COP LAND
It is nice to see Stallone in something other than his macho, daredevil, machine gun-firing roles. And he is much more likable playing Freddy Heflin, a wannabe policeman who is rejected because one ear has been damaged when, as a teenager, he dove into the water to rescue the drowning Liz (Annabella Sciorra). He is an acknowledged hero and is given the job of sheriff in the town of Garrison, NJ, just across the river from NYC. There is not much happening in Garrison except possibly for a jackknifed big rig.
Garrison is called "Copland" because so many of New York's finest are fed up with NYC's crime rate of one every eight seconds. In Garrison, no one commits a crime because there are too many cops living there. Sheriff or no, the cops really control the town. For instance, when Cindy (Janeane Garofalo), a new deputy, wants to cite Ray Donlan, (Harvey Keitel) a top ranking cop for speeding, Freddy has to tell her that is a "no-no." We do not give tickets to cops. Nice and peaceful town.
Nice and peaceful until Officer Murray Babitch (Michael Rappaport) who is on his way home after a fun evening in NYC gets sideswiped by a couple of black men who are having their own joy ride. Infuriated, he gives chase. When one of the men leans out the window with a gun pointed at Babitch, he fires his own revolver and causes the car he is chasing to crash and explode, killing both occupants.
That is not good . . . but worse is that when the detectives investigate, they find that there was no gun involved, just a steering wheel lock. That is bad. He can easily lose his status as a hero for having rescued people in a fire and suddenly find himself the subject of a police brutality investigation. But what are friends for? A fellow officer plants a gun in the crashed vehicle. To insure there will be no further inquiries they pretend that Babitch must have jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River. End of story? Hardly.
Two things then happen. As Donlan drives away after the ticket incident, Freddy sees the "drowned" Babitch looking out the back window. Further, there is the NYC police Internal Affairs investigator, Moe Tilden (played with great humor and flair by Robert De Niro) who smells there may be a cover up. Tilden tries to talk Freddie into helping him by reporting anything suspicious but Freddie is uncertain about what he should do; go against his cop friends . . . or uphold the law? The combined efforts of Tilden and Freddy could forever change how Garrison is perceived and run.
For the most part, the film is exciting. Much of that is due to a superb cast. Aside from those already mentioned, there are Ray Liotta, Peter Berg, Robert Patrick in supporting roles.
Written and based on his own experiences in a similar town and
Directed by James Mangold
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Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
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