2. Cop Land (1997) vs. End Of Days (1999)
I know, these pairings are fast becoming more ridiculous as the list goes on, but let me explain. Both Arnie and Sly are known for their action and sometimes, even comedy, and save for Rocky and First Blood, neither have really delved all that much into a dramatic role. The choices for this comparison are in completely different genres, but I will focus on exploring how effectively our boys departed from the norm.
After releasing a string of action films with varying critical success, Sly came out with this very unexpected turn in a police action/drama/thriller that boasted the greatest supporting cast this side of The Expendables. In Cop Land, Sly stars as Freddy Heflin, a sheriff in the small town of Garrison, New Jersey where the majority of the population is made up of the NYPD and their families. Freddy wants nothing more than a spot on the NYPD, but due to an accident which left him deaf in one ear, he is unable to achieve this goal. When corruption starts to surface involving cops that Freddy knows well, he begins to investigate and starts to question whether his loyalty is misplaced.
For those of you who believe that Sylvester Stallone’s genuine acting chops were a fluke in Rocky, I beg you to get a copy of this movie and bear witness to his brilliance. Freddy is an awkward, introverted, and severely vulnerable character who has no self confidence when it comes to any sort of confrontation. Sly is playing a character that is the exact opposite of any of the characters he has played in the past, and this certainly proves a very valid point.
Writer/director James Mangold recruited the best of the best to support Sly, including Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, the T-1000 himself (Robert Patrick), Annabella Sciorra, Peter Berg, Frank Vincent, Michael Rapaport, Janeane Garofalo and Arthur J. Nascarella. It’s a fantastic ensemble film, but the real star here is Stallone, and the scenes he shares with all these heavyweights are nothing short of powerful. There’s no cheesiness here, no 80s synthesizers, no absurd action, no one-liners, just a straight-up character piece that explores the darker aspects of law enforcement officials and what they go through. A true tour de force from Sly.
Speaking of breaking out of the mold, after Arnie played Mr. Freeze in the abysmal abomination known as Batman And Robin, he went on hiatus for 2 years and came back with what is undoubtedly his darkest movie to date, End Of Days.
The film sees him playing Jericho Cane, an ex-cop now working for a security and protection outfit who lost his wife and daughter in a home invasion and is only an inch away from committing suicide. He finds reason to live, however, when he stumbles upon a conspiracy where a young woman is targeted by church groups. Turns out she’s the chosen bride of Satan, and since it’s 1999, the devil has inhabited the body of a man and must mate with her between the hours of 11pm and midnight to open the gates of hell and end life on Earth.
Arnie has dealt with a lot in his career on screen: warlords, alien hunters, shape-shifting robots, terrorist groups, Sinbad…so I suppose that Satan was the next logical step in upping the ante. I don’t know why critics were so harsh towards this one either, as I enjoyed the film quite a bit, and Arnie’s performance in it. He played a very flawed character who is emotionally destroyed, and he played it pretty well. I put his critical bashing down to the fact that this character was stuck in a supernatural action/horror movie which detracts from ever achieving optimal raw emotional power. The film wasn’t without its problems, but it was something a bit different for the actor and I still enjoy it to this day.
A very able supporting cast including Gabriel Byrne as the devil, Kevin Pollack, the wonderful late Rod Steiger, and Robin Tunney helped move the film along as well. There were a few moments where Arnie was able to let fly with his emotions, most notably when he literally has to relive his wife and daughter’s murder. Until this movie, I’ve never seen Arnie so close to being on the verge of crying, and as horrible as this may sound, it was really nice to see him play vulnerable for a change.
End Of Days is a worthy part of the Schwarzenegger filmography, and while the trademark qualities such as the one-liners and bantering were present, this one was mainly a departure as the tone was very much that of horror and the character allowed Arnie to flex his acting muscles a little more than usual.
The winner: Cop Land. This victory is not based on the calibre of the film but the calibre of the performance, and Sly edged Arnie out here as he was just that much more removed from his action persona.