Title: Bad Lieutenant
Director: Abel Ferrara
Released: 1992
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Paul Calderon, Leonard
L. Thomas, Robin Burrows, Frankie Thorn, Victoria Bastel
Plot: An unnamed police Lieutenant (Keitel) is tasked with
investigating the rape of a nun as he tries to battle his own demons as his drug and
gambling addictions threaten to consume him.
Review: Back in the late 90’s when I was first seriously
getting into film, beyond the surface level enjoyment I already got from my
movie watching, Channel 4 here in the UK used to show Extreme cinema; a genre
pretty much dead these days with society on a whole becoming harder to shock it
would seem. Back then these films were truly seen as pushing boundaries of
taste and would be shown as part of their late night schedule on a Friday
night. It was from these seasons of films that I was exposed to films such as
Greg Araki’s “The Doom Generation” and necrophilia romance “Kissed” which
shocked me almost as much as they held a strange fascination for me, knowing
that I was watching something which certainly fell outside of the cinematic
mainstream, especially with their frequently graphic depicatations of sex,
drugs, nudity and any number of taboo subjects. It would also be through these
late night movie watching sessions that I would first see this film, which
while I might not have followed it fully back then, still proved to be a
memorable experience while kick-starting a lifelong fascination with the films
of Abel Ferrara whom I mention in my review of “The King of New York” is my
director of choice when I feel like watching something truly grimy and once
again here it’s what he truly delivers.
As always with Ferrara it is a suitably grimy vision of New
York that he once again gives us here, especially with the Lieutenant
frequently seeming to take us on a guided tour of its most seediest parts as he
hangs out with drug dealers and trades drugs he steals from evidence, while at the
same time adding to his own habit. It’s a habit which when combined with his
frequent drinking, often finds him in some more than questionable situations as
he frequents with prostitutes often in some form of stupor which also gives us
one of the more memorable scenes from the film as a naked Keitel staggers
around a room wailing into the night as he looks barely capable of functioning
in any form. The other talked about scene sees him pulling over a couple of
young girls and forcing them to perform for him as he masturbates and curses
beside their car.
As well as these two vices and the constant pursuit of them,
the Lieutenant also finds himself in a rapidly increasing spiral of gambling
debts, as he continues to back the Dodgers as they face off against the Mets
over a series of games, while Baseball player Darryl Strawberry seems to be the
only hint at any human connection that he has with anyone with the sporadic
interactions he has with his family either erupting in volatile outbursts or
general neglect as he often appears to be distant even when surrounded by his
family. This self-imposed isolation only increasing over the course of the film
as he gambles himself into further debts, while his addictions run wild, ultimately
coming to ahead as he suffers a breakdown in a church, memorably grovelling and
howling for forgiveness to a vision of a post crucified Jesus.
Unquestionably this is not an easy film to view, but despite
the frequently graphic nature and crude tone the film takes, Ferrara clearly
isn’t aiming to just shock his audience but instead punch them square in the face
as he blurs the lines of gritty reality with frequently grotesque imagery. At
the same time it is a powerhouse combination that we get from the potent
combination of Ferrara’s direction and a bold and fearless performance by Keitel
who despite committing numerous hideous and depraved acts still remains grimly
watchable.
Similar in many ways to “Taxi Driver” the film views
humanity at its darkest, perhaps making it all the more fitting that a nun is chosen
as the victim of rape, as here even a symbol of purity and light is not beyond
being soiled. At the same time the nun’s refusal to participate in the
investigation of her attackers, furthers Ferrara’s own reoccurring ideals of
finding forgiveness and compassion even when surrounded by a society fuelled on
violence and hatred.
Unquestionably though thi is not the sort of film which is watched
for enjoyment in the traditional sense, but this is still a griping if bleak
experience and one truly carried by Keitel, whose performance Nicolas Cage would
attempt to replicate with perhaps more overacted results in the unrelated, let
alone Ferrara despised “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans”. However if you’re
looking for a companion piece to “Taxi Driver” it’s safe to say that this film
delivers the goods and more.
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