Directed by Oren Moverman and co-written by Moverman and James Ellroy, the film stars Woody Harrelson, Ned Beatty, Ben Foster, Anne Heche, Brie Larson, Ice Cube, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright, and Steve Buscemi.

[2][3] It is set in the midst of the fallout from the Rampart scandal of the late 1990s, when corrupt Los Angeles Police Department Officer Dave Brown (Harrelson) is forced to face the consequences of his wayward career.

Dave Brown, a 24-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), patrols the Rampart Division.

When the other driver attempts to flee, Brown brutally beats him and the assault is captured on video by a bystander.

Over the course of the film, it is revealed that although Brown failed the bar exam, he remains extremely knowledgeable about case law.

Back at the piano bar, Brown picks up a lawyer named Linda after first determining that she is not surveilling him.

Hartshorn tips him off to a high stake card game happening later that night at the Crystal Market.

The film ends with Brown revisiting his family and staring at his elder daughter on the front porch before disappearing into the night.

[8] To draw emotional performances out of his actors, director Oren Moverman eschewed rehearsals, did fewer than five takes for most scenes, and encouraged improvisation.

It was subsequently acquired by Millennium Entertainment, who released the film for one week in late November in New York City and LA in order to qualify for Academy Awards consideration.

[11] The marketing team behind Rampart posted controversial posters in several major U.S. cities before the film was released.

Moverman said one of the producers had been "searching for an image that would be thought-provoking and challenging, not an indictment of a cop but rather a communal approach to the idea of policing, the idea that maybe when cops do bad things it's more of a reflection of society and what it is willing to tolerate, rather than the fault of one bad apple or an institutional problem.

"[12] An attempt to market the film via the social news website Reddit went "horribly wrong",[13] according to Forbes.

Feldman summarized the lesson learned by stating the following: "When you’re doing an AMA on Reddit, you drop the act and engage with real people.

The site's consensus was that "Rampart sends viewers plummeting into a nihilistic hell of its protagonist's creation, yet Woody Harrelson's performance in the central role is too magnetic to dismiss".

"[22] Justin Chang of Variety wrote: "While the film is drenched in atmosphere and packs a verbal and visceral punch, its relentless downward spiral makes for an overdetermined, not entirely satisfying character study.