Rampart 23/02/12
Director: Oren Moverman
Writers: James Elroy, Oren Moverman
2012
I am a sucker for bad cops and anti-heroes. Harry Callahan, Travis Bickle, anyone in almost any Tarantino film, these are people I support because they go their own way, have no time for fools, just generally kick arse. Maybe I am some lame Hollywood demographic and don’t know it, however I like to think that I pick my Unhinged Violent Male With Heart Of Gold film’s carefully. I am a discerning sucker. Rampart (2012) obviously aims for the UVMWHOG category, however with a bit more reality infused into it than some I have listed above.
Set in Los Angeles in 1999, the film taps in to some of the criticism the L.A police department has faced in the real world about police brutality. So straight away my mind went to Bad Lieutenant (1992) which for me is the be all and end all of dirty cop movies, and a particular high point for star Harvey Keitel. For Rampart, director Oren Moverman managed to land Woody Harrelson who is one of my favourite actors and that was when I got really excited about this film. The film also taps in to the Vietnam veteran angle of unhinged, evoking memories from Taxi Driver (1976) and giving the film a bit more emotional weight than just a bent cop.
In Dave Brown’s (Harrelson) circle of police officers, casual racism is, well, casual, and we see him happily putting a man’ s head through a window as a form of questioning. He never eats, but imbibes alcohol often. This is counterbalanced by a close-up of him alone in his cruiser, combined with melancholy guitar picking as he drives to his home in the suburbs. Is there more to him? That shot is often repeated (it is in fact the opening) and that guitar is a mainstay of the soundtrack, it implies that a pain or bad experience underlie the film and the man. That pain is undoubtedly Vietnam.
So now we have him set up as a mean cop, but he does have a soul, and has reasons for being violent (are they justifiable?). His family, we learn, comprises of two daughters – the younger one adores him, the elder hates him – and their respective mothers...who happen to be sisters. His younger daughter asks if she is inbred. She isn’t, but still...come on dude. And they all live together in one big unhappy family. All in all this is interesting and endearing, I felt myself caring about his life.
Soon enough, one of those in-car thoughtful close-ups are interrupted – a car crashes in to him. He chases the driver, beats him brutally and ends up on the news as an example of police brutality. Up to this point I was enjoying myself, the film was a little quirky, well put together and had Woody Harrelson, I was set. However with this latest plot point came a mix of half explored characters, sub-plots and conspiracy theories. I had no need to see Dave brown become a puppet in some plot to depose the L.A.P.D. because his inner demons would do that for him. We meet an old friend of his father who provides sweeping insights into Dave’s personality, ok fine but why do it so clumsily? We meet Linda, a defence lawyer who starts an affair with Dave...to what end? She doesn’t change him, just makes him a bit more unhappy. I got the feeling that most of his descent into madness happened before we got there.
As I said, the film is well put together and provides us with a realistic feel, objects are in the foreground in scenes of domestic unrest and we feel like a visitor in the home. The camera will zoom in on faces or wobble like a handheld camera, yet in other scenes that demand it more extreme low and high angles are thrown in. However this switching of styles does create an inconstancy, it’s like there are two films; one where we are supposed to watch a damaged man fall apart and wonder if he is good inside or just a brutal cop; and one were a cop is a pawn in some conspiracy theory. I don’t know why the second part was there. Was this a case of bad script plus good director, or did everyone involved just lack experience to know when to stop? Harrelson got to shine in a few (too few) scenes and there is a good cast (note Ben Foster as a homeless veteran) but I was too distracted to really notice. This had potential but Bad Lieutenant’s place on the throne is in no danger.