Sunday Matinee #67 Cop Land
Your chance to watch Robert De Niro talk with his mouth full!
Acts 4:5-12 | Revised Common Lectionary | EnterTheBible.org
Fourth Sunday of Easter | 04.21.2024
Context: Simon Peter and John are still at Solomon’s Portico, teaching and preaching to a crowd about Jesus. They get mixed reactions from the crowd, depending on how they feel about this new teaching.
11 [Peter said,] “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone. 12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”
Cop Land | 1997
IMDb | Letterboxd | RRMC
Context: Freddy Heflin (Sylvester Stallone) is the Sheriff of Garrison, New Jersey, a small town whose residents are mostly all cops. Lt. Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro) has been pushing Freddy to give him tips on anything unethical that he sees, but Freddy tries to walk a fine line between being an honest cop and policing his friends. Finally, his so-called friends take it too far and Freddy is ready to do the right thing. But Moe’s internal affairs investigation has been shut down. There’s nothing he can do. But maybe Freddy can…
Freddy Heflin: Look, I'm sorry it took so long for me to come around, but you were right. I couldn't see the truth. Like you said, the evidence, my loyalty, they were confusing.
Moe is more interested in his take-out lunch than anything Freddy has to say.
Moe Tilden: They never give you any napkins in this place. What am I supposed to use? You want this?
Freddy can see he has to admit his mistake if he’s going to get anywhere.
Freddy Heflin: What is this? You came to me, to my town, with all these speeches, talking to me about doing the right thing. I'm doing the right thing. What's goin' on? What are you doing?
Moe Tilden: That was like two weeks ago.
Freddy Heflin: Two weeks ago? What about Babitch?
Moe Tilden: What about him? Fuck him.
Freddy Heflin: What about Donlan?
Moe Tilden: Fuck him, too.
Freddy Heflin: What about Joey Randone?
Moe Tilden: He fell off a building. Don't you read the papers? Listen, Sheriff, I'm really sorry to have awoken you from your slumber, but it's over. Hands are tied now. You shut me down.
Freddy Heflin: No, listen to me. You're I.A. That's why I came to you. You can do whatever you want. Remember you came to me, said: "You wanna be a cop?" I'm bein' a cop, now!
Moe Tilden: Listen to me.
Freddy Heflin: I’m here! I'm asking you for some help.
Moe Tilden: I offered you a chance.
Freddy Heflin: I need to do something.
Moe Tilden: Listen–
Freddy Heflin: I need to do this for myself.
Moe Tilden: Listen to me, you deaf fuck! I offered you a chance when we could have done something. I offered you a chance to be a cop… and you BLEW IT! You blew it!
Freddy stands in silence, then heads for the door.
Freddy Heflin: You people are all the same.
Freddy closes the door behind him. Moe turns to his partner, Detective Carson.
Moe Tilden: That cupcake makes a mess, we got a case again.
Commentary:
I don’t know about you, Dear Reader, but I have run into more than my fair share of pushy Christians. People who shared the Good News by telling me A. just how wrong I am, 2. just how wrong anybody who isn’t part of their particular church is, and D. just how much hell I can expect if I don’t get my life aligned with #2. Those experiences were a major reason why I was an atheist for so long (in hindsight, it was less a lack of faith and more a disappointment in some Christians, but that is how my journey worked). With that personal experience under my belt, maybe you can see why I appreciate Simon Peter’s approach here.
While Peter does literally say Jesus is the way to salvation, which can come off as exclusive or pushy, there’s something about his entire sermon to these crowds and council that comes across as generous to me. He doesn’t use threats, he doesn’t stoop to condemnation, and he doesn’t say believe or else. His approach, in my point of view, comes across as invitational. He uses welcome and forgiveness and hope.
Did you act in a way that rejected Jesus? Yes. And did you act out of ignorance? Yes. Okay, so repent.
Do you honor your ancestors? Yes. And is it your place as a descendant to raise a new generation? Yes. Okay, here’s what we think God has deemed the way to do that.
Are you asking us questions because you are unsure of this new teaching? Yes. And do you want to know why we think it important? Yes. Okay, then see this stone you rejected as a new cornerstone to build a foundation.
Certainly, they could have pressed harder and stirred up more challenging emotions at Solomon’s Portico and before this council, but they do not. Instead, they stay strong, they stay invitational, they stay focused on grace. That, to me, is the way to make any form of faith accessible. I don’t know that any vision of a deity truly desires gatekeepers so much as path pointer-outers, journey walk-alongers, fellow traveler-travelers.
I. Love. Cop Land. You know when people say, “If a certain movie is on (usually dads who say Saving Private Ryan or The Shawshank Redemption), I stop what I’m doing and watch the rest of it”? That’s me and Cop Land. I found myself doing that on Pluto TV lately. The characters feel so real and when they interact it is so interesting. The dialogue cadence is particularly fun, as is the body language to go along with it.
Sheriff Freddy Heflin (Sylvester Stallone) now gets why Lt. Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro) is conducting an internal affairs investigation of Lt. Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel) and his squad of cronies. He thought he could be friends with Ray, make his way into the inner circle. But he’s been awakened to its foul stench, and he wants to do the right thing. Thing is, Tilden had invited him before but now it’s out of his hands. The investigation is shut down and he feels he owes this Sheriff no kindness in his message.
The quote from Cop Land is a longer quote for R-Rated Movie Club, but that’s partly to show just how the dialogue back-and-forth can go in a scene like this. There’s so much energy here, and it all revolves around who wants to do the right thing and who has the power to do it. Tilden won’t give Heflin welcome, forgiveness, or hope. Heflin decides he’ll have to find that for himself. At that point, Tilden figures maybe he can use that to his advantage, which I won’t say is the most honorable way to do his work (and the price Freddy comes to pay for doing the right thing is pretty terrible), but it’s his only shot to get Ray. Do the ends justify the means?
One of my favorite themes in Cop Land is how timing works in life. Do we do the right thing at the right time? The wrong thing at the wrong time? Is there a right time to do the wrong thing? The movie really leaves you to wonder. How do you offer welcome, forgiveness, or hope? How does someone say they see something differently in a way that keeps you open to hearing their side? Is it ever too late to do the right thing?