Rampart

Theatrical Release Date: 2011 11 23 (USA - Limited) / 2012 02 10 (USA - Expanding)

UPC: 687797135544

Studio: Millennium Entertainment

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Profanity, Sexual Situations]

Summary: Director Oren Moverman reteams with Woody Harrelson for Rampart, a brutally honest portrait of a corrupt Los Angeles police officer. Dave Brown (Harrelson) is already the focus of much internal investigation when he's caught on tape beating a black man, sending his already unstable career into a further tailspin. Dave lives with his wife and his ex-wife, who happen to be sisters, but that doesn't stop him from picking up women in bars and going to bed with a lawyer who may or may not be investigating him. As his life spirals out of control, Dave makes one last desperate grab for cash. Co-written by Moverman and crime novelist James Ellroy, Rampart played at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Film Presented – Toronto International Film Festival Film Presented – London Film Festival Best Male Lead – Independent Spirit Awards

Features: Director's commentayr
Cast and crew interviews
Behind the scenes
Previews

Rampart

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 05/15/2012

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DTHD null

Runtime: 107 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Language(s) English

Subtitles: Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Rampart
1. Main Titles [7:24]
2. Coming Home [10:13]
3. Accidents Happen [7:05]
4. Watching [8:24]
5. L.A.P.D. or Bust [9:05]
6. Sideshow [7:49]
7. Rude Awakening [7:59]
8. The General [7:58]
9. Pleasant Chat [13:30]
10. Swimming in the Rain [14:21]
11. Confession [5:47]
12. End Credits [8:07]

Perry Seibert

With his debut feature The Messenger, writer/director Oren Moverman fashioned a moving work that was equal parts Hal Ashby and Bob Rafelson. He reteams with Woody Harrelson for his follow-up Rampart, but it's a new collaborator, crime writer James Ellroy, who turns out to have the biggest influence on the finished film. Harrelson stars as David Brown, an L.A. cop as compromised and corrupt as you can imagine. In addition to facing another round of internal-affairs investigations stemming from his activities, he gets caught on video assaulting a black citizen. As his legal bills mount, he resorts to another ill-gotten scheme in order to swindle some bad guys out of cash, but ends up in deeper trouble. With nobody he can trust, David continues down a self-destructive path that includes sleeping with a lawyer investigating him. There really isn't all that much plot in Rampart, and what there is matters far less than David's actions and behavior. Harrelson inhabits the role, turning David into one of the scariest law-enforcement officials in modern cinema. He never has any moments of self-doubt or even basic conscience -- he's a creature who exists solely in order to keep existing. That this movie works as well as it does is a testament to Harrelson's talent. He's a magnetic actor, always capable of keeping us on edge -- we never know exactly what he might do -- and this ability is on constant display in Rampart. Regardless of the situations David gets himself mired in, his cagey verbal skills (he was almost a lawyer) and his seeming eagerness to physically intimidate whoever is confronting him work together to buy him just a little more time, which he promptly uses to self-destruct a little more. It's a fearless performance, bereft of vanity or any attempt to ingratiate himself to the audience. What's missing from the movie is a dramatic arc. David is a conflicted, mostly bad guy at the start of the film, and while we get a glimpse of how far he's willing to slide -- how difficult it will be for him to ever redeem himself -- there isn't a moment where he changes or even recognizes what he's doing to himself. The situation may get increasingly dire, but his outlook never alters, and while there's certainly a dark purity to the picture's vision, there's also a repetitive sameness that dilutes any sense of tragedy. James Ellroy has spent his career writing about corrupt cops, especially in the City of Angels, and David Brown represents one of his most uncompromised creations. A normal film like this would set up a conflict in which the corrupt cop usually breaks the rules in order to nab the bad guys, and to its credit Rampart avoids this clich?. But by concentrating so strongly on the decline of a single high-strung, pugnacious, self-annihilating officer, the movie doesn't offer any context at all. Harrelson is brilliant and David is a remarkable character, but the film ends up being just a character study; that's disappointing, since Moverman had the raw materials to go deeper into topics such as the intricacies of race and law enforcement, as well as how our culture allows reckless people into positions of authority. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Mark Gordon  Executive Producer 
Michael Franco  Executive Producer 
Clark Peterson  Producer 
Lila Yacoub  Executive Producer 
Oren Moverman  Director 
Oren Moverman  Screenwriter 
James Ellroy  Screenwriter 
Dickon Hinchliffe  Composer (Music Score) 
Paul Currie  Executive Producer 
Lawrence Inglee  Producer 
Ben Foster  Producer 
Garrett Kelleher  Executive Producer 
Ken Kao  Producer 
Woody Harrelson  Actor 
Sigourney Weaver  Actor 
Robin Wright  Actor 
Ned Beatty  Actor 
Ben Foster  Actor 
Ice Cube  Actor 
Anne Heche  Actor 
Cynthia Nixon  Actor 
Jon Bernthal  Actor 
Stella Schnabel  Actor 
Jon Foster  Actor 
Ruben Garfias  Actor 
Deadlee  Actor 
Dominic Flores  Actor 
Matt McTighe  Actor 
Brie Larson  Actor 
Samantha Boyarsky  Actor 
Billy Hough  Actor 
Audra McDonald  Actor 
Keith Woulard  Actor 
Steve Buscemi  Actor 
Harriet Harris  Actor 
Robert Wisdom  Actor 
Leonard Kelly-Young  Actor 
Ashley Thompson  Actor 
Don Creech  Actor 
Chuti Tiu  Actor 
Sophie Kargman  Actor 
Angelita Macias  Actor 
Assieh Ghassemi  Actor 
Mike Deldicobo  Actor 
Borislov Solakov  Actor 
Francis Capra  Actor 
Jim O'Hagen  Actor 
Tim Russ  Actor 
Bryan Rasmussen  Actor 
William Paul Clark  Actor 

Country: USA