think at the time late 90’s Stallone’s name was a little bit played out...the public had Stallone fatigue.

3.       Oversaturation in the Market. Copland was released in the summer of 1997. Deep into the 90’s... the era had certainly seen it’s fair share of criminal/cop/law action movies. It’s possible that the public could have allowed this one to slip past.

Secondly, there are some weaknesses in the film.

Firstly, the structure of story and pace may have been off-putting for some. The film starts off extremely strong, but the middle is quite dialogue and character-development orientated rather than action driven.

Secondly, I must state that Stallone was absolutely superb in his performance. However, his character is purposefully understated and uncharismatic in the film (which adds to the charm in my view). Conventional Hollywood wisdom would dictate that your downtrodden underdog should have underlying charisma and gravitas that builds and manifests later on in the film.

Although, the character demonstrates bravery and duty his pay-off is not necessarily basking in glory.

An audience may also feel sympathy and empathy for this character but do not wish to be Freddy or even want to project themselves onto the character in the movie. Half deaf, simple/slow he is overweight alone, has no family. He arguably has nothing to lose in his position so has every reason to pursue a heroes journey in the film. Indeed, everyone else who happens to be crooked has stake, a family.

An inadvertent takeaway message from the film could be, justice and sacrifice can only be carried out by the lone man. What we build and have stakes in keep us from being disrupters and soldiers for truth and justice.   

Credit: Miramax

To what extent is this true? What but also who are we willing to sacrifice for what we believe? People are much more willing to sacrifice themselves rather than their nearest and dearests (understandably). No one (rightly) would dare put their families anyway near harm’s way.

But, for me, this exercise of evaluating the film is splitting hairs, as I really believe in this film and think it is genuinely great and deserves acclaim and celebration.

Conclusion/Summary

Regardless of weaknesses or criticisms, I think Cop Land is a superb piece of cinema and I will always have a soft spot for this film.

The acting is excellent all around. For some they might struggle with the pace, particularly in the middle. For me, that’s not a problem as I enjoy a film that is happy to change its pace and is confident in its message and vision.  I also a big fan of Stallone and De Niro so naturally I am even more receptive to the movie.

Fundamentally If you want a film that will get you to think, challenge you, engage you with it’s fantastic dialogue, A list talent, tension, action and drama, I highly recommend Cop Land. If you are a reflective, analytical and morally conscious person this film will really resonate with you and may stay with you for a long time.