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"…One Of The Good Guys…" – Copland (2011 15th
Anniversary Edition) on BLU RAY
Rewatching "Copland" on BLU RAY - you're struck by
a few things. First - what a top movie this is - and the reputation it's gained
as such since its 1997 release - is fully justified.
Second - is the astonishing cast. I count more than 15
world-class actors - Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Janeane
Garofalo, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport, Annabella Sciorra, Noah Emmerich,
Cathy Moriarty, John Spencer (of The West Wing), Peter Berg (of Chicago Hope),
Robert John Burke and Terry Serpico (of Rescue Me), Malik Yoba (of Defying
Gravity and Alphas), Bruce Altman (of Damages and Blue Bloods), Paul Calderon
(of Hostages and Law & Order), Vincent Laresca (of Weeds and 24), Frank
Vincent, Edie Falco, Arthur J. Nascarella, John Ventimiglia and Tony Sirico
(all of The Sopranos) - there's even Blondie's Debbie Harry as a bar owner. Yet
despite that formidable array of acting chops - it's all over for the lot of
them the moment Sylvester Stallone steps onto the screen - in what has to be a
career best for him.
Our Sly plays Freddy Heflin - a lumbering New Jersey cop who
is coasting through his job as local town Sheriff. Freddy lives in Garrison,
New Jersey (population 1280) - off jurisdiction home to many of New York's
Transit Cops who moved there in the Seventies when crime threatened to engulf
the Big Apple. Freddy stands over a pinball machine on his friendless birthday
in the all Blue '4 Aces' Bar - dutifully overlooking an NYPD bag being passed
between yet another cop Gary Figgis and a female badge at a nearby table (Ray
Liotta and Edie Falco). "That's Freddy!" Gary reassures the nervous
Bertha. "He's my guy! He's cool!" Gary smiles - he'll have no problem
keeping the sedate Heflin under control.
Freddy is overweight and almost deaf in one ear from an
automobile accident involving a sinking car that flew off a bridge he happened
to be sitting under as a young man. His only real heartbeat-uptake comes from
Liz Randone (Annabella Sciorra) - the beauty queen he pulled from the submerged
Buick by smashing the side of his head against the passenger door window to get
her free. But Liz went on to marry Joey (Peter Berg) - a drunken womanizer who
is sleeping with Rose Donlan (Cathy Moriarty)- wife of the town's real power
cop - Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel). Liz smiles as Freddy returns a turtle teddy
bear she left on top of her car bringing her kid home from school (an excuse to
call on her door) - but she endures Freddy rather than embracing him in her
arms.
One night at 2 a.m. in New York City - the 3-7 Cop Crew is
getting wasted in a nightclub called Scores - when decorated Officer Murray
"Super Boy" Babitch (Michael Rapaport) leaves and gets into his car
with one too many drinks taken. But entering the George Washington Bridge he
gets sideswiped by two blacks in a sports car that are clearly high - and worse
- laughing at him. An angry chase ensues - and thinking a long black steering
wheel lock is a sawn-off shotgun - Babitch gives pursuit and fires shots from
his handgun. The two cars collide head on in the middle of the GWB - and when
the dust settles - both lowlifes are dead. Soon half of Garrison's finest are
on the scene trying to control the mayhem led by Leo Crasky (John Spencer) and
Ray Donlan (Keitel). One of their cop posse called Jack Rucker (Robert Patrick
of Terminator fame) plants a gun in the floor area of the mashed up sports
car - but a black Ambulance Medic who
has already swept the vehicle - sees the white boy's ploy and a fist-fight
ensues. Babitch feeling his whole life is about to fall apart - puts his hands
to his bloodied head - panics - and it 'seems' like he jumps off the bridge
into the cold Hudson below when no one but Uncle Ray is looking. The next
morning Freddy Heflin is reading THE DAILY NEWS in Garrison - reporting that
after stopping two drug dealers - a young hero cop has taken his own life for
fear of a judicial system that will destroy him for trying to do his job. But then
after a random speeding stop with his newly appointed assistant Cindy Betts
(Garofalo) - Freddy lets the unmarked cop car go but sees the scared Babitch in
the back seat being spirited away by 'friends' in the force. But neither Freddy
nor his Deputy Bill (Noah Emmerich) say anything to anyone about what they
know.
Meanwhile uptown and heading up the Internal Affairs Bureau
(the I.A.B.)- Moe Tilden (Robert DeNiro) suspects that Super Boy's body is
never going to be found because he didn't jump. So he goes out to Garrison Town
and in a local Danish shop meets fellow cops Ray and Frank (Harvey Keitel and
Arthur J Nascarella) whom he knew from Academy days. Barely disguised verbal
jabs ensue and Ray Donlan utters the word 'rat' under his breath as investigator
Moe Tilden leaves with a coffee.
Moe then meets with Freddy the local Sheriff - and in a
conversation indicates that the massively attended funeral for hero-cop Babitch
is a staged farce. "We buried a suit today! How do you feel about
that?" he probes the man he suspects still has a conscience somewhere
beneath that massive broken frame. "Ambivalence is a disease..."
Tilden says. Moe tries harder to reach the Sheriff by putting another thought
directly into Freddy's one good ear - unless the body of Super Boy turns up in
the river soon - the case being crushed by The Mayor (with mob connections to
the town of Garrison) is not going to hold. It's only a matter of time before
the young Babitch goes the same way Gary Figgis' partner Sergeant Tunney went a
few years back - dead and buried to cover up more local lies. A series of
events then unfold that rattle Freddy - and their presumptions that he'll
simply roll over on everything begins to gnaw at him - until it becomes obvious
that he must man up and take in Babitch to face the I.A.B. inquest in New York
City. But first Freddy has to get the scared white kid out of the town jail
without both of them getting killed - and without the back-up of officers too
scared and too loyal to kingpin Ray Donlan to help...
Although the dialogue is constantly brutal (and convincing
for it) - "Copland" is not all 'f' words either. The scene where
Stallone and Sciorra finally come together in his home to the Springsteen songs
"Stolen Car" and "Drive All Night" (both from his 1980
double album "The River") is both tender and beautifully judged. The
acting too is uniformly brilliant. Keitel is all power corrupted (lets a fellow
officer fall from a TV aerial who's been soiling his sheets at home), DeNiro is
the driven investigator trying to bring truth back to the force and Liotta is a
cocksure wiseass cop - until a fire-bombing he arranged goes drastically wrong.
The sweating jerky Michael Rapaport as Babitch is superb too - suspecting that
his life is not just screwed but in danger from his 'pals'. All are fabulous.
But its Stallone's journey back to being a real man and doing what's right that
keeps you glued. He put on pounds for the part, pulled back the macho and
allowed himself to be sappy at times - he is magnificent in the role and
deserved 2nd Oscar glory.
Defaulted to Full Screen Aspect (no bars top or bottom) -
the 2011 15th Anniversary Collector's Series BLU RAY picture quality is a huge
improvement over the DVD (and previous much-derided BLU RAY incarnations - use
Barcode 5060223761770 to get the right issue). So many scenes are properly
clear now - even indoors and at night (the party sequence when Babitch realizes
what's being planned for him). There are good extras too in the shape of an
'Urban Western' Making Of, Deleted Scenes, Storyboarding of the Shoot Out and a
feature-length Commentary by Writer/Director James Mangold. Audio is HTD-HD
Master Audio Surround 5.1 and Subtitles are English and English For The Hard Of
Hearing. Special mention should also go to Howard Shore's superb brass refrain
that gives certain scenes enormous added power.
"Copland" is a bit a wee gem frankly. Make room
for this morality tale in your Darkness On The Edge Of Town...
