User Reviews

Offbeat weirdo Leo Smith (John Lydon) creeps his way into corrupt cop Fred O'Connor's (Harvey Kettle's) head to play mind games. John Lydon's lack of acting skills actually helps to make his character even kookier than he was probably written. And there's for sure a weird chemistry between Lydon and Keitel. Fred O'Connor is on the edge. Is Smith a psycho? Eventually one snaps.

It's a good, off-kilter psychological thriller.

'Order Of Death' (aka 'Copkiller') is one of the most interesting movies on Harvey Keitel's early resume. Along with 'Fingers' and 'Blue Collar' it's one of his most underrated performances, and a movie that every Keitel fan should seek out. His character here - a corrupt NYC cop - is almost a practice run for his magnificent 'Bad Lieutenant'. Keitel plays Fred O'Connor a dysfunctional police officer who co-owns a secret luxury bachelor pad with his partner, bought with dirty money. The city is going through a series of cop killings and paranoia is rampant, though O'Connor doesn't really seem all that concerned at first. He becomes a little jumpy when he finds himself being stalked by a mysterious weirdo (John Lydon, yes Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols infamy), and positively freaks out when he turns up on his doorstep claiming to be the cop killer. O'Connor doesn't believe him but is panicked all the same, as his whole secret life is at risk of being revealed, so he does the logical (?) thing - he keeps him prisoner. But this is only the beginning in a film that keeps you guessing, as mind games and battles of will ensue, with some strange identity and relationship swapping, almost worthy of legendary 70s headtrip 'Performance'. This strange film, somewhere between a hard boiled genre crime movie and an art-house puzzler, is flawed but fascinating, and should appeal to fans of Abel Ferrara and Wim Wenders, especially the latters overlooked 'The American Friend'.

I saw this on DVD ( It`s known as CORRUPT in this format ) and the blurb on the casing really hyped up how Harvey Keitel`s character Frank is so much like the one he played BAD LIEUTENANT in " This gritty and powerful police thriller " . What the casing didn`t mention was that this is an old Italian movie . How old is it Theo ? Well when a character plays music he doesn`t put on the CD player , he pulls out a big plastic pancake thing , puts it on a sort of revolving hob where a sort of mechanical arm touches the pancake thingy causing music to be heard . You see my point about this being an old film ? The DVD case gave no clue this was a movie made 20 years ago . It`s also a film with poor production values like so many other Italian films masquerading as American ones . With the exception of Keitel the cast are awful though Johnny Rotten`s performance is bizarre rather than terrible , the cinematography is static with the picture and sound quality giving the impression that I was watching a fourth generation pirate copy ( I don`t know if it`s down to a dodgy DVD or if it`s a very bad film print ) and worst of all is Ennio Morricone`s score . It`s impossible to belive the man who did the irritating intrusive incidental music for CORRUPT is the same one who did the music for those Clint Eastwood westerns.

All of this is a pity because CORRUPT does have its moments . It`s by no means the greatest psycho thriller ever devised but it did hold my interest and as always Keitel puts in a good performance as a violent nutcase cop . Just a pity the rest of the movie didn`t match up to his high standards

The acting is very good in this study of police corruption. It stars Harvey Keitel as a bad cop who has taken a great deal of money, and, with a partner, purchased a condo. When the relationship gets strained and the other guy wants out, Keitel becomes a bit paranoid, knowing that such a move could expose them to authorities. Meanwhile, there have been a series of cop killings in the city. Keitel finds himself being stalked by a young man, played by Sex Pistol, Johnny Rotten (Lydon). He has something up his sleeve, although he spends much of his time in a bathtub, wearing almost nothing, handcuffed. The former partner becomes a problems and an act takes place where there is no returning to normalcy. The young man continues to be tortured, but, at the same time, seems to be in control of things. He becomes almost wifely in a way. He pushes Keitel's tortured conscience to the very edge. The acting is very good, especially Lydon. The scenes are really brutal. It's a movie that makes you want to wash afterward. Still, it's pretty captivating and well done.

An Italian made "bad cop" movie, which could have been much better than it was. Harvey Keitel is a very talented actor, and the story itself wasn't at fault, but for large parts of the movie, nothing whatsoever happens. Similarly, some kind of goofy country song (and always the same one) always seems to be playing in the background and becomes extremely irritating. One major bright point of the film is John Lydon's performance (otherwise known as Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols fame). He is absolutely convincing as a sociopathic rich-boy brat, and even seems to have method acting down pat when he doesn't have any lines and is just standing around. His performance equals that of Kevin Spacey in "Seven". The end is particularly haunting... (but since I had to sit through it, so do YOU!)

Despite unfortunately thinking itself to be (a) intelligent, (b) important and (c) interesting, fortunately this movie is over mercifully quickly. The script makes little sense, the whole idea of the sado-masochistic relationship between the two main characters is strangely trite, and John Lydon shows us all, in the space of one movie, why he should never have let himself out of music. His performance is one-note and irritating.

The only positive thing to be said is that Harvey Keitel manages to deliver a good turn. His later Bad Lieutenant would show just how badly good actors can act, but mercifully his performance here is restrained.

I thought Harvey Keitel, a young, fresh from the Sex Pistols John Lydon, then as a bonus, the music by Ennio Morricone. I expected an old-school, edgy, Italian cop thriller that was made in America. Istead, I got a mishmash story that never made sense and a movie that left me saying: WTF!!! Too many unanswered questions, and not enough action. The result: a potential cult classic got flushed down the toilet. Keitel and Lydon work well together, so maybe Quentin Tarantino can reunite these guys with better script. Oh, and the Morricone score: OK, but not memorable.

Overall, not a waste of time, but not a "must see", unless you are a hardcore Keitel fan.

Corrupt (1983) was a very good film. The movie is about a pair of corrupt cops (Harvey Keitel is one of them) who spend their illegal dough on an uptown New York City flat. It's unfurnished because they didn't have anymore money to put furniture in it. John Lydon stars as a very disturbed youngster who plays a bizarre game of cat-and-mouse with Harvey. He convinces him that he's the notorious cop killer that has been hunting police officers. Harvey kidnaps him and makes him his permanent guest inside his apartment. Is John the corrupt cop killer? Can Harvey get to the bottom of this twisted case before or will he get caught up in some twisted and sick mind games? To find out you'll have to get Corrupt!

A rarely seen film that is in the hands of the public. Since their is no true owner of this movie, scores of terrible copies are floating around the market place. The only legitimate copy of this film I have seen was the mid-eighties release from Thorn-E.M.I. The true title is Corrupt, any other copy is a crappy transfer (Cop Killer) and their has been no official D.V.D. release either. Any copy on this format is nearly unwatchable and horribly edited. Try and find the old eighties copy on Thorn/E.M.I. Stay away from others.

Highly recommended.

P.S. John Lydon's pop group Public Image Limited was supposed to score the soundtrack for this film. He even worked on the soundtrack with his band mate Keith Levene and Martin Atkins over the phone (long distance). The original title of the film was to be The Order of Death. The unused music appears on the semi-official release "You are Now Entering A Commerical Zone" album. Harvel Keitel plays an early proto-type of his future "Bad Lieutenant" character in this film.

This is a weird one.This film has got more titles than the queen.I bought this on DVD a few years ago.The box say's CORRUPT LIEUTENANT, the actual film say's CORRUPT, but i remember this being shown on TV (CENTRAL TV in the midlands UK)back in the early to mid 80s as being called THE ORDER OF DEATH.Its also called COPKILLER.As has already been said by others on here,good plot,good acting by both Kietel and Lydon, just bad filming if you ask me.This film seems to have been shot on a low budget, and it shows in parts.Tchikovskys Destruction is played throughout this film and its a very catchy tune,and is played at the end credits,where as the version i recorded of the TV as i mentioned plays out to ORDER OF DEATH by PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED.Can any one else in the UK remember this being shown??

Encouraged by the positive comments about this film on here I was looking forward to watching this film. Bad mistake. I've seen 950+ films and this is truly one of the worst of them - it's awful in almost every way: editing, pacing, storyline, 'acting,' soundtrack (the film's only song - a lame country tune - is played no less than four times). The film looks cheap and nasty and is boring in the extreme. Rarely have I been so happy to see the end credits of a film.

The only thing that prevents me giving this a 1-score is Harvey Keitel - while this is far from his best performance he at least seems to be making a bit of an effort. One for Keitel obsessives only.

Thought this was going to be your typical cop killer film and it completely surprised me as there was cop killing going on, but the film dealt mainly with Lt. Fred O'Connor, ( Harvey Keitel) and his strange behavior. Fred would work in the narcotics department and then after work he went to a very expensive apartment dwelling which he co owned with his partner who was a cop also. Fred also had his regular apartment in the city. One day a young guy named Leo Smith, (John Lydon) approaches Fred and tells him he is the cop killer which Fred does not believe and he does everything he can to get rid of this young man, who is very creepy and sickly looking. There are many twists and turns in this film which will keep you guessing just how it will end and just who is the so-called cop killer. Enjoy.

***SPOILERS*** "Copkiller" or "Corrupt" does it's best to mix police corruption with a string of killing of "dirty cops", who work for the plain clothes narcotic division of the NYPD, and comes out a bit uneven in the end.

Narcotic plain clothes policemen are being murdered in New York City by this serial killer who dresses as a NYC policemen wearing a ski mask. The masked psycho kills the cops by slashing their throats with a long serrated knife. On the scene of one of the killers victims he left a phony police badge. While all this is going on we see NYC police Let. Fred O'Connor, Harvey Keitle, who's on "the take" with his partner police officer Bob Carvo, Leonard Mann, and who, together with Carvo, is living a double life. The two cops masquerade around as high living drug dealers at a $400,000.00 apartment overlooking Central Park. Everythings going well for the two plain clothes policeman until one afternoon when this weirdo Leo Smith, John Lydon, shows up at their apartment unannounced.

O'Connor at first doesn't know what to make of this oddball since he feels that he somehow has "the goods" on him in his illegal drug dealings, together with his partner. How else could Leo have known about his and Carvo's secret apartment and the double lives that they lead?

Later on Let. O'Connor finds out that Leo comes from a very rich family who live in the town of Rhiencliff in upstate New York and is being looked for, as a missing person, by the entire police departments in both NYC & Rheincliff. Having him locked up in his apartment O'Connor goes up to Rhiencliff to see Leo's grandmother Margaret Smith, Silvia Sidney, on official business; pretending that he's on the case to find her missing grandson. O'Conner also find an audio tape that Leo left there implicating him and his partner as corrupt cops. O'Connor feels that Leo, who told him about the tape in the first place, must have made other tapes as insurance to keep O'Connor from murdering him and making him disappear.

The film then takes a turn where it's Leo not O'Connor who seems to be in control of the situation with O'Connor trapped in his own world of corruption and feeling that Leo had this planned all along. Later in an heated exchange between O'Connor and his partner Carvo at the apartment, over his treatment and confinement of Leo, O'Connor accidentally kills him and with Leo's help makes it look like Carvo was the victim of the police serial killer to throw the police off his trail. The movie starts getting even weirder when Leo tries to get O'Connor to murder Carvo's wife Lenore (Nicole Garcia). Both Leo and O'Connor feel that Lenore had found about her husband and Let. O'Connor's corrupt activities and make their murdering her look like she killed herself.

By now O'Connor is a totally destroyed man knowing that he was somehow manipulated by the clever Leo from the start. It's only a matter of time before the law, that he was sworn to uphold and enforce, will catch up with him and bring him before the bar of justice.

It was both Harvey Keitel and John Lydon's performances that made the film "Copkiller aka Corrupt" well worth watching. The cat-and-mouse game between the manipulator and manipulated kept you glued to the screen until the ending credits and made you overlook the films many faults and inconsistencies.

First of all this isn't a bad film and I wanted to like it more than I did. It is quite dull. Harvey Kietel plays a tough cop, a role he often plays. In the film he has to investigate a series of "cop killer" murders. Later on he meets John Lydon, dressed in typically eccentric style and as flippant as ever. Kietel kidnaps him by locking him in his apartment.; possibly to get a confession or prevent further murders. What we end up with is a lot of talking and very little action. This is a stark contrast to most Italian cop films which are exciting and often loaded with great action sequences. This is more a psychological thriller where we are seeing who cracks first Lydon or Kietel. Kietel is his typical brooding self, a man on the edge. Lydon puts in a surprisingly good performance. I have to say I didn't expect much, but he manages to be unnerving and bratty. It's a real shame he didn't do more acting as he is really good. The soundtrack is a real off day for mighty Morricone. Dull, uninspired and instantly forgettable incidental music. The direction and photography also really flat. Where's the Italian flair?

It is worth a look and it is believable, but don't expect too much. For Kietel as a tough cop watch 'Bad Lieutenant' and for a hard Italian crime drama I recommend something like 'Rabid Dogs'.

Roberto Faenza's stark, downbeat 'Cop Killer' (aka) 'Order of Death' (1983) is a paranoid, palpably grimy,intermitently intense NYC-set poliziotteschi with the singularly arresting concept of pairing muscular method-man, Harvey Keitel's brooding Lt. Fred O'Connor, against the preternaturally angsty ex-Pistol, John Lydon, whose blithely bilious, Pil-popping persona is put to lurid good use as the manipulative, morally bankrupt psycho killer, Leo Smith. With shocking bursts of violence, and fevered flourishes of Mamet-like intensity, the misanthropic, 'Order of Death' has more refined cinematic qualities than its current bargain-bin obscurity suggests!

This claustrophobic, enjoyably skewed celluloid oddity is enlivened by maestro, Ennio Morricone's beautiful theme, and the increasingly tormented, Keitel makes for a memorably vexed, psychologically complex cop. While Faenza's jittery psychodrama is flawed, the gritty film's incendiary dynamics are undiminished,'Cop Killer' remains a darkly compelling entry in the by-then waning poliziotteschi movie cycle; and the sweaty, antagonistic interrogation sequences between, Keitel and Lydon still make for compulsive viewing! With modest expectations, Roberto Faenza's dingily exciting 'Cat & Louse' thriller is unlikely to disappoint, and should rate higher with the more obsessive Euro-crime, midnight movie addicts!

Corrupt (also known as 'Cop killer') was directed by Robert Faenza and stars Harvey Keitel as Lieutenant Fred O'Connor, John Lydon (yes, the former Sex Pistols front man) as sociopath Leo Smith and Sylvia Sidney as Leo's primary guardian Margaret Smith. Released in 1983 and based on the Hugh Fleetwood 'Order of Death', Corrupt is an intense psychological drama that contains elements of both sadism and masochism. Fred O'Connor is a New York City cop who has become obsessed with hunting down a notorious cop killer. One night he returns to his apartment to find that the cop killer, Leo, has followed him. Unfortunately, O'Connor has been renting this apartment with another officer using dirty and stolen money. Leo clues into this and O'Connor kidnaps him and tortures him for fear that if set free, he will elude the police of his illegal activities. The film uses a prodigious amount of master shot coverage although this is not entirely a bad thing by any means. It simply just sets up the turf for Keitel and Lydon to strut there respected acting abilities. Keitel is completely believable as the cold and merciless lieutenant (Keep in mind that this is pre-'Bad Lieutenant' Keitel people). John Lydon also gives a solid performance as the devilish cop killer. Most of the sets in Corrupt revolve around unfurnished and dark atmospheres such as where Fred O'Connor and Leo Smith play out their estranged and volatile relationship. I get the hunch that the bare sets are a metaphor for this. The music for the film was written by both Ennio Morricone and John Lydon. Lydon provided a folksy country tune and Morricone brought his 80's synth rock sound to the fold. I'm not exactly sure if I like Morricone's new wave approach. It's sort of the same thing he brought to 'The Untouchables' only more repetitive. It does get the job done however. Overall, this film is what it is: one of those average cop dramas that came out in droves throughout the eighties. One side note: there are numerous versions of this film floating around the market. Since the film has no owner, it has become part of the public domain and can now be distributed by anyone (including your 4 –year old son and his friends!). The version I own contains all of the crucial scenes although the process of transferring from 32mm to DVD left my copy full of sharply lit images and highly pixilated environments. Don't let this scare you away though; Corrupt is definitely worth a look! Particularly for fans of classic Keitel!

7/10

This is a great subtext movie. There's the surface thriller elements and then there's Harvey Keitel's rough-play with John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten. The pair play out the master/slave dynamic with nasty commitment. Its not merely S&M however, its positively psychopathic in a nasty but sickly playful sense. Its a dark little vision of police power abused and quite probably all too real for some viewers and protestors out there who realise the strong arm of the law isn't disembodied from the bodies of individual policeman despite political rhetoric to the contrary. But hey, this isn't all that serious a movie. Keitel is great, Lydon is a vicious victim and it all goes by relatively quickly. John Lydon is worth the price of admission/rental/purchase alone. Enjoyably twisted.

This very unconventional, Italian cop thriller (co-written by one of their most prolific and distinguished screenwriters, Ennio De Concini) stars Harvey Keitel (as a troubled NYC cop), John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten, lead singer with The Sex Pistols, as the copkiller of the original title), Leonard Mann (as Keitel's ill-fated partner) and Hollywood veteran Sylvia Sidney (as Lydon's rich grandmother).

Keitel is quite good, of course, but the real revelation here is Lydon who's particularly creepy as the geeky-looking, slyly taunting and evidently psychotic youth who, when he's not slitting other cops' throats, follows Keitel everywhere and even insinuates himself into his clandestine flat (which he shares with Mann!). Rather than arresting him after beating him up, Keitel chains Lydon in the bathroom (whereupon Sydney sets up a nationwide search for her beloved nephew) and keeps him there till almost the end of the picture...

To reveal more than I already did would spoil it for those who haven't watched it yet. Let's just say that there is no happy ending for the "good" guys. In fact, Keitel is no ordinary hero and, at times, he seems to be as in need of psychiatric treatment as much as Lydon! Besides the excellent performances, the film is aided by a sparse but evocative score by Ennio Morricone (with themes which recall THE MASTER TOUCH [1972] and even THE THING [1982] but also anticipate THE UNTOUCHABLES [1987]!). Where CORRUPT - the version I watched bore the title COP KILLERS (running 100 minutes against the 'official' 117!), which rather gives the game away - comes up short, in my view, is in Roberto Faenza's stolid direction which lazily resorts to close ups with a distracting regularity. Sure, a desired sense of claustrophobia is thus created but, unfortunately, it also gives the viewer an unshakeable sense of watching a TV cop show!

P.S. I've had the opportunity to catch this on Italian TV a number of times but that would have meant missing out on Keitel and Lydon's distinctive voices! Also, I've made no comparisons between Keitel's character here and that of another corrupt cop in the better-known BAD LIEUTENANT (1992) by Abel Ferrara for the simple reason that I've yet to catch up with that particular title in its entirety!

A cop-killer stalks the city. Two corrupt cops, Lt. O'Connor and his colleague Bob (Harvey Keitel and Leonard Mann), share a secret apartment bought from confiscated drug money. O'Connor faces losing everything when Leo Smith (John Lydon) turns up at the apartment claiming to be the cop-killer.

Faithful adaptation of a remarkable book by Hugh Fleetwood. The book is mainly Lt. O'Connor's rant against the dangers of liberalism, opening with O'Connor buying his hated New York Times – hated because he considers the perceived liberal attitude of the paper to be compassionate with everything that is "weak, sick and degenerate" in society (he explains this theory to New York Times journalist – and wife of Bob – Lenore.) O'Connor defends his own corruption to Bob by stating that it is "the banning of drugs" that is corrupt. This isn't really expanded on in the film. In the book, O'Connor wants drugs legalised so that the aforementioned "weak, sick and degenerate" people will be willing slaves to their addictions and won't go out and "mug an old lady or kill an old man" to feed their illegal habit. The only place that Keitel can find the order he craves is in his strange, unfurnished apartment – witness his annoyance at Mann not tidying up. Keitel is utterly outraged when the deranged Leo Smith corrupts his secret refuge.

Lydon is perfectly cast, at least as regards his public image (to coin a phrase) – insidious, sickly and un-American looking, "strange kind of a guy." In the book, his character is even sicker; his initial appearance is particularly disquieting as he apparently eggs Keitel on to kill him as part of a weird quasi-sexual game. In reality, Lydon was really a decent chap – quitting the Sex Pistols because he refused to make a record with Ronnie Biggs (Lydon felt uncomfortable that Biggs had heisted working class money and coshed a railway employee for good measure); his morality contrasting sharply with the media's portrayal of him, at the time, as public enemy number 1. In reality, it was the British tabloid press, and particularly the Sun, who were out of step with decency – the Sun, a newspaper read by the working class, which appeared to hate working class people, being, in the 80s at least, a right wing and sporadically racist paper (it's hatred of its very readership culminated in its shocking coverage of the Hillsborough football disaster).

Of course, Lydon isn't an actor and he isn't quite as good as Keitel here. The mind games they enter into (once Keitel imprisons Lydon in the apartment) are pretty interesting stuff though – at turns sinister, camp and affecting – a real head to head battle of wills, reminiscent of Performance. (It's peculiarly touching to see a crying, whimpering Lydon at one point.) There's a few moody shots of early 80s New York but mainly the action takes place in the apartment – it's the focal point for the whole film. Here Smith acts out his obsession with the police. He's apparently read a book (written, O'Connor later finds out, by Bob's wife Lenore) which argues that the police are the real enemy of order, in that they inspire us to commit crimes so that we may be punished for them. (Lenore is played by the European Nicole Garcia, who's decidedly un-American views O'Connor finds flabbergasting.)

Also of note here is the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. Recurring throughout is a country song based on a Tchaikovsky melody. O'Connor puts the song on his record player at the start of the film (it's an album but we never get to hear the rest of the songs) and its lyrics "It's been so long since I last felt this way" equate to scenes of O'Connor smoking expensive cigars and relaxing. We next hear the song when Bob tells him that he wants to quit the apartment ("You bought it so that you'd have something to feel guilty about"). After that, it's playing when O'Connor tortures Smith with a lit cigar – and so on. It's the same song but each time it's used with progressively more desperate images. What starts out as innocuous becomes more and more sinister – with O'Connor incapable of understanding what's happening to him before it's all too late.

This gritty and powerful police thriller is a classic stand-alone independent film. With good performances from Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Bad Lieutenant) and John Lydon (former Sex Pistols frontman), Corrupt really is a one-off. As the film progresses, Leo Smith (Lydon) and Lieutenant Fred O'Connor (Keitel) engage in a vicious and engrossing psychological battle of wills in a sadistic game where they are both dependent on each other. As for the Director, Faezna's direction seems as good as any of the excellent Italian films of the day, effortlessly moving from smooth exterior compositions to the angular perfection of the prison-like apartment. BAFTA award winning Ennio Morricone reinforces this precision with an excellent score full of mechanical percussion mixed with a whispy guitar lead which underscores the foreign presence of Lydon. Music plays a very important role in Corrupt, especially the strange country music track "Tchaikovsky's Destruction" which is played throughout the entire film to emphasise the changes occurring to the characters.

This is a fairly routine cop thriller filmed in Europe with Keitel in an early "bad lieutenant" role. The film really gets interesting once Johnny Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, enters the scenario. Playing a spoiled punk sociopath, his cat and mouse with Keitel is enjoyable. Makes one wonder why lydon squanders his acting talents.