Cop (1988) – Review

The genre of the hard boiled cop pushed too far by the system pretty much hit it’s zenith in the 70s thanks to the sight of Clint Eastwood blowing holes through crazed killers in Dirty Harry. The template was pretty simple: feature a cop with old school values who visibly rankles at the sight of ladder climbing superiors and liberal laws that seemingly protect the perpetrator more than the victim; give him an adversary so deranged, they instantly justify any illegal action our loose cannon chooses to take; and then add any other cliche you care to add, such as broken marriages, disgruntled superiors, a roaming libido and a final act showdown.
The subgenre had been handled in the past with a sense of brutal nobility thanks to the efforts of Harry Callahan and it’s been treated like a grotesquely exagerated cartoon in the likes of Sylvester Stallone’s Cobra, but the common denominator in these movies and thousands more copycats is that for all their flaws, the shoot first, ask questions never type heroes are usually portrayed as world weary white hats.
Enter James Woods…

LAPD detective sergeant Lloyd Hopkins is what you’d call a walking contradiction. He may have the highest arrest record around, but it’s come at a price as his volatile nature means that he rarely follows police procedure and his marriage is rapidly collapsing due to his day to day exposure of concentrated, urban ugliness which has frazzled his sanity into a dystopian wasteland. Sure, he loves his kid, but that doesn’t stop him toiling ungodly hours to bring down scumbags and blowing off steam by hitting on the dates of suspects he’s just shot dead in self defence. However, his nihilistic frame of mind is hardly appeased when he investigates an anonymous tip only to walk into a gruesome murder scene that features a mutilated woman hung upside down from her ceiling. Even to a hardbitten prick like Hopkins, this is pretty horrifying stuff and his rebellious instincts kick in immediately as he starts collecting and accumulating evidence without his superiors knowledge that leads to a rather worrying fact: there may be a serial killer at work.
However, due to his unorthodox methods and his habit of screwing any attractive female leads he just happens to run across, Lloyd finds that his stuck up bosses care more about sparing the LAPD a bloody nose than actually catching the killer that may have already claimed multiple victims over a fifteen year period. As his investigation continues regardless of his career or his marriage, Lloyd comes into contact with the likes of shady Deputy Sheriff “Whitey” Haines, who may have info on some “suicides” that may have actually been the work of the murderer; and feminist bookstore owner Kathleen McCarthy, who may be connected to the killer in ways she couldn’t imagine.
As his personal and professional life goes up in smoke all around him, can Hopkins close the case no matter the cost.

When you take into consideration that Cop is an adaption of a James Ellroy novel (1984’s Blood On The Moon), it’s super-blunt and utterly uncompromising stance suddenly makes a hell of a lot of sense. Seemingly brought into existence by both director James B. Harris and star James Woods in an attempt to pour a gravel pit’s worth of grit onto such characters as Harry Callahan and Marion Cobretti, Cop stands as a fairly jarring example of a movie that couldn’t be made today. Of course, that’s the entire point; I mean the typically incendiary James Ellroy is hardly R.L. Stine for God’s sake, so the entire basis for the film is to give us a hero character that’s so flawed and fucked up, you’re supposed to wonder what’s become of the world that has you rooting a man like this on. Of course, if any actor has been genetically created in a lab to embody those roles more than the sardonic visage of James Woods, them I’m yet to meet them as the Crown Prince of Cinematic Scumbags proves to be beyond perfect for the role.
As a result, Cop ends up become possibly the most James Woods movie that you’ve ever seen. The actor flits between casually doing reprehensible things while simultaneously busting his hump to legitimately save the day and while most actors of any generation would be unable to pull of this kind of balancing act, Woods makes it looks like just another day at the office.

As contradictions go, Lloyd Hopkins is an absolute doozy. He’s a man so consumed with the concept that allowing a woman to grow up with fantasises of white knights and happy endings is so dangerous to their survival, he makes it his business to tell his cop war stories to his gleeful daughter as bedtime stories in order to wean out any naivety. Additionally, he’s a man who admits to having a special dislike of women being preyed upon, but who also openly roles his eyes at feminist ideals, makes light of someone’s rape story and is an unrepentant womaniser whenever he gets the chance; simply put, the dude is unfeasibly complex, but the film has no interest in taking him to task or even trying to put him in a pedestal – he just is and he has a job to do. Of course, some will take great exception to some major aspects of the character and, in turn, the film; for example Cop’s treatment of Lesley Ann Warren’s feminist as a damaged, highly strung oddball whose dangerous flighty view of the world actively hampers the investigation will seem nothing sort of offensive to some, especially as it seems to reinforce Hopkins’ skewed world view. Elsewhere, the movie has a typically cavalier attitude when it comes to homophobic slurs peppered liberally in the dialogue – but this isn’t a film that has any interest in playing nice, this is a film that only cares about plonking you directly into the mindset of a shitty man who does shitty things in order to do a tiny amount of good in a world that doesn’t seem to particularly care.
Taken in this respect (ie. the one that the movie operates in), Woods’ performance is top notch, charming and odious in equal measure and it’s a shame the neo-noir vibes of the plot can’t quite match him. Maybe Cop was a little fresher back in ’88, but nowadays, the movie seems swamped in so many clichés, it’s frequently tough to take it completely seriously – which is a bit of problem when the subject matter is as grim as this. For every jaw dropping moment where Woods has his character do some flabbergasting shit – dating the woman of a criminal he’s just shot is a herculean example of a low blow – the movie throws up a trope you’ve seen a billion times before and the slow burn nature of the investigation is massively offset by a rather out of place, action movie shootout that wraps up the case disappointingly quick.

However, there’s something perversely facinating about Woods’ creation and any film that ends with the main character bluntly stating “I just don’t give a fuck” and emptying his shotgun before we cut to black is worth seeing just for the old school vibes alone. Whether you love Woods or hate him, Cop probably won’t do much to change your mind; but you have to admit that no one can do virtuous sleaze bag better than him.
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