Product: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans [Blu-ray] (2009)
Rating: 3.0
Cage meets Herzog:the movie
If evil was an opera it would look like this.In Nicholas Cage Herzog found somebody he could be mutually agitated with.You can project all madness onto Cage's countenance.Throw in drugs,hell he's already done alcohol,and you are away,throw in New Orleans with its wild convoluted otherness( post-Katrina) as far from East Coast WASP values and the Catholic guilt of the 1st Bad Lieutenant.Tell Herzog you have to call the film 'Bad Lieutenant' if you want to make this film.He countered with `Port of Call' as an add-on.Herzog threw in his iguanas and alligators,saw the film through their eyes-watch out they bite!Herzog has made his docu-films on the wilderness in the Antartic and the man who got eaten by bears.He was offered this American film and brought to it his obsessions and preoccupations about the open air,non-studio-bound environment of America.Daylight noir.The character is called `bad' so lets make him bad.He is dealing with the outsiderdom of Cage and prostitute girlfriend(Mendez);of the African family who get murdered by drug-traffickers.There is a mad glee in Cage's pursuit of this case,his blatant disregard for rules,his girlfriend,a working prostitute,takes dope;Cage has sex withwomen he's investigating on drugs offences;he smokes crack,snorts cocaine;threatens old ladies with guns.How is it Cage does all this and yet keeps you engaged:is he a cartoon,is he riffing like a jazz musician?The film crackles with a kind of alien energy and mad logic.Cage's character came to drugs through presciption medication for his back, don't you know, in rescuing a drowning man in a prison.This same man, now redeemed with a job comes back and saves him and they sit infront of an aquarium where sharks are swimming.Is Cage Klaus Kinski 2?This is a comedy-fest of vast proportions(remember the dancing soul of the dead man),and you will either love it or loath it.Cage has refound his mojo.And he gets promoted while pregnant girlfriend applauds.