This Underrated '90s Police Thriller Is The Modern-Day Western You've Been Looking For

Thanks to Taylor Sheridan's never-ending stream of "Yellowstone" shows and spin-offs, modern-day Westerns have risen in popularity. The Western genre had a boom between the 1940s and 1950s, and while these types of stories never really went away, their widespread appeal grew limited. But since trends seem to be cyclical, and everything old is new again, Westerns are now thriving in modern-day forms.

While Sheridan reaps most of the rewards from this trend, James Mangold got there before him. Mangold has several Western or Western-adjacent films, including his remake of "3:10 to Yuma" and "Logan," which dropped Hugh Jackman's Wolverine into a "Shane"-influenced saga. But even before those movies, Mangold hit the modern-day Western sweet-spot with his underrated 1997 thriller "Cop Land."

The lead-up to the release of that picture received a fair amount of hype. Mangold assembled a killer supporting cast, many of whom had a history of working with Martin Scorsese, including Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, and Harvey Keitel. And then there was the film's star: Sylvester Stallone, who gained a bunch of weight to play against-type as the film's weary hero. I distinctly remember there being plenty of talk about Stallone landing an Oscar nomination for trying something different. But then "Cop Land" hit theaters in August of '97, and the hype died down considerably.

"Cop Land" was by no means a box office flop. But it wasn't quite the buzzy hit everyone had hoped for, either, and the movie quickly faded from the pop-culture consciousness. Part of this underwhelming reaction was likely because the film fell victim to its own star-driven hype. In an interview from 2017, Mangold admitted he always envisioned "Cop Land" as a much smaller film, and was hoping Gary Sinise would take the lead role before Stallone got involved. 

In fact, Mangold wasn't keen on Stallone being in "Cop Land" at all, so much so that he gave the "Rocky" actor a list of things to avoid doing in the film. To Stallone's credit, he actually followed Mangold's list to the letter. "He delivered," the director said. "He never suggested a change to the script, he never told me how I should shoot him, he never interfered in the movie production at all..."

Years later, "Cop Land" holds up considerably well, and definitely scratches the modern-day Western itch. Like many classic Westerns, "Cop Land" focuses on a beat-down lawman who has the chance to finally do the right thing after years of looking the other way. Stallone's Freddy Heflin is the sheriff of a small New Jersey town that's become home to a horde of corrupt New York City cops, lead by smirking tough guy Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel). When Ray gets involved in a conspiracy to protect his trigger-happy nephew (Michael Rapaport) after the nephew guns down a car full of unarmed Black men, Freddy is well-aware of the plot and initially chooses to do nothing, even when Internal Affairs cop Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro) comes calling.

Stallone is excellent here, playing Freddy as a tragic loser still pining for the girl who got away (Annabella Sciorra). He has all the beat-down, small-town energy of a character from a Bruce Springsteen song. I'm talking the low-key Springsteen of "The River" and "Nebraska" (and indeed, two different Springsteen songs are on the "Cop Land" soundtrack), not the stadium rocker. 

Freddie's seemingly only friend is Figgsy, another crooked cop played with twitchy coke-chipping energy by the late, great Ray Liotta. Liotta's substance abuse-user character feels akin to Dean Martin's drunken gunfighter from "Rio Bravo," while the overall arc of the film itself recalls the classic Stanley Kramer/Gary Cooper Western "High Noon."

Sure enough, Freddy eventually decides to do the right thing, culminating in the film's most Western-influenced scene: Sheriff Freddy stalking through the empty streets of town with a gun while engaging in a shocking, bloody shoot-out with the bad guys. It's the exact type of heart-pounding, fist-pumping moment Western fans crave, and it serves as a surprising moment of violent action in a film that's surprisingly reserved. I don't know if anyone considers "Cop Land" a classic these days, but it's well worth revisiting, especially if you like your Westerns set in modern times.