Maniac Cop

The late Robert Z'Dar sure cut a menacing figure in Maniac Cop (1987). It was on in the afternoon the other day, and I hadn't watched it in a while. The score as backdrop for the prisoners who attacked him in prison was quite unnerving. Valiantly defending himself, he was stabbed with a chiv in the back. Maniac Cop threw caution with the wind and allowed him to just withstand anything. Shots directly to the torso and face (cut by the chiv repeatedly in the face along with the stab in the back in prison which would easily kill any normal man, particularly the way he was bleeding out; the coroner reflection has Z'Dar on a table under a blood-soaked sheet, resuscitating him from the brink of death) do not stop him. You can plow into him with a car, too. Oh, and the end has him impaled by a post while driving a police van at full speed, not to mention, the vehicle drives right into the harbor, but the psycho emerges with that damned hand snakily slithering up a post.

I was talking to my wife while watching it. I was in the back bedroom as she passed, and I related a memory one of my internet buddies mentioned about the tragic fate of Tom Atkins. In my IMDb review, I commented on how it was cool that Atkins got top billing over Bruce Campbell, who had come off the success of the first two Evil Dead movies. Neat was the fact that I felt he totally deserved it although few other than John Carpenter and his buddy Tommy Lee Wallace would give him such a position in the credits. He was the trench coat detective in the film that never felt Campbell was the killer cop on the loose killing civilians, and the further he investigated the closer to danger he got. I found myself barely able to watch what Z'Dar does to him in the film, and it always summons the reflection by the internet buddy that when he was in the theatre, the audience were in a state of shock when Atkins left the film. That is what a beloved actor can do: you give a shit about him and don't imagine (or want to) he'd get the rotten and rough Z'Dar mistreatment.

Campbell as a cheating husband the film makes a default hero, with Laurene Landon as his lover (a narcotics cop who works a lot of undercover work as a hooker) helping his cause, is a surprising script decision. He's not exactly a completely sympathetic figure, but how he's framed, through the brutal murder of his wife and subsequent cop killings of the maniac cop incorrectly tied to him, goes a long way to help him out.

Whatever I might feel about Cohen's script (this was something I spent a lot of time on when writing my user comments on the IMDb), it is cast quite well. Z'Dar is shot by Lustig in the dark as quite a scary figure. Atkins makes for a veteran cop whose instincts are right throughout but his duty takes him right into the crosshairs of Z'Dar. Richard Roundtree as the commish, and William Smith, as the scratchy-voice captain, both are cocksure that Campbell is their man despite every kind of evidence regarding the brute strength and force it would take saying otherwise.

I have read of Lustig's bad direction, but I felt different. I think he takes an uneven mess of a script (and I love Cohen), pacing the film and stylizing it impressively. I think he tries to mask the flaws by getting the most out of the cast and how dangerous and intimidating Z'Dar is. I think the extended version, with the mayor and his chief of staff (Lerner and Rossi) is the ideal way to go as it adds some meat to the bones and further elaborates on why Z'Dar is so pissed off. With a thrilling car chase with Landon and an officer following Z'Dar in the police van containing Campbell in hot pursuit, Lustig keeps the film moving along at a clip. Sometimes that's what it takes to persuade us not to focus on the implausible aspects of the script. Z'Dar's herculean abilities are quite grandiose. Can't leave without mentioning Sheree North as a cripple Z'Dar is fond of and vice versa...she conceals his actions and takes Atkins into account for driving a wedge between her and her maniac cop...supporting casting like her doesn't hurt.

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