Cop Land

James Mangold has had an interesting career as a director which started in 1995 with a film I've never heard of called Heavy but his second in 1997 Cop Land brought in a strong line of hugely talented names yet it is never really discussed as at all today. This is the same director who would see Angelina Jolie win an Oscar in his next film Girl, Interrupted, give us a solid western in the shape of the 3:10 to Yuma remake, salvage Wolverine in Logan and also direct the Oscar winning Le Man '66. Cop Land features Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, John Spencer and Robert De Niro but remains largely forgotten today. 

Stallone stars as a New Jersey sheriff in a suburban community which is overwhelmingly dominated by New York police officers among the town's residents and he soon realises the community is ridden with corruption and mob connections. De Niro's officer offers him a chance to confess on the corrupt police force bur Stallone is all too aware of what could happen to him and the people he cares for if he goes through with betraying the officers he calls friends. 

The time around 1997 was a rough period in Stallone's career and he took the film hoping it would rejuvenate him but sadly the film failed to perform all that well at the box office, and didn't garner any attention come the awards season. This was a shame to learn because Stallone gives a fine, nuanced performance as the sheriff who wants to do the right thing. Maybe fans of his were expecting a guns-blazing action film where he takes the law into his own hands etc instead we get a generally well handled drama from Mangold that makes the best of its talented cast. 

However problems do arise as the story falls into a formulaic spiral towards the end and becomes something similar to what you'd see in the average western. There are also some melodramatic beats that fall flat and a deus ex machina moment towards the end had me rolling my eyes at which point I realise the film wasn't quite worthy of all the praise it had received. Given the subject matter, it would have been great to have seen someone like Martin Scorsese work with this cast and strive for a more ambitious experience. Mangold succeeds in some areas but unfortunately Cop Land left me feeling 'meh' and isn't really a film worth watching unless you're a fan of the cast.