1997's Cop Land is a severely under-rated movie which was also the break-out movie of writer/director James Mangold, one of Hollywood's most under-appreciated talents. Since then, he has written and directed Girl, Interrupted, Kate & Leopold, and Walk the Line. Mangold is usually overlooked for lists of the top directors working, and maybe it is because he simply works hard and doesn't grandstand like other acclaimed directors. Still, I am very surprised that he is not recognized as one of the great storytellers working today and that Cop Land is not considered one of the great ensemble dramas of the 1990s.
Murray “Superboy” Babitch (Michael Rapaport) is a hero cop until he is found drunk on a bridge with his car wrecked and two black youths dead. According to his uncle Ray (Harvey Keitel), another New York cop, he jumped off the bridge and went missing, but a lot of people including Internal Affairs officer Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro) don't buy it. Unfortunately, Ray and the rest of his corrupt cops are under the jurisdiction of Sheriff Freddy Heflin (Sylvester Stallone) who always wanted to be a New York City cop but is rejected year after year because he is deaf in one ear. The series of events following Superboy's disappearance, however, forces Freddy to look past his hero worship of Ray and see the level of corruption in his own town.
There is so much to love about Cop Land. The cast is stunning. Stallone is playing against type, setting aside his tough-guy persona for a frustratingly passive character. The rest of the line-up includes Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Janeane Garofalo, Noah Emmerich, and John Spencer. They are all fantastic, and I can't imagine another indie film getting so many high-paid actors. All I can guess is that they loved the script so much that they didn't care about a big paycheck. Cop Land may not have seen any love from the Oscars or the Golden Globes when it came out, but maybe the new Blu-ray release will earn it some more fans.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The Blu-ray comes with a making-of featurette, deleted scenes, storyboard comparison, and an audio commentary with James Mangold, the film's producer Cathy Konrad, Sylvester Stallone, and Robert Patrick.
"Cop Land" is on sale November 1, 2011 and is rated R. Crime, Drama. Written and directed by James Mangold. Starring Harvey Keitel, Janeane Garofalo, John Spencer, Michael Rapaport, Noah Emmerich, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone.
