Rampart (2011)

On March the 3^rd 1991, police in Los Angeles excessively beat Rodney King with batons for resisting arrest after a car chase. The beating was caught on camera and caused a media storm and later (after the police officers in question were acquitted) caused the LA riots of 1992. This incident has been referenced numerous times in cinema, most notably in National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1(1993) and American History X (1998). But it is not only this specific incident, or even cinema alone that has highlighted police brutality or inherent racism within the American Police Department (and the LAPD in particular). N.W.A released their album ‘Straight Outta Compton’ in 1988 which featured the protest song ‘Fuck Tha Police’. While it was never released as a single it garnered great notoriety and is evidence of the feelings felt towards the Los Angeles Police Department. Over 20 years have passed since this prolific time of bad blood between the LAPD and common opinion, but is it still an issue? The Oscar winning Crash (2004) questioned racism throughout LA, not just its law enforcers and now Rampart (2011) questions the corruption and how it’s been tackled. The word ‘question’ is used loosely here, as no real answers are provided and no real evidence is brought forward; these are, after all fictional films. But films often reflect the culture they are released to, or at least the opinion of certain group of society they are aimed at.

Set in 1999, James Ellroy’s story watches as the LAPD, along with the rest of the world, attempts to make changes as the millennium approaches. The actual narrative seems almost inconsequential in comparison to the lead character and the situation he finds himself in. The film is a character study and the character in question is Woody Harrelson’s ‘Date-Rape’ Dave Brown. The nickname was earned because he “may or may not have killed a man” who was well known serial rapist. This incident implies that Brown is man of moral stature who can’t abide those that mistreat others and will stop them by any means necessary, even by stepping outside of the law he upholds. The reality is quite the opposite. He’s the past that the LAPD is trying to sweep under the carpet; he’s corrupt, violent, chauvinistic and racist. It would appear that his biggest downfall, however, is his refusal to adapt when the world around him is changing. It seems that if he had been willing to change, his past discretions would have remained in the past; if he had used some subtlety he would have been able to continue his career and life without adding disciplinary action from the police, politicians or media. This didn’t happen, and after having his squad car hit in a road collision, Brown mercilessly beat the other driver and when caught on camera he tried to argue that it was self-defense after being attacked with a deadly weapon. This collision is the catalyst of the film. It brings Brown’s consistent wrong-doings out from behind closed doors and into the media spot-light which is something that the LAPD can’t afford. Brown’s corruption jumps to the foreground and forces issues with his family to the surface and slowly draws out his paranoia, alcohol and drug abuse and his insecurities such as an apparent eating disorder.

Brown’s paranoia blames everybody around him for his situation for himself but doesn’t allow any of the blame to fall on him. His paranoia not only implies, but constantly shouts, that he has been set-up, that the camera was planted and that the top brass in Rampart were trying to use him as a scapegoat. There is no evidence supplied in the film to back up Brown’s accusation, however it raises the possibility: did the police really make the necessary changes? Or did they simply remove the most notorious offenders, pulling out the weeds but leaving in the roots? The film doesn’t answer the question; it doesn’t even give any credence to it and as a character study it doesn’t allow for other information to enter the debate, it simply floats the idea through the ramblings of a drunk and paranoid man as his misdeeds slowly catch up to him.

The film boasts an impressive cast with the likes of Steve Buscemi, Ice Cube (formerly of the previously mentioned NWA) and Sigourney Weaver appearing. Each supporting actor supplies an impressive performance, but they all, are simply support. It is Harrelson, appeariong in every scene, who carries the film with his arrogant, and yet pained and lonely portrayal of the sort of cop that was almost globally hated throughout the 1980s and 1990s. On top of the great cast, the film has a screenplay written by James Ellroy - whose LA crime/noir novels such as L.A Confidential and The Black Dahlia (the novels as opposed to the films) are enough of a reason to draw audiences to any of his work - and was directed by Oren Moverman, who gained critical respect with his directorial debut The Messenger (2009).

The style of the film suits the story, the camera moving about as regularly as Brown does, spinning and often swaying, almost like one of the rogue cameras catching the police brutality to forward on to the media later, but there is one sore thumb sticking out. Midway through the film Brown enters a club, and the scene takes on an almost style over substance feel. The scene clearly uses symbolism to add a bit of depth to Brown (solidifying the addictions he holds and the eating disorder he masks with constant chain smoking) but the style of this scene, along with many other aspects of it draw the audience out before it comes to an end and returns to normalcy regaining the attention of the audience. The scene is not necessarily pointless, but was simply approached in the wrong way.

With that sore thumb taken into consideration, the film is still a triumph that states, despite the failed screen adaptations of Ellroy’s work, there is still a way for his writing to connect with film audiences and is worth catching while it is still in cinemas.


Written by Edward L. Corrigan on 08/03/2012