Rampart, 2011.
Directed by Oren Moverman.
Starring Woody Harrelson, Ice Cube, Ned Beatty, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, Brie Larson, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi and Sigourney Weaver.
SYNOPSIS:
In 1999 Los Angeles, veteran police officer Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson) – the last of a dying breed of Vietnam-vet ‘cowboy’ cops – struggles to survive amid accusations of police brutality, and an investigation into a shooting in the line of duty.
James Ellroy, the man responsible for writing L.A. Confidential, Street Kings and The Black Dahlia, brings his detailed knowledge of the L.A.P.D and the landscape of the City of Angels to Rampart. He contextualizes the political tension of the late 90s L.A., where racial prejudice embroils the ‘RAMPART’ division – and particularly Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson). Brown is a department dinosaur, too hard headed and controversial to progress through the ranks. He’s stuck to his patrol car, overtly disrupting criminal operations on the street. His family life is complex; he lives next to a house shared by two sisters (and consecutive ex-wives) – played by Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon – and their two children, both fathered by Brown, and floats into the family home, anchoring a group of woman together that resent him. Finally, the elephant in the room is a past controversy where a suspected date rapist was ‘allegedly’ (i.e. certainly) murdered by Brown, with a lack of evidence clearing him of any wrongdoing.
There’s a great economy in the script that tells you everything you need to know about Brown’s world without feeling bombarded by over explanation. The settings and encounters are designed to have Brown show is who he is in differing situations. Director and co-writer Oren Moverman (The Messenger) does a phenomenal job of putting the audience right in the face of Brown. The point-of-view constantly looks upon Brown looking upon the world. We’re in Brown’s face so much that you almost feel enveloped in the second hand smoke pouring liberally from his mouth. The lighting and colour palette of Rampart makes the sunbathed streets of L.A. feel like the desert locales of current war films. As Brown’s descent into chaos progresses, the colourful lights clash and mesh and it feels like you’re in his hazy, drunken, drug-addled existence and because so much of Rampart is him being interrogated, Moverman does a great job of capturing conversations without adhering to the static ‘shot-reverse-shot’ tactic for the duration. In only his second effort as director, Moverman is certainly another one I’ll be adding to my watch-list.
The supporting cast are integral and powerful, providing rich character portraits in whatever time they’re allowed. Anne Heche’s Catherine and Cynthia Nixon’s Barbara are the sisters / exes attempting to remain cordial in order to keep Brown’s ‘perfect world’ together. They’re both repressed by the presence of Brown and it’s certainly inferred that he’s had violent outbursts to keep them in line. It’s only when he’s drowning in the depths of two controversies that they begin to get the ammunition to break down this awkward situation. Heche is more dynamic as Catherine because she wants to hurt Brown, whereas Nixon’s Barbara is trying to keep the peace.
Robin Wright’s Linda becomes slightly infatuated with Brown in the wake of the first round of controversy in the film and she becomes the source of escape; as their relationship changes, you see that she’s also the outlet for his loss in composure. I’m loving seeing more of Wright (who also stars in David Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) – not only is she incredibly beautiful, but she’s effortlessly complex and mysterious. Sigourney Weaver’s police attorney Joan Confrey has some of the more powerful spoken confrontations with Brown, getting to his motivations to remain a police officer in the midst of the controversy. Ice Cube’s performance as the moral, idealistic Officer Timkins is as good as his earlier breakout in Boyz n the Hood and better really than anything I’ve seen since. Ned Beatty plays Brown’s last remaining confidant, Hartshorn, a retired cop from the ‘glory days’ who keeps him afloat until a helping hand becomes a potential betrayal in Brown’s descent into paranoia. Beatty embodies the bulldog cop breed, who is not-so-subtlety manipulative and conniving if it’s in the interest of self-preservation.
Finally, Woody Harrelson is stretched to perform one of the fullest and instantly classic ‘crooked-cops’ that I’ve ever seen delivered within the constraints of a cinematic running time. Michael Chiklis had seven seasons of The Shield to get us to the depths of Vic Mackey, and I would argue that Harrelson’s Brown is that good. He’s an utter renegade, seemingly perceiving himself as an Old West sheriff of what he calls “occupied territory.” To compare, Mackey had his crew and a series of contacts to protect his activities, while Nicolas Cage’s McDonagh in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans operated in a psychedelic dream world version of policing thanks to Werner Herzog’s weirdness. Ellroy and Overman give a real world context for Brown and therefore provide a more hostile and authentic landscape to navigate through with his brand of behaviour.
However, it’s Brown’s intelligence that makes him so unique. He’s versed in every single legal precedent to protect himself and is dynamic to watch playing politics with his superiors and the Mayor Bill Blago (Steve Buscemi). Although he admits to failing the ‘bar exam’ to become a lawyer, he uses the knowledge to galvanize him from scrutiny and to make his employers painfully aware of the amount of trouble that they’d get themselves into by getting rid of him without the ‘right’ ammunition. Harrelson compounds minor quirks, fierce intelligence, flaws, charm and humour and pairs it with racism, self-righteousness, substance abuse, collusion, rage, and desperation. The resulting character is utterly mesmerizing.
Rampart is a hypnotic, subjective and immersive experience into the deepest depths of a character that you love to hate. Ellroy, Moverman and Harrelson make the eloquent and deeply corrupt Brown the most charismatic, charming sociopath riding a gyre to rock bottom. It’s powerfully ambiguous filmmaking, and you need to see it.
Flickering Myth Rating: Film ***** / Movie *****
Blake Howard is a writer/site director/podcaster at the castleco-op.com. Follow him on Twitter here:@blakeisbatman.
Originally published April 7, 2012. Updated November 6, 2019.
