Review of Bad Lieutenant (1992) by Will S — 12 Dec 2009

Ferrara's difficult-to-sit-through-but-thoroughly-satisfying piece of urban-hell realized in the form of Keitel's incredible acting is along the lines of say Hackman's Popeye Doyle flipped by a Paul Schrader Taxi Driver script, but for me this character goes deeper than any in the former two.

While Bickle is simply presented as quietly disturbed while feeling more and more isolated from the society he experiences and Doyle as being obsessive to the point of solipsism in his pursuit of the Frog, Ferrara's-Keitel's The Lieutenant is the barest of human forms that acts as a sponge to all the negativity that he encounters, thence only to vomit it all back out as his only way of expressing himself and ultimately his utter self-loathing.

The checks-and-balances have disappeared; the character reverts to its Hobbesianist archetype. Without doubt one of the most honest and thorough pieces of character-exploration via acting that I have ever experienced!