Rampart - cop out of control

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Movie
German title Rampart - cop out of control
Original title Rampart
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2011
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Oren Moverman
script James Ellroy ,
Oren Moverman
production Ben Foster ,
Lawrence Inglee ,
Ken Kao ,
Clark Peterson
music Dickon Hinchliffe
camera Bobby Bukowski
cut Jay Rabinowitz
occupation

Rampart - Cop out of control (Original title: Rampart ) is an American drama film directed by Oren Moverman . Woody Harrelson took on the leading role .

action

Dave Brown works as a patrol officer in the Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department . He lives with his two ex-wives, sisters Barbara and Catherine, and their daughters Helen and Margaret in a house, which leads to constant conflicts between everyone involved. In addition, he has constantly changing affairs with other women.

Brown is extremely brutal in pursuing and arresting suspects. In the same way, he harasses new colleagues and disregards the rules of his superiors. He has been nicknamed "Rapist Dave" since a previous case.

After a traffic accident, he follows the perpetrator and beats him half to death, but this is filmed by a surveillance camera and the population's trust in the police, which was already shaken by a corruption scandal, sinks to a new low. In the course of the investigation, he is advised to retire, but Brown refuses. He fears that he will only be used as a scapegoat to distract attention from the corruption scandal.

In a bar he meets the lawyer Linda Fentress and ends up in bed with her. However, he later becomes suspicious as he fears that the ongoing investigations will result in the prosecution's spying. He soon notices Homicide Detective Kyle Timkins, who is actually stalking him to gather material for a possible arrest and trial.

To raise the money for the necessary legal fees, he turns to Hartshorn, an ex-police officer and old friend of his father. This gives him an indication of an illegal game of chance. When he arrives there, the gamblers are relieved of all the money by two robbers. Brown pursues the robbers together with one of the players and kills him. However, he lets the robber escape after taking all the money from him.

His family eventually throws him out of the house and has to move to a hotel. His daughters are also becoming increasingly estranged from him. There are also further conflicts with the lawyer Linda and his mentor Hartshorn. After a violent argument with Hartshorn, in the course of which he suffers a heart attack, Brown leaves him dying on a deserted beach without help.

Brown gives himself more and more to drug and alcohol use and eventually plays with suicidal thoughts. Annoyed, he calls Timkins and at a meeting confesses his excesses of violence and at least one murder he has committed. Timkins, however, has no interest in these confessions, as he wants to convict Brown anyway and does not want to let Brown destroy his investigative work and the upcoming arrest.

In the end, Brown is left to his own devices and, after the useless confession, looks completely disillusioned and disoriented towards an uncertain future.

background

Brie Larson and Ben Foster at the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2011

The Rampart Division of the LAPD was shaken in the 1990s by the so-called "Rampart scandal". At that time, 70 police officers from the division were charged with various crimes such as corruption, police violence, theft, drug trafficking, bank robbery, etc. The film takes up this scandal and the eponymous section in the title as well as the unspecified scandal, for which Brown is supposed to serve as a " pawn ".

reception

The reviews for the film were rather muted. While the majority of critics praised Harrelson's strong acting, the conventional script and Moverman's staging style were particularly criticized.

“'Rampart' is more of a character study than a tough cop drama and, with the prominent cast, belies its true structure a little - Woody Harrelson does Moverman's second directorial work almost single-handedly. Unfortunately, due to an overly conventional script, Moverman cannot build on the quality of his strong debut ' The Messenger '. "

- movie starts

“A dense, dark crime drama that depicts a world with no hope of salvation, in which the protagonist acts accordingly disoriented. The film concentrates entirely on the outstanding leading actor, but cannot hide its volatility and insufficient psychological foundation. "

- Lexicon of international film

“ Woody Harrelson can now also play a dirty cop in Oscar-nominated Oren Moverman's second feature film. He, in turn, makes the same mistakes in terms of staging and narrative as in his debut, which does not make Rampart a bad film, but also not a good one. "

- Moviemaze

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Rampart - Cop out of control . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , May 2012 (PDF; test number: 132 859 V).
  2. ^ The Filmstarts criticism of Rampart at filmstarts.de, accessed on November 26, 2012
  3. ^ Rampart - Cop Out of Control in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed November 26, 2012 Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  4. ^ Moviemaze criticism of Rampart ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )