Bad Lieutenant
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Movie Reviews of Bad Lieutenant
Movie Review: Bad is hardly the word for it
Summary: 5 Stars
Probably no cop ever sunk so low as Harvey Keitel's New York police lieutenant. He is the very personification of corruption and hypocrisy. Addicted to every street drug of note, heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, which he both snorts and main lines. He chugalugs vodka. He neglects his family, his children. He consorts with prostitutes, two at a time. He goes to crime scenes to steal the drugs or the money. He takes bribes and stops young female drivers and shakes them down for sex.
He is a Catholic that considers the church a racket. He is a cop who solves no crimes, who lets the criminals go free if they pay him. He corrupts not only himself but the entire system of criminal justice. He is appetite incarnate.
But what does him in is his betting on baseball games. It is the year the Mets came from three games down to win the National League championship, and he bet against the Mets. With play by play in the background in scene after scene we are reminded forcibly that the outcome of baseball games is one thing he cannot control, something that he cannot corrupt, and perhaps that is why he bets on the games.
Abel Ferarra's portrait of a man turbo'ed toward hell is one of the better films I have seen recently. It is uncompromising in its cynicism. Keitel's performance is strident and intense, all consuming and depraved. He is a muscle, an artery that throbs. He is a man who will never be satisfied, who will never be fulfilled. His is the very antithesis of the nun who is raped and forgives those who rape her. She is fulfilled with the love of Jesus. But he cannot believe--or rather, what is worse, his belief is corrupted. In the end we see that he does believe in Jesus and the saints but while he cries out that he himself is weak, he blames Jesus.
He meets a fitting end, but I must warn you, this is a disturbing movie and one that will offend.
Movie Review: Brilliant, transcendental film, easily Ferrara's best work...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most notorious films of the 1990's, a really stunning piece of filmmaking. It's Abel Ferrara's best film, one of Keitel's most powerful, shocking performances, and a film that despite the intensely visceral, borderline sleazy material, manages somehow to be spiritual and transcendent by the end.
Keitel is a cop with no name (he's never referred by anything other than Lieutenant) who is corrupt to the bone. He's a junkie, a gambler, an alcoholic, and hangs out with hookers. He also "verbally assaults" school girls (this is probably the most uncomfortable scene in the film), and doesn't have any moral center. He's a completely amoral character. Yet, during an investigation of a brutal, unflinching rape of a nun, he somehow finds his soul again.
Abel Ferrara is a wildly uneven filmmaker. He's made sleazy, borderline Grindhouse movies (Driller Killer and Ms. 45), decent crime dramas (King of New York), underrated films (Dangerous Game), and garbage (Body Snatchers). Here he surpasses everything else he's done and makes a film that almost reaches Bressonian transcendence at the end, and it's not a mistake. It's also filmed in the heart of NYC, which gives it a realistic, gritty feel (this was made in 1992, before Giuliani cleaned up the city). It's also filmed with real street people, meaning when they shoot a scene, the filmmakers didn't close off any streets and let people and traffic unfold naturally like they would on any NYC day. The film makes haunting use of Forever My Love by Johnny Ace, and the film has one of the best long take endings I've ever seen. Many people can't get past the amoralness and scumminess of the main character, and there are a lot of rough scenes (even though many complain of seeing Harvey Keitel full frontal nude more than anything), but if you can make it through this film, you'll find yourself admiring it deeply.
Movie Review: poignant
Summary: 5 Stars
Keitel never received the critical acclaim of his peers from the same era, partly because he was quite limited as an actor. While Deniro and Pacino wer capable of playing a multitude of roles, Keitel was capable of playing a person who was at times masculine and at other times tender.Bad Lieutenant is no exception. Set in the mean streets of New York, Keitel plays a cop(I use the term loosely), who for years has been getting high and accepting favors from local prostitutes. After he is called to investigate the rape of a nun, he wants redemption.
Keitel's performance is not oscar-worthy, but the agony he beings to the role of Lieutenant is worthy of praise. Keitel does almost no real acting here, as he hardly has any conversations with anybody. I think Ferrara wanted to emphasize Lt's isolation from his surroundings(this is further confirmed by the fact that the Lieutenant has no real identity in the credits).
Shortly after viewing this film I read Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. I have been able to draw several parallels between that book and Bad Lieutenant. Both stories tell of a man who is aware of the ailments of the society in which he lives, and yet despite being aware of them, they constantly affect his life. In Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, the narrators relationship with his son was strained
, yet he constantly talks about a lcak of quality in American life, be it in relationships, everyday labour, or whatnot. Similarly in Bad Lieutenant, LT is commiti=ting crime of greater magnitude than the people he arrests!
In my opinion, Bad Lieutenant is one of the only movies that really explores the downfalls of this society. I've seen Training Day with Denzel, and I feel that that is much too glorified to be true. Bad Lieuteant is realistic and much more bold than Training Day.
Movie Review: A masterpiece of American religious cinema
Summary: 5 Stars
A good religious film, or a great film with religion as a major theme in the American cinema is hard to come by. The Robe? Song of Bernadette? Give me a break. Or consider the pretentious rubbish bank rolled by the eminent Mr Gibson. The Passion was it called? More like really bad art. In my humble atheistic view, BAD LIEUTENANT is perhaps the greatest American film to tackle the difficult subject matter of redemption, forgiveness, and all those things Jesus Christ was on about before the churches got hold of it. Indeed, the nun/victim in the film is being truly christian when she forgives the two boys who raped her.
Mr Keitel is hardly off the screen for a minute in the film and provides a brilliant reality to his flawed character - Catholic (lapsed), family man, police officer, who, subject to the lower depths of life through his work, sins. And he cannot forgive himself, and suffers, and punishes himself. But he is no hypocrite. He also has a gambling problem which is a parallel story of falling further into debt to the one of his climb out of hell. As he gets more in debt he is witness to the New York mets comeback from a three nothing deficit to go on to the World Series - Darryl Strawberry features quite a bit.
There are some brilliant scenes - one where he hallucinates at the feet of Christ crying for forgiveness which figure reveals itself to be an elderly black woman who knows the boys who raped the nun.
Leonard Maltin gives this film a two star review and makes some quite smug and superior comments about it. He is wrong. It may b e a masterpiece of American relgious cinema.
Movie Review: You do something for me, and I'll do something for you!
Summary: 5 Stars
'Dazzlingly raw, gritty, dirty, blatantly real' are the best ways to describe this spectacular flick about a bad cop whose life is spinning out of control. Harvey Keitel gives an incredible, mind-blistering performance in the title role. This cop is losing himself in a gambling problem and a drug problem. These 2 problems are brutally and graphically shown on film as they drag this officer into the depths of depravity and degradation. He steals and abuses his power as a policeman to support his self-destructive habits. And what he does with those teenage girls who steal their father's car is just oh so wrong! But it's one of my favorite scenes in the movie. As his life deteriorates, he must face a gruesome case involving the rape of a nun. (This crime is portrayed semi-graphically, and may be a bit much for some to handle) The cop's faith and self-destruction clash as he faces the solution to this, his hardest case. Vivid, graphic depictions of all aspects of a dirty cop's life are pictured as his life unravels on camera. This movie is not for everyone...but it is a stark, raw and brutal portait of a cop in the midst of the deepest inner-turmoil. Even though I am not a fan of cop movies, I think this is one of my all-time favorite flicks. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes brutal realism...and anyone who is not too squeamish.