In a 2020 retrospective piece, James Mangold spoke to Vulture about how he conceived the thought for a movie like “Cop Land.” Though it was launched in 1997, the movie is eerily reminiscent of the present political local weather and the societal woes introduced on by the reckless actions of cops. The thought to exemplify the sentiments of unease introduced on by police institutions’ close-knit circles got here to Mangold on a drive:
“I keep in mind getting the thought for the film whereas driving on the Palisades Parkway, and interested by learn how to transpose a Western film template onto what you may name a Seventies Sidney Lumet movie — to make a movie about these communities that have been all interconnected, but at conflict. I had this concept of a city that might exist and be just like the city I grew up in — solely exaggerated to be one hundred pc cops.”
Well-known Sidney Lumet motion pictures just like the 1957 basic “12 Angry Men” or “Dog Day Afternoon” are intense, character-driven movies with a pointy social lens. Given Mangold’s ambition to mix the tone of a Lumet movie with a “Western film template,” it is no surprise that “Cop Land” turned such a provocative movie that has aged so properly. In regard to the essential different half of that mashup, the small city setting is the essential facet that performs most into the Western style.
