The best thing about this movie is the end. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really great movie. Maybe the best you’ll see this year.
Review by Alan Greenhalgh.
Set in the police Precint of Rampart in Los Angeles it’s one man’s journey into paranoia, anxiety and retribution. Woody Harrelson plays Cop Dave Brown. “It was a great script and probably the best part I’ve ever been offered,” says the actor. Agreed. ‘I believe that deep down, Dave Brown really wanted to do good things for people, and when he crossed that line, it was because he has to provide for his family and in his mind, he only did bad things to bad people.’
Woody Harrelson
Dave Brown drives down pigeons and hoodlums – they’re the same to him. He extracts his confessions with menace and violence. He’s erudite, knows his legalese and won’t kowtow to the bosses. He’s an outsider even in his own marriage, kids and life. An anti-hero. You won’t see a better performance by an actor any while soon, Harrelson inhabits the role so deeply. Almost every shot was done with a handheld camera, often taking in a 360-degree scope. The lighting is natural. The closeness to the character deep up against his face, into his sun shaded eyes, are a bit unnerving sometimes. Beautiful but brutal.
‘Times were changing and just like in a Western, as the law comes to town, things shift. It’s a time of transition. There are those who choose to change and move on, and those who refuse to change and probably not make it.’ It’s ‘King Lear,’ says veteran actor Ned Beatty of the Rampart script. “I thought Woody’s character is like King Lear, and my character is like the Fool. He is closer to this man than almost anyone, and like most jesters or fools, they get to tell the truth when other people can’t or won’t tell it.”
Vegan Woody Harrelson went on a specialized diet and lost 25 pounds to reflect the description that writer James Ellroy and Director Oren Moverman had put into the script of a man who rarely, if ever, eats. Dave Brown can’t stand waste and forces his trainee to eat her lunch in a show of macho power and insensitivity. We asked how Woody lost so must weight and Rampart_Movie: told us that ‘Woody asked Christian Bale for tips…his advice? “Eat well and run like hell!”
Chain-smoking, bully beating, hard-drinking, people-hating it’s a bravura performance. Even his kids call him ‘Date Rape Dave.’ Everyone is running away from him but the authorities are closing in.
Rampart is Los Angeles’s most densely populated community, and The Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department serves communities to the west and northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Its name is derived from Rampart Boulevard, one of the principal thoroughfares in its patrol area.
Set in 1999 Los Angeles and during that time, there were numerous allegations of extreme police misconduct and corruption among the Rampart officers and detectives of the CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) squad. The resulting investigation severely compromised the credibility of the LAPD, and culminated in firings, suspensions and resignations of the accused officers. James Ellroy had very strong feelings about the events and people involved, and wanted to reflect that in his writing having already told Rolling Stone Magazine that the Rampart police scandals were overblown by a biased media. Not one to shy from his own story Ellroy says “I wanted to recreate the story of Rampart and also make it the story of one very twisted man’s redemption. I had recently gone through a divorce and a lot of crazy misadventures with women, and I wanted to incorporate my personal life into this story, of more than anything else, atonement at a horrible price.”
In terms of the Rampart scandal itself, the filmmakers decided that the historical events would serve as a backdrop, and not be a focus of the story. “This is not a movie about the Rampart scandal, it’s a movie about the idea of Rampart, the district and the state of mind,” explains Moverman.
Ben Foster
There’s such talent in this movie such as Ben Foster, not only as an actor playing the part of a homeless, disabled veteran, but also as one of the film’s producers. You’ll see Sigourney Weaver who and took on the role of Assistant D.A. Joan Confrey and says “I’m not interested in the size of the part. The question I ask myself is, is this a story I want to be a part of?’ The script was amazing. I read it several times. Even the stage directions were beautifully written. I’ve never been in any film remotely like Rampart.”
Rampart was filmed entirely on the streets of Los Angeles, and featured such familiar sites as City Hall, the L.A. Times building, Barrigan’s Pub, the Pacific Dining Car (where Ellroy got married), Original Tommy’s Burger and the Kyoto Grand Hotel in Little Tokyo among many others. One building in the downtown area that served as the set of the Rampart police station was at one time, the actual detective’s bureau for the Rampart police department. A visit to that set by James Ellroy found the writer proclaiming it “the most realistic looking police squad room I’ve ever seen for a film set.”
It’s a 2012 must see movie.
RAMPART
Directed by: Oren Moverman
Written by: James Ellroy and Oren Moverman
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Sigourney Weaver, Steve Buscemi, Robin Wright, Ben Foster, Anne Heche, Jon Bernthal, Ice Cube, Ned Beatty, Brie Larson, Cynthia Nixon and Jon Foster.
UK Release Date: 24 February 2012
Running Time: 108 minutes
From: STUDIOCANAL
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