MANIAC COP
US, 1988, 91 minutes, Colour.
Tom Atkins, Richard Roundtree, Sheree North, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, William Smith.
Directed by William Lustig.
Maniac Cop is a short police thriller with some gory overtones. The film was written by Larry Cohen (the It's Alive series, The Stuff, Q the Winged Serpent and other thrillers as well as the remake of I, the Jury).
The film uses New York city locations well, raises questions about the police the hero cop who went too far, was mutilated in prison by Mafia henchmen, comes to take revenge on good and bad alike. The confrontation of the maniac cop is also dramatic with the seeming hero killed by him an hour into the film. The ambiguous hero who defeats him has been caught in adultery with a fellow officer and his wife murdered by the maniac cop. The screenplay is not always straightforward and offers odd ambiguities for audiences to think about as they react to the gut-violence of the film. Tom Atkins is the older policeman. Richard Roundtree is the officer in charge. There is a good brief cameo by Sheree North as the maniac cop's wife.
Not for every audience, a mixture of gore and intelligent exploration of police themes.
1. Police thriller, police power, justice?
2. The use of New York city, atmosphere, the streets. Sing Sing, the precincts? Musical score and atmosphere?
3. The title and its tone? Cordell and his career, tough, the file on him, the killings, the Judge and Justice, the prison and the shower attack, his being almost dead - but living as a mutilated mad cop? The praise of the legend?
4. The madness, the berserk killings by the cop? The wife and her giving information? The range of victims, the rampage, the police and ordinary citizens? Seeing him getting dressed during the opening credits, confidence, the attacks, his disfigurement, his dream about what happened to him? The build up to the mayhem and death?
5. The victims: the girl and the attack by the youths, the man pursued in the street, the attempt on the police officer, the wife who caught her husband in the motel, the police at the station?
6. McCrae? and the investigation, the hero, his getting evidence, with Cordell's wife, the research, knowing that he was alive, the confrontation in the police station ? and his unexpected death?
7. The policeman and his affair with the officer, the confrontation by the wife, her death? At his police work, informed, arrested? In the cell? The truth? He and his girlfriend trying to solve the mystery? With McCrae? Going to Sing Sing? The final dramatic chase through the city? Cordell's death and the van going into the harbour?
8. The girlfriend, her police work, involvement, relationship, information, the pursuit and the chase? The doctors at Sing Sing, concealing Cordell's death? The prison wardens? The sketch of the various police?
10. The dramatic effect of the murders and the mayhem?
Audience response?
11. Points about justice and police work being made via an ugly horror story?
