Review of Bad Lieutenant (1992) by Mike M — 22 Aug 2008
The least accurate charge made against the film was that it's blasphemous - it truly believes certain things are sacred - but it remains an endurance test, an attempt to see how far Keitel is prepared to go, and how long the viewer is prepared to go along with him.
On the first count: pretty damn far, certainly further than DeNiro was prepared to go at this point in his career, almost far enough to excuse the actor cashing paycheques in rubbish like "National Treasure II" over the next decade or so.
There's no doubt this is one of the American cinema's great outre performances - physical, agonised, thoroughly uningratiating, getting towards the worst of human nature while reaching for the spiritual dimension that might redeem the man - the kind of turn that would snaffle all manner of Best Actor prizes, if we could only get those famously conservative awards committees to see it.
.. I'm loath to recommend it too highly - the ending, for one, requires a gesture of forgiveness and a leap of faith too great for this viewer to make, even if it does mirror the opening in its own weird way - but whatever else it may be, it's entirely sincere in its expression of tormented faith: heaven alone knows what the mooted Werner Herzog/Nic Cage remake - either the maddest, or the saddest, idea Hollywood has ever had - is going to be like.
This review of Bad Lieutenant (1992) was written by Mike M on 22 Aug 2008.
Bad Lieutenant has generally received positive reviews.
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