# Cop Land (1997)

### reviewed by
Anders Fagerholt

COP LAND "The greates trick the devil ever pulled?" This isn't going to be a review in the normal meaning of the word. What I would like to do is to tell the story of James Mangold and the greatest trick he ever pulled, and no he didn't convince the world that he didn't exist. The following is what I believe happened those dramatic days a year or two ago. James Mangold was sitting there and had just finished writing what he believed to be a brilliant screenplay, and yes it kind of was. A nice old-fashioned story about cops and corruption. And he was pretty sure he could make a fine low-budget movie out of it. But then he realised like many others before him that that simply wasn't enough. There are made fine low budget movies every day. How the hell should he manage to get this movie noticed around the world. That's where the trick comes in. Use magic. Get an actor who everyone thinks is shit and make him do the performance of his lifetime. After all if you can make Stallone act you are bound to have gold come pouring out your ass. Well that sounds like a neat fairy tale, doesn't it. Well like it is with all magic tricks they may not be so hard as they seem. First of all you don't pick the truly hopeless type, stay away from the likes of Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Segal and Schwarzenegger. You pick someone like Stallone. Now all of a sudden you have brought a great risk into the game. Stallone could be like nitro if he isn't watched the whole thing could blow up in your face. If Stallone does a bad job it makes a mess of the whole thing then it's no longer a fine low-budget movie, then it's "just another lousy Stallone movie". So you better watch out. To prevent this you cast him alongside first-class actors like Keitel, DeNiro and Liotta. With people like this around it makes him look a lot better and it gives the audience a signal, that this i far more serious shit than Rambo. However you must make sure to put these people in the background, 'cause the point is to make Stallone look good. If the others get to much attention we could end up with a situation where Stallone makes them look bad, and that would really ruin the trick. Then it's a lot up to the role he's given. You give him a reasonably simple role. Don't give him Shakespeare. Though the role of Freddy Heflin isn't a one dimensional bad role, it's a great role, butit's a role that's easy to control through the directing. After all there is a lot of acting in directing. And you have to be very busy couching the guy for his role. I bet Mangold spent a lot of times going through the scenes over and over again until Stallone got it right. When it comes to the role it's also an essential part of the trick that the role was strictly the opposite of what Stallone has become typecast as. Perhaps the greatest part is that he forced the guy to gain weight. It worked for Travolta didn't it, well it worked here as well. Mangold managed to pull his trick off and newspapers all over the world reported in a shocked state, that WOW Stallone can act. Now isn't that the greatest promotional trick you've ever heard of. It may not be a part of the creative process of film-making, but don't tell me it's not an essential part. This trick is what got your asses into the theatre in the first place. Cop Land is a great movie, and an ingenious promotional trick

    Anderz
    Anders Fagerholt

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