Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
KnotStronger
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Neive Bellamy
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
hrkepler
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.
Jackson Booth-Millard
The title makes it really obvious what the film is about, and I recognised it because of the leading actor as well, I was hoping the four stars out of five critics give it would be fitting, directed by Abel Ferrara (The Driller Killer, King of New York). Basically a nameless corrupt New York police Lieutenant (Harvey Keitel) struggles with various personal problems and various addictions. The Lieutenant abuses his position with his vices, indulging in heavy gambling that has got him in trouble with the mob, taking a high amount of drugs such as cocaine, and abusing his body having sex with various hookers, he even takes advantage of two teenage girls caught speeding and without a licence, exploiting them for his own pleasure. But then he is faced with a situation that forces him to reassess his life, the Lieutenant is investigating the brutal rape of a Nun (Frankie Thorn) by two young men. The Lieutenant is searching for the men, but the Nun refuses to identify them, as she has stuck with her religion and forgiven them, and to make matters worse the Lieutenant has bizarre visions of Jesus (Paul Hipp), causing him to break down begging for forgiveness. However a witness points him to the two rapists, rather than arrest them he puts them on a bus with a cigarette box containing $30,000 from a drug deal he did, in the end however the Lieutenant pays the price for his lifestyle, he is shot while parked in his car by a passerby, many bystanders realise he has been murdered and gather. Also starring Victor Argo as Beat Cop, Paul Calderon as Cop, Leonard L. Thomas as Cop, Robin Burrows as Ariane, Victoria Bastel as Bowtay, Paul Hipp as Jesus, Brian McElroy as Lieutenant's Son, Frankie Acciarito as Lieutenant's Son, Peggy Gormley as Lieutenant's Wife, Stella Keitel as Lieutenant's Daughter, Shawn McClean as Korean Store Hood, John Steven Jones as Korean Store Hood, Anthony Ruggiero as Lite and Vincent Laresca as J.C. Kietel certainly gives a brave performance as the bad lieutenant who takes advantage of his authority, he even get nude and talks dirty while masturbating, it is odd that the characters have no names, but it kind of adds to the strangeness of the film, it is overpowered by surreal imagery, as well as brutal violence and sexually explicit material, I'm not sure if it was quite my cup of tea, but it was an interesting enough neo-noir crime drama. Worth watching!
tgchan
I was looking for the link on the IMDb and I have found out that I have seen a modern reproduction of it with Nicolas Cage: The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009) At first I didn't want to watch it but when I saw my 8/10 score for the 2009 version, now I really want to see it! I wonder if the original will be as good as the remake.3 minutes - LOL I already love it! That's gonna be a wild movie... I can feel it.12 minutes - I love watching BAD alpha males doing what they do best, probably because I am such a wimp... + they spare nothing... and show everything, big kudos for the honesty 34 minutes - this movie makes the remake look like a cartoon for kids... definitely more raw and rough 1h 17minutes - there are more drugs in this flick than in Requiem for a Dream (2000) lol Damn... what a weird movie... I wasn't even bored for one minute but I don't know... I think it was pretty average... Maybe it's because of how old it is (almost 23 years) but I have seen even older ones and I loved them; Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). I can only imagine how controversial it must have been back in a day... some of the scenes were really harsh.tgchan's rating: 6/10
dentrex
Moral depravity and corruption as a character study? Good luck. A very difficult movie to watch, it is said here, but I am bound to point out how difficult it must have been to assemble a film like this.Redemption, as shown in film, can be a powerful thing whether it be religious or moral or not. In "Unforgiven", Clint Eastwood's character has been redeemed and reformed, seemingly, and walks himself into what is ultimately a replay of his sordid and murderous past. In the end he re-retreats from his reprise and disappears into the sunset. Here, Kietel's character is not interested in anyone's redemption, he is indulging in an orgy of self hate and self destruction.He violates every rule. He breaks the confidentiality of the hospital room, the confessional; he violates his body with drugs and sex and displays his depravity unabashedly whether he is stealing evidence, placing illegal wagers, or stopping two young girls in a car.And speaking of that particular scene, NO ONE could have played that better than Keitel. The anger, the sleaze, it's more self-abuse than self pleasure. All cast members turn in stellar performances in the course of playing out Ferrara's sickening, stunning and stark backdrop of filth - all his fellow cops seem to be dirtbags who drink on the job and gamble illegally as well.The ending, and the events leading up to it, make a lot more sense than has been realized. Keitel's character just gives up, and when he gets the two perpetrators, he's not looking to turn himself around, he is performing a senseless act by giving away the money and turning them loose. When he is told that he needs to pay his bookie, who will murder him without a second thought, he laughs - he doesn't care, and almost welcomes the idea of death. He makes losing bets but he clearly knows they are losing bets (the scene with the other cops shows him telling them to bet the other way!). He berates the mobster who's booking the bets knowing he will get killed.The idea of forgiving the nun's attackers is so out of whack to him... that he actually does it, bringing more focus to the dysfunctionality of his existence. He's going down, he knows it, he doesn't care. It's like reading a book and wanting to get to the end so you know how it ends. He knows how it ends; he just keeps turning the pages faster in a rush to get there.Superb.
