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''Copkiller'' ( Italian: ''Copkiller (l'assassino dei poliziotti)''), also released as ''Corrupt'', ''Corrupt Lieutenant'', and ''The Order of Death'', is a 1983 Italian
crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
directed by
Roberto Faenza Roberto Faenza (born 21 February 1943) is an Italian film director. Born in Turin in 1943, Faenza received a degree in Political Science and a diploma at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Career Faenza made his directing debut in 1968 ...
and starring Harvey Keitel and
John Lydon John Joseph Lydon (; born 31 January 1956), also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the late-1970s punk rock, punk band the Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 197 ...
, the lead singer for the bands
Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they were one of the most groundbreaking acts in the history of popular music. They were responsible for ...
and
Public Image Ltd. Public Image Ltd (abbreviated and stylized as PiL) are an English post-punk band (and incorporated limited company) formed by singer John Lydon (previously known as the singer of Sex Pistols), guitarist Keith Levene, bassist Jah Wobble, and dr ...
It is based on Hugh Fleetwood's 1977 novel ''The Order of Death'', with a screenplay by Fleetwood, Faenza and Ennio de Concini. The music was composed by
Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classi ...
. The plot follows a psychological
cat-and-mouse game Cat and mouse, often expressed as cat-and-mouse game, is an English-language idiom that means "a contrived action involving constant pursuit, near captures, and repeated escapes." The "cat" is unable to secure a definitive victory over the "mous ...
between a corrupt police officer (Keitel) and a disturbed young man (Lydon) against the backdrop of murders committed by a
serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
who is targeting police officers. The film was shot on-location in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and at Cinecittà Studios in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
between March and April, 1982. It is Lydon's only starring role in film to date. Upon release, it received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, and has since fallen into the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...
. It has since undergone a reevaluation, and has become a cult classic due to the presence of Keitel and Lydon, while being acknowledged as a precursor to Abel Ferrara's similarly-themed '' Bad Lieutenant'' (1992).Six Pack: John Lydon
01-31-2018, Rhino.com


Plot

Corrupt
NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
narcotics detectives Fred O'Connor and Bob Carvo have spent their illegal earnings on a
Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Av ...
apartment, viewing it as a sort of long-term investment. However, friction forms between them, as Carvo feels guilty about their scams and wants to abandon their association, asking O'Connor to pay him his share of the apartment so he can sell it, despite O'Connor's reluctance. Carvos's wife Lenore, a journalist critical of the police and a former fling of O'Connor's, begins to suspect her ex-partner's corruption, but is unable to prove it. O'Connor begins to notice a young man with tinted
sunglasses Sunglasses or sun glasses (informally called shades or sunnies; more names Sunglasses#Other names, below) are a form of Eye protection, protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damagin ...
who follows him to and from his secret apartment. After several confrontations on the street, the young man confronts O'Connor inside the apartment, claiming to be the perpetrator of a string of murders against members of the Narcotics Division, dubbed by the media as the "Copkiller". O'Connor quickly dismisses his assertions due to his small stature and apparent physical weakness, quickly overpowering and subduing him. The seemingly disturbed man gives his name as Fred Mason, but O'Connor is unable to match the name to any on-record description. Mason threatens to go to the authorities about O'Connor's apartment, thereby exposing his corruption. An equally culpable Carvo insists on letting Mason go, and O'Connor seemingly agrees, paying Carvo his share of the apartment. In fact, O'Connor keeps Mason captive in his apartment bathroom, binding him and reinforcing the door with an external deadbolt. Hoping to intimidate Mason into keeping silent, he tries to garner him into revealing details about his personal life, but a seemingly insolent Mason refuses to cooperate. Mason claims that his wealthy grandmother is looking for him, and his discovery and O'Connor's exposure is inevitable. Based on news reports, O'Connor determines that Mason's real name is Leo Smith, and tracks down his grandmother Margaret on
Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...
. Margaret, a wealthy
heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offic ...
ess, tells him that Leo came under her care after his parents' sudden death, but felt guilty about the wealth he was now entitled to, and developed a self-loathing complex that led him to compulsively confess to heinous crimes he had no involvement in, seeking retribution over his self-inflicted guilt. O'Connor uncovers a secret tape recording by Leo that states his intention to confront O'Connor, thus revealing his location. O'Connor returns to the apartment and destroys the tape but is confronted by Carvo who has become wise to his scheme. Holding him at gunpoint, Carvo demands he release Leo, but O'Connor responds by striking him and knocking his head on a nearby toilet seat. Telling Leo that he's still alive, he unties him and orders him to help transport his unconscious body to
Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
. Reiterating Leo's earlier claim to be the Copkiller, O'Connor orders him at gunpoint to slit Carvo's throat and kill him, making his death look like another one of the Copkiller's victims. Leo insists that he has never killed anyone, but eventually relents, only for O'Connor to pull the trigger. The gun misfires, and Leo takes the opportunity to escape on foot. O'Connor realizes that his partner's gun was unloaded. O'Connor goes to work the next day wrought with guilt and paranoia, as investigators are baffled by the unusual circumstances of Carvo's death. Upon returning to the apartment, he is confronted by Leo. As Leo fled the scene of the murder, he is now suspected as either a witness or accomplice. With little recourse, O'Connor allows Leo to stay in his apartment indefinitely. O'Connor's mental state further deteriorates as he descends into
alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...
, seeking comfort in the presence of Lenore, who still has feelings for him after her husband's death. Leo, meanwhile, sneaks out of the apartment to purchase a serrated knife identical to the one used by the Copkiller, and hides it in O'Connor's kitchen. Leo angrily chastises O'Connor for seeing Lenore, claiming that his feelings of guilt make a confession to her unavoidable. The two plot to murder her, Leo goading him by threatening to go the police. While O'Connor goes to Lenore's house, Leo dresses as a picture of his father and retrieves a hidden gym bag from a subway station locker. At her apartment, O'Connor is unable to go through with Lenore's murder. He gives her Carvo's gun and confesses to the secret arrangement between the two, while falsely claiming that the apartment is far away from
Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
. Upon returning to the apartment, a disheveled O'Connor finds the phone line cut and Leo bound and gagged in the bathtub. Untying him and trying to find the intruder in the house, he's instead confronted by a grieved Lenore who berates him for lying to her and accuses him of killing Carvo. Leo emerges and claims that O'Connor is the Copkiller and held him hostage, and planned to kill both him and Lenore. She goes outside to call the police, while Leo reveals himself as the true Copkiller, having manipulated the corrupt O'Connor from the very beginning to frame him. He gives O'Connor the knife and tells him to finish it, before dumping his killing paraphernalia from his gym bag into the closet. With nowhere to run, O'Connor slits his own throat just as a horrified Lenore and police backup burst in. He collapses to the floor dead, and a poker-faced Leo stares out at the skyline.


Cast

* Harvey Keitel as Lt. Fred O'Connor *
John Lydon John Joseph Lydon (; born 31 January 1956), also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the late-1970s punk rock, punk band the Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 197 ...
as Leo Smith/Fred Mason *
Nicole Garcia Nicole Garcia (born 22 April 1946) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. Her film ''Charlie Says (2006 film), Charlie Says'' was entered into the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Her film ''Going Away'' was screened in the Special Prese ...
as Lenore Carvo * Leonard Mann as Sgt. Bob Carvo * Sylvia Sidney as Margaret Smith


Release, distribution and alternative titles

The premiere in Italy was on March 15, 1983.
New Line Cinema New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after ...
acquired the U.S. rights and released the film under the title ''Corrupt'' in New York City in January 1984. and the film slowly worked its way through art theatres for months after. Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment released the film on home video in America later in 1984 as part of a package they acquired from New Line. New Line also licensed the film for TV syndication to The Entertainment Network (a.k.a. TEN) along with other titles they then had rights to, including '' The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' and '' The Cars That Ate Paris''; the film was retitled ''Copkiller'' for television broadcast. For undetermined reasons, after New Line's initial rights expired, the film became regarded as
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...
in America. Scores of bad-quality copies have been floating around the market, usually either sourced from the Thorn EMI videotape, or a 16mm print of the edited-for-television TEN version. It has not only been offered under its UK titles ''The Order of Death'' or ''Order of Death'' (mostly in the United Kingdom), its US title ''Corrupt'', or the alternate ''Cop Killer'' or ''Cop Killers'' titles, but also as ''Bad Cop Chronicles #2: Corrupt'' (from the VHS sleeve, part of the video series ''Bad Cop Chronicles'') and ''Corrupt Lieutenant''. The latter was devised after 1992 to capitalize on Abel Ferrara's '' Bad Lieutenant'', a critically acclaimed film also featuring Harvey Keitel. On July 24, 2017, Code Red DVD released the film on Blu Ray in America, sourced from the original New Line Cinema elements, obtained directly from the Warner Bros. vault.


Reception

''Copkiller'' was reviewed on BBC 1's ''Film 83'' as ''Order of Death''. Well-known British
film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets ...
Barry Norman Barry Leslie Norman (21 August 1933 – 30 June 2017) was a British film critic, television presenter and journalist. He presented the BBC's cinema review programme, '' Film...'', from 1972 to 1998. Early life Born at St Thomas’s Hospital ...
refers to Lydon's voice as a “speak-your-weight machine", and sums up by calling the movie "stupid". In the book ''Harvey Keitel Movie Top Ten'' edited by Creation Books in 1999 and compiled by film author Jack Hunter, featuring his personal "Top Ten" of Keitel's best films or performances, there is a chapter dedicated to ''Copkiller''. The chapter is written by film critic David Prothero, who describes the film as "undoubtedly one of Keitel's finest films". Prothero makes the link between Keitel's character in the film and his character in ''Bad Lieutenant''. Another comparison he brings is the parallel relation between ''Copkiller'' and Lydon's role with the relation drawn from the film ''
Performance A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...
'' and
Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
's role there; Prothero describes the blurring of Lydon's stage persona with his onscreen character, stating that defining proofs about this hypothesis are Leo Smith's tantrums ''ala'' Johnny Rotten, his mixture of arrogance and cynicism and the fact that Lydon wears his own clothes throughout the film.


Influence


Bad Lieutenant

Harvey Keitel's portrayal of a corrupt cop has been pointed out as a
prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to ...
of his subsequent character of The Lieutenant in the cult classic film '' Bad Lieutenant'', because of their similarities; particularly in the depiction of self-blame. In the aforementioned chapter of ''Harvey Keitel Movie Top Ten'', by David Prothero, this comparison is mentioned.


Public Image Ltd

John Lydon's
Post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...
group Public Image Ltd (''PiL'') was supposed to score the
soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...
for the film and worked on the material with his band mates Keith Levene and
Martin Atkins Martin Clive Atkins (born 3 August 1959) is an English drummer and session musician, best known for his work in post-punk and Industrial music, industrial groups including Public Image Ltd, Ministry (band), Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Pigface, ...
(over the phone, by long distance). In early November 1982 PiL announced the imminent release of a new single, "Blue Water", and a six-track mini album, ''You Are Now Entering a Commercial Zone'', on their new label, which was supposed to release the unused music for ''Copkiller''. This did not happen, with the band instead continuing to record a full-length album at South Park Studios. In mid-1983 in PiL's absence, Keith Levene took the unfinished album tapes and did his own mix. He then flew over to London and presented them to
Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...
as the finished new PiL album for Virgin Records: ''
Commercial Zone ''Commercial Zone'' is an album of studio recordings by Public Image Ltd., recorded in 1982 and 1983, and released in 1984 by PiL founding guitarist Keith Levene. ''Commercial Zone'' includes five songs that were later re-recorded for PiL's f ...
''. For his part, John Lydon decided to completely abandon the tapes and re-record the whole album from scratch with session musicians. This new version of ''Commercial Zone'' became '' This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get'' in 1984. The song "The Order of Death" from ''This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get'' is a reference to the film. The line "This is what you want... This is what you get", which gives his title to the album, appears in "The Order of Death".


References


External links

* * * {{Roberto Faenza 1983 films 1980s crime drama films Films directed by Roberto Faenza Films scored by Ennio Morricone 1980s English-language films English-language Italian films Films based on British novels Films set in the United States Films shot in Rome 1983 independent films Italian crime drama films Italian independent films Fictional New York City Police Department lieutenants Films set in New York City Murder in films Italian neo-noir films Bisexuality-related films 1983 drama films 1980s Italian films