This Is the Best Director Sylvester Stallone Ever Worked With — and It Makes Total Sense

Over the course of his career, Sylvester Stallone‘s worked with a number of talented directors – including Ryan Coogler (Creed), Richard Donner (Assassins), and James Gunn (The Suicide Squad). There’s one director that Stallone named as the best he ever worked with, though. Who scored that honor? James Mangold. In a Variety interview, Stallone had nothing but praise for Mangold and Cop Land, the film they worked on together: “I had done “Cop Land” a little bit before that, which I thought would be a good acting exercise, and I worked with the best director I ever worked with — James Mangold.” Cop Land does stand out in Stallone’s body of work, especially with the role he plays in the film.

What Is ‘Cop Land’ About?

Cop Land, true to form, focuses on a police officer: Freddy Heflin (Stallone), the Sherrif of a small town in New Jersey. Freddy has become entangled with a group of police officers led by Lt. Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel). Donlan’s group is immensely corrupt, leaning on a loophole to stay ahead of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs department. They also exploit Freddy’s admiration of them to make sure he keeps his mouth shut, but things take a turn when Donlan’s nephew, Murray Babitch (Michael Rapaport) fatally shoots two African-American teenagers in a confrontation. In his desperation to cover things up, Donlan starts losing the members of his group; meanwhile, Freddy decides to investigate Donlan’s past, finding out his ties to organized crime.

‘Cop Land’ Gave Sylvester Stallone the Opportunity to Play Against Type

What makes Cop Land such a standout for Stallone is that he’s playing completely against type. Up to that point, he was known as the quintessential ’80s action hero, especially with his role in the Rambo and Rocky franchises. But Freddy is a different story; he’s deaf in one ear, he’s a pushover, and he’s romantically involved with a woman who’s married to one of the cops in Donlan’s circle. One of the very first scenes of Cop Land features Freddy’s deputy Betts (Janeane Garafalo) pulling over Donlan for running a light; despite the fact that he clearly broke a law and is insulting Betts, Freddy lets him go.

This takes a swerve in the back half of the film, when Freddy starts to go after Donlan and his men. In a pivotal scene, Freddy confronts Internal Affairs officer Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro), who he previously blew off in the past; despite his efforts, Tilden reveals that the mayor has stopped Internal Affairs from investigating due to Donlan’s pull. A dejected Freddy replies, “You people are all the same.” before he walks off. It’s a small moment, but a powerful one that shows Stallone had range. To embrace a character that’s opposite of the ones he built his career on, while also holding his own against an actor of De Niro’s caliber, is nothing short of amazing.

‘Cop Land’ Marked a Trend in James Mangold’s Films

Cop Land was a unique film, even for the ’90s: while other films featured police officers as protagonists, it interrogates the system of law enforcement, showcasing how those sworn to uphold the law can twist it to their own ends. Mangold has taken this subversive approach to a great deal of his films, which results in some compelling stories. 3:10 to Yuma ends with William Evans (Logan Lerman) turning down the chance to shoot outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe), instead comforting his dying father (Christian Bale) — a direct opposite of the usual “hero shoots the outlaw dead” ending that permeates most Westerns. Logan has Hugh Jackman play an old, embittered Wolverine whose healing factor has slowed to a crawl — forcing the clawed Canadian to contend with his own mortality. Even Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny didn’t end with Harrison Ford‘s titular archeologist dying, as most people thought; instead, he reconciles with his wife Marion (Karen Allan) and has a surprisingly happy ending. It’s no surprise why Stallone called Mangold the best director he’s ever worked with; while most filmmakers often go for the obvious, Mangold is still willing to take risks.

Though Cop Land was packed with an impressive cast and a great premise, it flew under film fans’s radar — and Mangold was more than willing to point out that this was due to the interference of Harvey Weinstein. In a retrospective celebrating Cop Land‘s 25th anniversary, Mangold didn’t hold back:

“Certainly, Harvey was much more fearsome than anything I’ve ever seen before or since in terms of the implicit bullying. There was always this threat of violence in the air around them. The kind of mood and tension of
Cop Land
was not unlike the tension at Miramax. It was a kind of mob-rule company.”

Despite Weinstein’s tyrannical behavior, which included micromanaging Mangold in the editing bay and scripting a new ending that De Niro thankfully shot down, Cop Land is worth a watch, as it shows Sylvester Stallone in arguably one of his best roles.

Cop Land is currently available to stream on Hoopla in the U.S.

WATCH ON HOOPLA