Bad Lieutenant (1992)

Disappointment for a huge fan!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Werner Herzog's version of 'Bad Lieutenant' is better crafted and might be better film altogether, but Herzog's camera will not bring the restless grittiness like Ferrara's guerrilla style work, and Nicolas Cage's craziness will not match Harvey Keitel's pure absence of morals. When Abel Ferrara titles his film 'Bad Lieutenant' then he means bad, like really bad. Harvey Keitel is awesomely sinister as nameless police lieutenant who spirals deeper and deeper into the world of drugs and gambling and obscene behavior (the scene where lieutenant pulls over the two girls with broken taillight probably shows best how messed up his thinking is).Ferrara has never been afraid of shocking the audience. Same goes with 'Bad Lieutenant' - the nudity, violence and grotesque images are so in your face that it elevates the film onto another level. Talking about unnecessary nudity used wright. Although the film mainly follows Keitel's character drinking, doing drugs or visiting hookers, and focuses very little on the detective work, 'Bad Lieutenant' has different layers talking also about forgiveness and finding redemption.Lurid and dirty, but done with such sincerity and bravado, 'Bad Lieutenant' remains one of the most impacting and influential cult films of the 1990s, and is worth to watch for Hervey Keitel's powerhouse performance alone.

Deep ?, Disturbing probably, but I think your more likely to change the channel or fall asleep. Just watched this with my wife, honestly a waste of time. I have read others comments and maybe if you are into drudge, horrible characters and depression then this may interest you. Otherwise if you see anything positive about life or just like to watch decent acting and directing, then stay far way from this piece of garbage.Basically pretty much a single character movie, plays a nasty guy, then all of a sudden realizes he is a nasty guy.Goes down hill from there with a horrible piece of acting ( IMHO) over acted. There is very very little to like about this movie. I learned nothing, the character did not touch me in any way.Towards then end was dying to just change the channel, then thank god it just ended.

What struck me even more than specific moments of the movie is the fact that Bad Lieutenant has been co-written by a woman, Zoë Tamerlis Lund. If you've read anything about her you'd understand how her own life story bleeds through the script. At a certain point you might even admire the passion with which she systematically worked on her own self destruction with, to vaguely quote her husband, heroin being her drug of choice.One summer in the mid-ninety-nineties i happened to be in a country where motion picture rating system had yet to be introduced. The weather prompted whole families to flock at an open-air cinema in search or refreshment and entertainment in the evening. It turned out that Bad Lieutenant has been one of the films featured. It would be interesting to know how all those people liked the movie and how it influenced the development of the youngest viewers.The reason to pull this story out is that, apart from artistic merit and portraying the dark side of life, it is questionable how rake and debauchery influence the viewers. Does it lead to some kind of catharsis or to repeating what we've seen on screen?Either way, Bad Lieutenant is a powerful movie, though not in a positive way. Harvey Keitel's performance is pivotal and you'd probably appreciate it even more if you've seen Werner Herzog's take at the same topic with Nicolas Cage.

Harvey Keitel pulls out all the stops in an audacious, brave performance. Playing a corrupt, heavily multiple substance-abusing cop in NYC, he is one tortured soul, hell-bent in an inferno of decadence, neglect and self-destruction. The case of a nun's rape (in church, no less!)draws him in, though, suggesting a chance of salvation.Plays and feels like a leftover, heavy and dark Scorsese piece, replete with catholic symbolism of guilt and repentance. Still a strong, effectively gritty experience with one genius stroke that adds an unexpected, looming pitch of suspense: Having Keitel's character following the world series of baseball playing in the background, on which he keeps playing a high-stake money betting battle.5 out 10 from Ozjeppe.