Review of Cop Land (1997) by Cameron J — 07 Mar 2013

"Cop Land" sounds like the funnest police-themed amusement park out of like... well, one, though that's probably because corrupt people always have the most fun, and no city knows police corruption quite like, well, Los Angeles. It can try its heart out, but the NYPD isn't quite as messed up as the LAPD, but either way, I think that we can all agree that in dirtier areas of major cities like those, you might want to watch your back if you're black, or Michael Rapaport, because I certainly don't want to be the jerk who tells him that he's not actually black. Eh, thinking about it, I guess Rapaport would be in the clear in New York in real life, because NY Jews and NY Italians have stick together, and according to this film, there are a whole lot of NY Italians in the police department. This big-time cop drama has so many people of Italian descent in it (Liotta and De Niro together again) that it went so far as to get Sylvester Stallone, an action blockbuster star, to get deeply committed to his performance. Eh, actually, Stallone's not making too much of a stretch with this dramatic turn, because he's playing a law enforcer, and as you know, "he is the law". "Dreddful reference jokes aside, this is certainly one of your better Stallone cop films, which is to be expected, because this is directed by James Mangold, the guy who went on to do "Walk the Line" and 2007's "3:10 to Yuma", so you know that this stuff is going to get serious (For goodness' sake, his first film was even titled "Heavy"). Granted, Mangold also went on to do "Knight and Day", and "Kate & Leopold" isn't exactly the most serious of films either, but eitherway, the point is that Mangold can make some good dramas, such as this film, which, even with its strengths, certainly isn't without its problems.

Even to this day, James Mangold hasn't exactly found all of that firm of a grip on pacing, so sure enough, this early effort by Mangold isn't as comfortably paced as it probably should be, not being all over the place in its momentum, partially because its slow spells are as considerable as those of something like, say, "Walk the Line", but nevertheless getting to be a touch uneven, largely because Mangold, as director, does only so much to fully obscure the points of relative bloating within his script, which sometimes gets to be padded out by anything from an under-explored subplot to simple excess material that slows down momentum. The film will have these fair deal of moments that outstay its welcome, and then twist right into things that feel too tight, not necessarily in structure, but in atmosphere, for although this film's overly tight spots aren't as recurring or problematic as the slow and bloated points, which, even then, aren't quite as overbearing as I make them sound, the final product isn't always as assured in its moments of foward momentum as it probably should be, often taking on an atmosphere that bears down and calls more to your attention just how short this film is at a relatively mere just over 100 minutes. If the film's more somewhat frantic moments in atmospheric pacing do nothing else, they help in reinforcing the subtlety issues that do about as much damage as anything to the final product, which isn't thoroughly telegraphed, being generally fairly genuine in its atmospheric touches, but overemphasizes anything from Howard Shore's very surprisingly mediocrely overbearing score work (That piece played over the shoot-out climax is pretty awesome though), to near-forceful moments of exposition, at the expense of a fair bit in the way to full emotional effectiveness. As both a thriller and drama, the film hits much more often than not, but there are still those moments in which atmosphere fails to ring as true as it ought to, and they do serious damage to engagement value that, while certainly present enough for the final product to reward, faces enough damage at the hands of a problematic story structure. The film's structure is slightly uneven, like I said, but the final product's biggest issue when it comes to plot structure is a somewhat consistent degree of aimlessness, because as meaty as this story is, you can still expect, and just enough of them for the film to, after a while, feel like it's never to pick up all that much. Sure, the quality state that this film is rarely able to pick up out of is a good place to be, as it does have enough kick to it to compel you through all of the shortcomings, but make no mistake, shortcomings are, in fact, present, and in enough of a quantity for the final product to fall just short of its full potential. Still, as flawed as this film is, it triumphs nevertheless as a genuinely good film, with plenty of shortcomings that are battled back just enough to craft a rewarding cop thriller-drama, whose quality is, of course, rooted in a promising story concept.

This film's basic story concept is hardly all that terribly original, and it's certainly not as meaty as it probably could have been in its slightly aimless execution, so it's not like this film was ever to truly present you with the ability to walk in expecting all that rich of a plot, but that's not to say that this film isn't even engaging in its basic conceptual, boasting subject matter that may have been done to death, but is still intriguing, and with much potential to be made into an engaging character drama. Well, sure enough, when it comes to James Mangold's writing, quite a bit of that potential is fulfilled by many a strong note, almost all of which is met with an undeniable issue, though not so many that you can't appreciate Mangold's rather layered and near-gritty characterization, which defines this film's story and characters with a kind human depth that isn't exactly anything too new, but still worthwhile. The foundation that Mangold builds, not just in story concept, but in the final scripting stages, is rocky, but stable enough to grace this film with quite a bit of potential, and leave the work of Mangold, as director, to find itself cut out for him, for if this film's issues aren't compensated for, the final product could collapse into underwhelmingness. Well, needless to say, much more often than he faults, Mangold accels as director, having issues with pacing and subtlety, but making up for his many hiccups with even more strengths, being inspired enough as storyteller to keep up general genuineness in atmosphere that makes the slower spots of this film that steadily flesh-out characterization engagingly effective in their bringing humanity to this thriller, and when the gritter moments fall into play, Mangold's atmosphere, while often kind of overbearing, is generally tensed up enough to all but engross, and deliver on some reasonably tasty icing on this dramatic thriller. The film's full engagement value dips quite often, and the final product almost slips into underwhelmingness on the whole, but in the long run, Mangold keeps up quite a bit of compellingness throughout most of this flawed opus, making sure that the quality dips rarely go too low, and that the high points go fairly high, until what you're left with is a dramatic thriller that hangs on the edges of a rewarding state, into which it is finally nudged over by plenty of compelling performances. There's not a whole lot for our talented cast to work with, with certain performers actually being fairly underused, yet most every one of this film's notable players has his time to shine, with standouts including an effective yet believably restrained Harvey Keitel as a corrupt man of justice who mostly exacts anything but, Ray Liotta as a heavily flawed and perhaps even dirty human with both mystery and charismatic humanity, and, of course, Sylvester Stallone, whose brief dramatic comeback isn't too especially meaty, but is nonetheless compelling, as Stallone feels very assured in his genuine and somewhat layered portrayal of a man of the law who will find his outlooks shaken by disturbing revelations and dangerous paths toward bringing justice to the very people whose justice enforcement inspired him. Now, we're talking about an ensemble film that is entirely populated by talent, so it's not like Stallone carries this film, but he does stand as an almost surprisingly worthy leading man, being just one of the fair deal of aspects that power this film as, not necessarily as rewarding as it could have been, but rewarding nonetheless.

To close this case, pacing unevenness bloats certain aspects, while taining certain other aspects with a tiny bit of freneticism that exacerbates subtlety issues, while borderline aimlessness in plotting delivers the final touches in the act of holding this film back, though not so many that the driving of this film short of its full potential proves to be all that fruitful, as there is enough story concept value and compelling characterization, brought to life by inspired direction and acting performances, to ignite the near-consistent compellingness that makes "Cop Land" a generally engrossing thriller with plenty of problems, but enough compensation to sustain your investment through thick and thin.

3/5 - Good.