Review of Bad Lieutenant (1992) by Jack L — 17 Nov 2010

Contains Spoilers...

This film shows us a few days in the life of a New York Lieutenant of the police force (Harvey Keitel), his name is never revealed to us.

We see his daily routines such as driving his kids to school, gambling, taking massive amounts of various drugs, drinking and visiting his many girlfriends.

He is then involved in a case of the rape of a nun by two local boys, something about the case revives his attention in his job and he begins investigating. He is then told by the nun that the culprits are known to her but she refuses to let him bring them to justice by saying she has forgiven them.

The Lieutenant is frustrated, nothing else is going well in his life either: he never speaks to his wife, he owes various mobsters money, he loses more and more money through gambling, his drug addiction is ever increasing ...

In the end he catches the two culprits but ,having had visions of the Christ and various other experiences, he has decided to reform his way of life and seek redemption.

He lets the culprits go, even gives them his entire stash of money gained from selling drugs and sends them off to start a new life somewhere else.

He then returns to his care and is shot by some unknown mobsters.

I would like to begin by saying that without Harvey Keitel's amazing and incredibly intense performance this film would be nothing remarkable.

The acting apart from Keitel was OK but completely overshadowed by him. The fact that none of the characters are named was very original and Ferrara manages to go through the whole film whitout seeming awkward.

Upon it's release this film was considered one of the most shocking of all time and was banned in several countries.

I think that was what Ferrara set out to do and he succeeded very well in particular with the rape scene which was extremely distasteful.

Also the fact that the rapist where let go is very controversial, maybe he could have chosen a better moment to seek redemption?

Even though his name is not known and he is evidently a horrible character, his quest for redemption was very touching. His death was very sad and ironical: he had survived through years of drug dealing and violence only to be shot just when seeking to redeem himself.

I thought that his loneliness was captured very well ,even though he is surrounded by people you can tell he is a lonely man, I thought that was one of the best things about this movie.

One thing I didn't like was his sort of addiction to baseball on the radio, sure he's got large sums of money betted on the results but is that a reason to have to hear it through a large chunk of the film.

The soundtrack was all-right except the theme song which was awesome, especially during the scene near the end when he is returning to his car.

I found much of the dialogue to be rather useless in advancing the plot , it was mainly the visuals that mattered,.

This film is packed full of symbolism some of it subtle and some of it not so subtle.

Overall it is an intense end thought provoking film overshadowed by the shocking scenes.

Contains some very memorable scenes such as the "Chinese shop" scene in which he comes across two black men being accused of thievery by the Chinese shop owner, he sends the Chinese man to the police station to file a report, in the meantime he takes the money from the criminals at gunpoint and then dismisses, then finally he helps himself to a snack and leaves.

The poster is also awesome.

Recommended if you like Harvey Keitel(his best performance ever) or Abel Ferrara but if your looking for a simple crime flick this isn't for you as it is shocking, thought provoking and rather violent.

Cinematography 8/10.

Soundtrack 8/10.

Acting 10/10.

Plot 7/10.

Screenplay 6/10.