"Being right is not a bullet-proof vest."
With entertainment.ie turning 25 this year, we're rolling back the clock to 1997 and revisiting movies on release during our site's early days. Each week, we'll take a trip down memory lane and come back with a movie you may remember, may have forgotten, or in this case, you may never have even seen.
In light of recent events both here in Ireland and across the Atlantic, 'Cop Land' has become darkly relevant again, in that it explores the idea of police brutality, the code of silence, and how institutions and old boys' networks will always shield their own from outside scrutiny. More specifically, 'Cop Land' speaks to the disconnect between police and communities, and how those that police are sworn to protect very often can feel a lot less safe when they're around.
In an interview with Vulture, director James Mangold laid out his thesis and ideas for 'Cop Land' in simple terms. "To whatever degree 'Cop Land' has relevance now," Mangold explained, "it was about a world in which everyone is so tribalized and traumatized — everyone fighting for their piece of green valley — that no one has the emotional space to exist. Morality becomes a luxury." As much as 'Cop Land' shares DNA with Westerns like 'High Noon', it takes far more from '70s dramas tinged with cynicism and civic and moral decline than anything else.
In 1997, 'Cop Land' came and went from cinemas, and didn't make much of a splash with awards despite the fact that contemporary reviews hailed Stallone's performance as his best in years. Where 'Cop Land' made its mark was in home release, where it was in print on VHS and later DVD many, many times over. In a way, this speaks to how much of a rarity 'Cop Land' is in our landscape. Studios would take a risk on a gritty, downbeat cop drama with the knowledge that it would make up some money on home release rather than cinema release. The dawn of streaming services and the shortened theatrical window means that it's all or nothing now. You've either got world-beating blockbusters with gigantic budgets, or you've got grindingly small budget movies on streaming. 'Cop Land' was in the middle; a decent budget with a good cast trying to tell a complex story.
Let's talk about the cast. What's fascinating to watch in 'Cop Land' is how it utilises cast to play against our expectations. Aside from the marquee names like Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel - both of whom had a history of playing criminal-types - much of the supporting cast are cut from similar cloth. Quite a number of them would go on to star in 'The Sopranos'. The late Frank Vincent turns up in a brief scene as a high-ranking police officer and union official. Edie Falco and Annabella Sciorra both have supporting roles, while Arthur Nascarella, who played Carlo in 'The Sopranos', is one of the police officers who lives in the fictional white-flight town of Garrison, New Jersey. Before turning to acting, Nascarella was a New York cop for two decades, serving several years in an undercover unit.
The cast is almost entirely Italian-American, and because of this, they're able to convincingly play characters who live in tight, cloistered communities, something that 'Cop Land' deals with at a root level. Sylvester Stallone's schlubby cop is the kind who's never ventured beyond the walls of his town, and what he knows of the world outside from the NYPD cops who live in his town is enough to tell him he's missing nothing. Even when he goes to the city to meet with Robert DeNiro's Internal Affairs cop, you get the sense that it's all too much for him and that there's nothing there. Stallone, who made a career out of playing decisive men of action, is completely cast against type here and makes it all the more intriguing.
Harvey Keitel's ringleader barks at him constantly and belittles him. Robert DeNiro's greying investigator regards him like an addled child to be pushed and prodded into action. Janeane Garofalo pities him, while Annabella Sciorra does likewise. He's never once seen as a threat or someone to take seriously, which makes his last stand something kind of horrifying, but ultimately necessary because the system has to be torn down if it's to serve any purpose.