Rampart

Woody Harrelson leads this gritty film, playing David Brown, a Los Angeles uniform cop in 1999. It was a period when L.A. was really experiencing a lot of negative police sentiment/dirty cops. David believes he is in the right to rough up gang members or threaten or extort to get what he wants, as long as they are all bad guys. His personally perceived superiority is established for us very early in the film when he browbeats a subordinate cop into finishing all the food she bought for lunch.

David has several moral issues complicating his life right now. He has the unfortunate nickname of “Date Rape” due to his alleged deliberate killing of a date raper (not for self defense or to protect a particular victim) of which he has continually claimed to be legally in the right. An internal affairs investigation is hanging over him (investigators and politicians include Sigourney Weaver, Steve Buscemi and Ice Cube). He also has two daughters by two women (Cynthia Nixon, Ann Heche), and although the five of them currently have a loose family household, David’s problems will soon compel the mothers to ask him to leave their lives. The elder daughter, teenager Helen (Brie Larson), is old enough to question who exactly her father is and see for herself who he is. At one point she names all the things she thinks he is (misogynist, misanthropist, racist, chauvinist, etc.) and these are all borne out by the film, and yet I think there is some small part of David that is still morally good that he is fighting to reach.

David also meets a lawyer in a bar (Robin Wright) whom he suspects is involved with the investigation against him. They have a sexual, love/hate affair but she won’t fully admit to her involvement in his case. There is also a homeless man (Ben Foster) who witnesses new wrongdoing by David, and a friend of David’s (Ned Beatty) who becomes an enemy. The story ends with lots of unanswered questions, even after David has already given up to some extent.


Woody is particularly good. He’s an actor that personally has some strong and controversial views and I think that personality feeds right into this character portrayal. Although I don’t specifically seek him out as an actor, he always seems to really go for it in his roles, which are always different. Brie Larson's Helen especially is a key character to David's emotional story, and of all the characters and despite their relationship, she still has doubts and I think not fully anti-David. Perhaps that is a daughter's need to see her father is inherently good and heroic, but everyone else seems to have made up their mind about David already. Sigourney’s character gives David as good as she gets. Characters played by Buscemi, Heche and Nixon are mostly there just to establish types that are anti-David and I don’t think were very distinguished roles (although it gave Buscemi something to play outside his typical character performances). There are some artistic camera moves that I found distracting although I get why they were included. Sometimes it gets ultra close to the actors, another time it was a circular movement when people are talking around a table, sometimes all you see is half an actor.

Story is by James Ellroy, screenplay by Ellroy and the director Oren Moverman, who also directed and co-wrote The Messenger which starred Harrelson and Foster (Foster also co produced Rampart, so I guess they all must like working with each other). Woody fans will like this film, I liked how the character was interpreted but obviously David is not an easy person to like.