Film Review: Rampart

Director: Oren Moverman

Moverman co-wrote the script for Rampart with James McEllroy and managed to create a film which takes an acrid and brutal look at police corruption in LA in the wake of the Rampart scandal at the end of the 1990's. Dave Brown (the simply awesome Woody Harrelson) is the bad cop in question who is a foul mouthed, chain smoking sexist and possible murderer which lead to his nickname 'Date Rape Dave'. He has two kids both by different mothers who also happen to be sisters and they all live under one very unhappy roof.

Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson) attacking a member of the public but was caught on camera

The Rampart scandal hit the Los Angeles Police Department in the mid-1990's and saw more than 70 police officers implicated for a wide variety of crimes that ranged from framing suspects to dealing narcotics. It was a scandal that the media jumped upon and lead to many convicts being released early and spread doubt among the public about the police force.

Dave Brown adds to the problem by chasing and beating a man who accidently drove into his police car then tried to run away. The whole incident is caught on camera and the film is sent to the local news networks, with the whole thing stinking of a setup. This leaves Dave on light duties and plenty of opportunities to discuss his behaviour with his superiors or seem fully aware that his conduct as a police officer isn't exactly by the book. This is shown in the opening scenes when he is openly sexist towards a new recruit he is supposed to be training before physically assaulting a robbery suspect to reveal information. Despite his erratic and violent behavour, Dave has encyclopedic knowledge of previous case law and is obviously an intelligent guy who has gone off the rails as he became more drunk on power and booze over time.

Dave with his eldest daughter Helen (Brie Larson) 

The whole film revolves around Woody Harrelson and that can only be a good thing as he is compelling and fascinating within the film, a modern day Travis Bickle in some regards. Rampart is more of a character study than a film about the events that happen, it hopes to help you understand Dave Brown but without giving much away in terms of his past. Ice Cube is criticly underused within the film and could have served as a great antagonist for Brown.

It is an acrid and desolate film at times but I can only be impressed by the way it has been filmed, none of the scenes are staged so quite often you will hear car noise and stereos blasting as if you were actually in downtown LA with the characters.

2/4 Harrelson's performance and some great individual scenes stop this being a total flop