Turns out I was completely blind to how many films James Mangold has directed. So when I performed my standard activity of reading up about a film on Wikipedia after watching it, I discovered that I like a lot of his work.
3:10 to Yuma. Logan. Ford vs Ferrari. Films with great emotion and character in-between the bombast.
Cop Land isn’t like those films, but it’s still a good one. There’s one aspect which I feel leaves Cop Land as more a good film rather than a great one. And that’s time.
Usually I can be heard bemoaning the length of a film. “It needed 15 minutes taking out” they’ll hear me cry. But in this case, it needed an extra 15 minutes. The story builds slowly, but for my liking not quite slowly enough. Stallone is excellent as a Sheriff with bigger dreams who has settled into mediocrity, but his realisation that his quiet home isn’t what he thinks it is needed more time to dawn on him. When things finally click, it feels a smidge rushed.
The performances are strong all over, with simmering tension and sly (no pun intended) looks abound. Robert Patrick is a standout for me, with some particularly good wide-eyed facial expressions. Ray Liotta is great too, with this and a recent first watch of Goodfellas showing me just how good he could be. There’s also some great shouting from De Niro!
Cop Land is a good film, and I’d recommend you try it. Who watches the watchmen is an interesting angle to take, and moves the film away from mobsters or anything that would make it feel like just another film. Mangold has crafted something that was nearly very special; it just needed a bit more time to really make its point.
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