How Cop Land deconstructed Sylvester Stallone’s… | Little White Lies

In Praise Of

How Cop Land decon­struct­ed Sylvester Stallone’s legacy

16 Nov 2017

Words by Jack Godwin

Several individuals, including a uniformed police officer, escorting a man in casual clothing.
Several individuals, including a uniformed police officer, escorting a man in casual clothing.
James Mangold’s 1997 crime dra­ma saw the actor once again prove him­self against the odds.

Sylvester Stal­lone wasn’t the first choice for the lead role in Cop Land. In fact, direc­tor James Man­gold was reluc­tant to even meet the actor, whose recent films had been a string of for­get­table action movies panned by crit­ics and fans alike. He’s become a car­toon of him­self,” Man­gold said at the time, wary of the prospect of a Plan­et Hol­ly­wood ego­ma­ni­ac inter­fer­ing with his fea­ture film debut.

This ini­tial trep­i­da­tion is per­fect­ly under­stand­able, giv­en that Cop Land is not an action movie built for Stallone’s fan­base, and the actor is not a draw for a more dis­cern­ing crowd in the same way that his co-stars are. But it was entire­ly for this rea­son that Stal­lone end­ed up being the per­fect choice. Fred­dy Heflin, the film’s pas­sive, lethar­gic sad sack pro­tag­o­nist, is by no means a van­i­ty role. We are intro­duced to the char­ac­ter – a role which Stal­lone gained 40 pounds for – as he drunk­en­ly plays a pin­ball machine. He’s a periph­er­al fig­ure, on the side­lines of a con­ver­sa­tion between a bomb squad agent from the city and Liotta’s assertive, wild-eyed officer.

Heflin doesn’t quite seem to fit in any­where. He is par­tial­ly-deaf as a result of sav­ing a girl from drown­ing, the impair­ment hav­ing pre­vent­ed him from becom­ing a big city cop. He gazes across the Hud­son Riv­er and dreams of mak­ing it there, while pro­tect­ing the neigh­bour­hood of the cops who work there. Sim­i­lar­ly, Stal­lone stands out like a sore thumb on the film’s poster, flanked by Har­vey Kei­t­el and Robert De Niro. These act­ing heavy­weights were still turn­ing out acclaimed work with the likes of Mar­tin Scors­ese and Quentin Taran­ti­no, while Stal­lone was only just return­ing to the game, eager to prove him­self. When Heflin is denied entry to a par­ty by Keitel’s Ray Don­lan, his con­cerns whol­ly dis­missed, the chasm between the actors is hard to ignore. But Don­lan under­es­ti­mates Heflin, just as many have under­es­ti­mat­ed Stal­lone down the years.

While Heflin doesn’t prof­it from the cor­rup­tion that Don­lan and sev­er­al oth­er offi­cers indulge in, he is com­plic­it by shar­ing their indif­fer­ence for these ille­gal­i­ties. Their ambiva­lence is con­ta­gious”, Inter­nal Affairs agent Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro) warns him, and he’s right to note both Heflin’s and Stallone’s great­est oppo­nent: iner­tia. Heflin’s hero­ic res­cue, which he refers to as the best thing I ever did with my life”, is long in the past, much like Stallone’s own glo­ry days. Before becom­ing over­shad­owed by the patri­ot­ic melo­dra­ma of their sequels, Rocky and First Blood were human sto­ries bol­stered by excel­lent writ­ing and acting.

By 1997, Stal­lone was resigned to churn­ing out gener­ic action fare, and his name was more com­mon­ly asso­ci­at­ed with Judge Dredd than his ear­li­er Oscar-nom­i­nat­ed work. Heflin too seems uncon­cerned with the integri­ty of his work, wil­ful­ly ignor­ing the sex­ism his part­ner receives from fel­low offi­cers and the glimpse of an alleged­ly dead cop in the back­seat of Ray’s car. It takes him a while before he awak­ens from this slum­ber, and by then Inter­nal Affairs has no time for his tri­umphant return. I offered you a chance to be a cop and you blew it!” Tilden yells at him, echo­ing what many thought of Stallone’s attempt to be tak­en seri­ous­ly again.

Even­tu­al­ly, Fred­dy purges him­self of the years of sup­pressed rage in a cathar­tic shoot-out. It’s not impor­tant that he saves the day, but that he walked with dig­ni­ty and pur­pose. Stal­lone has done this time and time again, prov­ing him­self as a capa­ble actor and writer after a series of clunk­ers, only to repeat the cycle once more. It’s awk­ward defend­ing Sly,” Man­gold said in a recent inter­view, because he’s large­ly respon­si­ble for the way he’s misunderstood.”

Stallone’s per­for­mance has been praised as pos­si­bly his best, but after the film under­per­formed at the box office his career stayed on much the same course as before. He strug­gled to land decent roles after Cop Land, return­ing to low-rent action for a num­ber of years before even­tu­al­ly repris­ing his most icon­ic char­ac­ters in Rocky Bal­boa and Ram­bo. Unlike Fred­dy Heflin, Stal­lone wasn’t wel­comed inside. The pan­theon of great actors still lies behind a closed door. But if his pen­chant for come­backs is any­thing to go by, he’ll come knock­ing again.

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