Cop Land (1997)
Directed by James Mangold
Freddy Heflin is the sheriff of a place everyone calls “Cop Land” — a small and seemingly peaceful town populated by the big city police officers he’s long admired. Yet something ugly is taking place behind the town’s peaceful facade. And when Freddy uncovers a massive, deadly conspiracy among these local residents, he is forced to take action and make a dangerous choice between protecting his idols and upholding the law.
7 connections found
View:
7 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Cop Land to
Mangold (“Cop Land,” “Logan”) choreographs every other element with an eye on pure entertainment, from the marital rhythms between Ken and his faithful wife (Caitriona Balfe) to the nuances of racetrack culture.
James Mangold is a somewhat consistent director of the past couple decades; when he embraces his clear love of Westerns, such as in 3:10 to Yuma , Cop Land , and Logan , the results can be a delight.
This is not the first time director James Mangold has offered cinematic weight to the pride of men ( Cop Land , Walk the Line , 3:10 to Yuma , Logan ).
His police-corruption drama, Cop Land (1997); the teen memoir Girl, Interrupted (1999); and his Johnny Cash biopic, Walk the Line (2005), all feature characters brimming with bravado and self-doubt, trying to carve out lives in a hostile world.
Not every film gets there, but look at recent works like Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, and both The Wolverine and Logan—even going back to his earliest works Heavy and Cop Land—for proof.
Always zigging where you think he’ll zag, Mangold has made emotionally sophisticated comic-book adaptations ( Logan ), pulpy Westerns (3:10 to Yuma), introspective biopics (Walk the Line), hellzapoppin action larks (Knight & Day), quiet cop dramas (Cop Land), Oscar-winning coming-of-age sagas (Girl, Interrupted), twisty psychological thrillers (Identity) and even frothy romantic comedies (Kate & Leopold).
At least when Stallone did it for Cop Land, it was a touch to his character and we could see a gut (under his uniform.)
He's always liked Westerns - his NJ-drama "Cop Land" was a kind of modern nod to "High Noon" - and it's reflected here not only in specific nods to genre classics, but scenes of righteous pioneer families standing up to big business interests.
Given the guy’s stacked, eclectic resume — 1997’s Cop Land, 1999’s Girl, Interrupted, 2005’s Walk the Line, 2007’s 3:10 to Yuma, et al — there was never any doubting his abilities, but few could have ever predicted he’d return with something this vital and bruising, not after his good-but-not-great take on The Wolverine.
I've been a big fan of Mangold's films, especially Cop Land (a personal favorite of mine), Girl Interrupted, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma (another personal favorite), and The Wolverine.
Mangold (“Cop Land,” the 2007 remake “3:10 to Yuma”) approaches “Logan” like a Western — specifically, the kind whose hero is an aging gunslinger.
Even his ticking-clock stories –like the star-studded Lumet wannabe Cop Land or his 3:10 To Yuma remake– boast fine performances and midsections saggier than my own.
Mangold is an excellent director with a solid, unheralded resume (including the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line and the Sylvester Stallone neo-noir Cop Land).
Working with screenwriter Patrick O'Neill, Mangold also sneaks in a party-clever visual reference to Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes involving misted breath on a train window, and a verbal shout-out to France's legendary Hotel du Cap, where the director once held a press conference for his 1997 film Cop Land during the Cannes Film Festival.
Advertisement
Cop Land, Girl, Interrupted, Walk the Line and 3:10 to Yuma are now joined by The Wolverine as positive successes for the 49-year-old director.
Taken as a whole, The Wolverine is nearly as hit-and-miss as the rest of Mangold’s filmography: it ain’t Cop Land or his first-rate remake of 3:10 to Yuma, but nor is it Knight and Day or Kate & Leopold.
Director James Mangold ( Cop Land , Kate & Leopold ) moves things at a speedy, but not breakneck, pace, accentuating every twist in Michael Cooneys engaging script.
And though director James Mangold gave us the sublime Cop Land , he also inflicted upon us -- the horror, the horror -- Kate & Leopold .
This thriller from director James Mangold ( "Cop Land," "Girl, Interrupted" ) and writer Michael Cooney is so ingeniously constructed that these meta-noir ingredients feel dizzyingly enjoyable, never hackneyed.
Mangold, who has made two good movies ("Girl, Interrupted," and "Heavy," which starred Pruitt) and one overlooked great one ("Cop Land," whose ensemble cast included Liotta), has taken on a turkey here, and he does what he can to disguise it by trying to assure us it is really a free-range chicken in a turkey suit.
He followed "Heavy" with the impressive "Cop Land," perhaps the only instance in which Sylvester Stallone actually acted, and the smarter-than-it-sounds "Girl, Interrupted."
Teen angst gets the "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" treatment in "Girl, Interrupted," James Mangold's disappointingly common and commercial follow-up to his earlier, low-budget wonders "Heavy" and "Cop Land."
However, Girl, Interrupted's director James Mangold ( Cop Land ) never quite figures that out.
Naturally, the state of good roles for women in Hollywood being what it is, a movie version seemed in order, which is how we arrive at director James (Cop Land) Mangold's version, with Kaysen played by Winona Ryder and Lisa by Angelina Jolie.
Mangold, who directed the punchy Cop Land a couple of years back, lets the story take its own course, rarely relying on the more cinematic aspects of his skills and instead allowing the slow burn of mental illness and all of its attendant ghastlies to wash over the audience like a sluggish hospital-green tide of unease.
Written and directed by James Mangold (Heavy, Cop Land), Girl, Interrupted feels like competent filmmaking, but it also feels stale.
Considering that and the fact that writer/director James Mangold ("Cop Land," "Heavy") along with co-screenwriters Lisa Loomer (TV films "Road to Kensington," "Hearts Afire") and Anna Hamilton Phelan ("Gorillas in the Mist," "Mask") never really offer or examine anything new, the film ultimately has nowhere to go.