A new season of Tulsa King may be a ways off, but Paramount+ has a very different Sylvester Stallone project for your viewing pleasure. The 1997 drama Cop Land is streaming now on the service as of January 1, 2025.
Cop Land was written and directed by James Mangold, who was coming off the success of his 1995 indie drama, Heavy. For his first studio film, Mangold was inspired by his own hometown of Washingtonville, New York, which had a high population of NYPD officers. Stallone’s career was in a downturn at the time, following a string of flops like Judge Dredd and Assassins; he gained forty pounds to play the lead role in the film and received some of his best reviews in decades for his performance. The film was a success for Miramax, making $63.7 million USD on a $15 million budget, and heralded Mangold’s arrival as a major director; his latest project, the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, is in theaters now.
What Is ‘Cop Land’ About?
Cop Land refers to Garrison, New Jersey, a town that’s home to a cabal of well-connected NYPD officers led by Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel). The law in Garrison is Sheriff Freddy Heflin (Stallone), who lost the hearing in one ear while saving a woman as a teenager, and is thus ineligible to join the NYPD. However, it all comes crashing down when Donlan’s nephew Murray “Superboy” Babitch (Michael Rapaport) panics and shoots two unarmed Black motorists; Donlan and his cohorts fake Babitch’s death and smuggle him into Garrison. Internal Affairs officer Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro) is on the case, but Garrison’s cops stonewall him at every turn – meanwhile, Freddy’s friend Figgsy (Ray Liotta) has fallen out of favor with the group. When Freddy finds incontrovertible evidence that the men he idolized are corrupt, it’s all going to come down to a final showdown. The film boasts an impressive supporting cast, including Cathy Moriarty, Robert Patrick, Janeane Garofalo, Noah Emmerich, and Deborah Harry. It also features a number of actors who would go on to garner fame on The Sopranos, including Edie Falco, Annabella Sciorra, Frank Vincent, and John Ventimiglia.
Despite its critical and financial success, Cop Land didn’t do much to reverse Stallone’s fortunes in the eyes of film critics and audiences. However, when he reprised his most famous role in 2008’s Rocky Balboa, he earned excellent reviews – and with its 2017 followup, Creed, he earned his first Oscar nomination in almost forty years.