The Best Movie You Never Saw: Cop Land

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Welcome to The Best Movie You NEVER Saw, a column dedicated to examining films that have flown under the radar or gained traction throughout the years, earning them a place as a cult classic or underrated gem that was either before it’s time and/or has aged like a fine wine.

This week we’ll be looking at COP LAND!

THE STORY: A group of NYPD detectives, in league with the mob, run the small town of Garrison, New Jersey. The sheriff, Freddy Heflin (Sylvester Stallone), is a meek wannabe cop who idolizes the men, including the town’s head honcho, Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel). An Internal Affairs investigator, Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro), soon shows up to look into the disappearance of Donlan’s nephew, and his presence makes Freddy realize these cops who pride themselves as above the law need to be held accountable.

THE PLAYERS: Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Liotta. Written and directed by James Mangold.

I worked with the best director I ever worked with — James Mangold. I loved the film, but it worked in reverse. It was pretty good critically, but the fact that it didn’t do a lot of box office, again it fomented the opinion that I had my moment and was going the way of the dodo bird and the Tasmanian tiger. – Sylvester Stallone – Variety

THE HISTORY: COP LAND was THE hot project back in 1996-97. Sylvester Stallone was suffering through a rough patch in his career at the time, with both JUDGE DREDD and ASSASINS big enough flops than many thought his days as an A-list action star were over and done with (newsflash – they were wrong). Eager to reinvent himself, he took a page from John Travolta, who himself had been courted for the lead here, and signed on for the medium budget COP LAND, which was to be produced by Miramax. At the time, James Mangold was being positioned as the next hot director, coming off the well-received HEAVY. The film was such a hot prospect that they were able to assemble one of the biggest ensemble casts of the nineties, including Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Liotta.

Indeed, Stallone threw himself so thoroughly into the part that he gained forty pounds to play the low-key, half-deaf sheriff, with early buzz pegging him as an Oscar contender. Sadly, the film, in perhaps a misstep, was released in the summer of 1997, and middling reviews meant it didn’t break out at the box office in a big way, even if a $44 million gross on a $15 million budget meant it eked out a profit and performed better than Sly’s previous three films, JUDGE DREDD, ASSASSINS, and DAYLIGHT. It would take a few more years before both Stallone and Mangold would get the respect due to them, while COP LAND, despite being one of the most hyped films of its time, faded into obscurity.

Most of my friends in high school were sons of cops and firemen, white flight from New York City. I was a big fan of the western, as other movies I've made have shown. There was this idea in my head to try to make a fusion of a western and a modern cop film. I'm very proud of the result. It was a pretty heady experience for me as a young man with that cast.- James Mangold – MTV Interview

WHY IT’S GREAT: James Mangold has always had a thing for westerns. Think about it. While 3:10 TO YUMA was his only actual entry into the genre, THE WOLVERINE owed much to A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (and of course the Akira Kurosawa movie- YOJIMBO- it was based on), while LOGAN was a take on SHANE. Sly’s character in this  even has the last name Heflin, like Van Heflin, the star of the original 3:10 TO YUMA and a co-star in SHANE. Indeed, Sly’s Freddy is very much in the mold of your traditional, morally challenged hero. His lack of confidence, a result of him being deaf in one ear after getting injured during a heroic rescue as a teen, is very much in the western tradition, where the underdog has to face off against the gunslinging cowboys – in this case, a town full of dirty cops.

It’s a great role for Stallone- and an interesting deconstruction of his ultra-capable macho image. While it might have been more warmly received with a more typical lead for this kind of film, the unorthodox casting of Sly gives it an edge. Certainly, no one could ever criticize him for not going all-in on the role, gaining, for the first and last time in his career, forty pounds to sport a paunch as the gone to seed sheriff.

It helps that he’s supported by a cast of the greatest character actors of the era, not only Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro, but also Robert Patrick, Annabella Sciorra, Noah Emmerich, Cathy Moriarty, Peter Berg, and people like John Spencer, Frank Vincent, Edie Falco and Paul Calderón in smaller roles. While everyone expected fireworks with De Niro and Keitel on board, no one could have anticipated the film would be utterly stolen by Ray Liotta, as Freddy’s only real friend in a townful of cops, being the out-of-control town cokehead, one of the most corrupt of all the cops who, wouldn’t you know it, turns out to be the one guy with a conscience when the chips are down.

BEST SCENE: At the time COP LAND came out, Robert De Niro hadn’t yet popped up in movies like ANALYZE THIS, where he poked fun at himself. Instead, his image was as the “actor’s actor” and everyone was surprised when he signed on to play a supporting role opposite Sly. I think this scene may have been his big motivator, as who else has ever gotten to give Sly a thorough dressing down on the big screen without having their teeth rammed down their throat?

SEE IT: COP LAND is available on DVD/ Blu-ray, and can be bought pretty cheaply on iTunes ($5.99 last time I checked).

PARTING SHOT: While Sly’s hardcore base may have resented him doing a drama back in the nineties, COP LAND actually isn’t that far out of line with the movies that arguably made him the icon his is today, the ROCKY series – people may have just ignored this thanks to a slew of ultra-macho action flicks, which really only comprise part of his legacy. COP LAND also fits in nicely with James Mangold’s later work, and if this is a movie you haven’t seen, I strongly recommend checking it out. It’s a real gem.