Bad Lieutenant

Plot synopsis:
After dropping off his two young sons at Catholic school, an NYPD Lieutenant (who is never named) takes a few bumps of cocaine and drives to the scene of a double murder in The Bronx. Wandering away, the Lieutenant finds a drug dealer and gives him a bag of drugs from a crime scene, smoking crack during the exchange; the dealer promises to give him the money he makes from selling the drugs in a few days. At an apartment, the Lieutenant gets drunk and engages in a threesome with two women. Meanwhile, a nun is raped inside a church by two young hoodlums.
The next morning, the Lieutenant learns that he has lost a bet on a National League Championship Series game between the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He tries to win back his money by doubling his wager on the Dodgers in the next game. At another crime scene, the Lieutenant rifles through the car and finds some drugs which he stashes in his suit jacket. However, he is too impaired to secure the drugs, and they fall out onto the street in front of his colleagues. The Lieutenant tries to play it off by instructing them to enter the drugs into evidence.
At the hospital, the Lieutenant spies on the nun's examination, and learns that she was penetrated with a crucifix. Later that evening, he pulls over two teenage girls who are using their father's car without his knowledge to go to a club. As they have no driving license, the Lieutenant tells one of the girls to bend over and pull up her skirt, and the other to simulate fellatio while he masturbates. The following day, he listens in on the nun's deposition, where she says she knows who assaulted her but will not identify them.
While drinking in his car, the Lieutenant listens to the final moments of the Dodgers game and shoots out his car stereo when they lose. Despite being unable to pay the $30,000 wager, he doubles his bet for the next game. Eavesdropping on the nun's confession, he hears her state that she has no anger about what happened, and he begins cursing at God before breaking down in tears and sobbing that he wants to redeem himself. The Lieutenant drinks in a bar when the Dodgers lose again. After scoring cocaine in a nightclub, he tries to double his bet yet again. His friend refuses to make the wager, insisting that the bookie would kill him.
Continuing his drug use, the Lieutenant picks up his $30,000 share from the drug dealer and calls the bookie personally to place his bet. He then visits a woman (Zoë Tamerlis Lund) and does heroin with her. At the church, he tells the nun that he will kill her attackers, but she repeats that she has forgiven them and leaves. In the resulting emotional breakdown, the Lieutenant sees the crucified Christ and tearfully curses him before begging forgiveness for his crimes and sins. The figure is revealed to be a woman holding a gold chalice, which turns out to have been pawned at her husband's shop.
The Lieutenant tracks down the two rapists with the help of the woman, to a nearby crack den in Spanish Harlem and cuffs them together. He holds them at gunpoint and smokes crack with them as the Mets win the pennant. Instead of booking the two rapists, he drives them (mirroring the drive in the opening scene) to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and puts them on a bus with a cigar box containing the $30,000. He demands that they take the bus and never come back to New York. After he leaves the terminal, he parks on the street in front of Penn Station. Another car drives up beside him, and a voice yells, "Hey, cop!" before two shots ring out. The film closes as bystanders gather around the car, followed by police, realizing that the Lieutenant has been murdered.

Tags: dark, depressing, realism, neo noir, murder, cult, violence

Review:
People are probably right enough when they comment that this entire film essentially hinges on Harvey Kietel's impassioned performance as the corrupt and deeply troubled lieutenant of the title.
The exact identity of his character is never revealed, but the title informs us he's a 'bad lieutenant', a label seemingly confirmed by his tendency to indulge in substance abuse, work up heavy gambling debts and even, on occasion, pull over a couple of young female drivers and use them as motivation for his own self-pleasure.
It's this alone that enables 'Bad Lieutenant' as a whole to reach the true extent of its potential - what could easily be read off as a plethora of fury, drug-taking, masturbation and full-frontal nudity in practice translates very aptly into a sad and striking depiction of a despondent man who's lost his ability to see goodness in anything in life, and who's sinking ever deeper beneath the weight of all those answers being continuously sought in the wrong places.
As you've probably worked out by now, this isn't exactly the balmiest movie you could spending your time with (might be wrong, but I don't think there's a single light-hearted moment to be found in the entire screenplay), but if you can bring yourself to look past the sourness on the surface and instead feel sympathy for this bad lieutenant, as Kietel's involving performance invites us to do, then you'll find some considerable power lurking in its bleakness.So, while it's Harvey Kietel who really (and rightly) brings things together in 'Bad Lieutenant' and makes it the affecting near-masterpiece that it is, it would be unfair of me to completely overlook Ferrara's role in this equation.
Instead, he and Kietel have put together a polished and powerful piece of film-making that, though it deals with some pretty disagreeable and, at the time at least, controversial subject matter, is so rich in great acting (well, one great performance, but it's easily worth the input of an entire cast) and slick atmospherics that it becomes entirely captivating.
All this would be so much hogwash if it wasn't for the stunning lead performance of Harvey Keitel, certainly taking his acting talent right to the edge to give us a nothing-held-back portrait of his character.
At the core of this extremely well made, unconventional film is the best performance Harvey Keitel delivered in the nineties, a bravado piece of work in which he bares all of the qualities that can make up the badness in the lieutenant.
But just by the way Ferrara and Keitel bring us into his world, and the details of his existence, a viewer can start to understand that the film works on other levels besides those of a conventional "all around bad-cop" story..
The movie is about a cop who is probably the lowest scumball in the history of modern cinema and how he tries to find redemption in solving the case of a nun who is raped inside a Catholic church.
His performance is one of the best in recent movie history and this film is worth watching just to see how far Keitel will go for his art..
Harvey Keitel plays a character whom the movie calls only "Bad Lieutenant." He's at a stage in his life when human characteristics no longer matter.
In New York, a corrupt and abusive NYPD Lieutenant (Harvey Keitel) is addicted in drugs and gambling and has a great debt with a shark.
"Bad Lieutenant" is one of my favorite films by Abel Ferrara with a great story of addiction, corruption, forgiveness and redemption.
Last time I had seen this film was on 27 September 2000 and after seeing once again, I realize that "Bad Lieutenant" is a timeless movie that has not aged.
Harvey Keitel has one of the best performances of his successful career in the role of a dirty cop that finds redemption in the end.
A depressingly underrated character study, Bad Lieutenant is truly Abel Ferrara's masterpiece, and a high point in independent cinema of the 90's.Harvey Keitel plays a New York cop who, to put it bluntly, is a pretty awful person.
But, "Bad Lieutenant" is Ferrara's baby, and we should thank him for making a truly "Christian" film about a man's descent-into-the-muck, and his final-redemption in our urban hell.
If there is at least one thing to admire in BAD LIEUTENANT, it's Harvey Keitel's method performance as the corrupt cop without a moral compass who goes through the film indifferent to everyone but himself, getting high whenever he's in the need of a fix, intimidating anyone under his charge--including teen-age girls in the film's most exploitational scene--and upset through the entire film over the rape of a nun who has forgiven her attackers.Keitel throws himself completely into the role, gnashing his teeth and clenching his jaw effectively whenever stirred to emote, crying like a wounded animal when he feels no justice in a world where injustices are free to roam.
Leading to a movie in my opinion one of the best tragedies ever put on film.Now Harvey Keitel is an actor I have the utmost respect for.
I've been wanting to see this film for a long time, as I have heard nothing but good things about it, but have found myself feeling sorely disappointed with it.The story revolves around a drug addict/alcoholic/gambler/pervert cop who is investigating the violent rape of a nun and seeking some form of redemption in the process.
It is certainly controversial, though a good deal less shocking the one expects it to be, given the pretext.It feels like Ferrara and Keitel simply thought of all the vices they could and threw them into this character in order to make him as shocking and deplorable as possible without actually giving any thought to why he is this way.
This provocative film has an almost documentary-like feel in its depiction of New York lowlife, and another credible performance by Harvey Keitel, but at times it's as stagnant as the "hero's" life - Ferrara holds the shots too long, as if we're supposed to look for something more into them than what is actually there.
even such a man can be redeemed by the example of a saintly nun, with the help of Jesus Christ, who climbs down from his crucifix and watches Harvey Keitel whimper, cry and groan, demonstrating what a lost soul he is, and generally chewing the carpet like a ham actor possessed.
In one of the bravest performances you'll ever see, Harvey Keitel plays the unnamed Lieutenant, a drug addict, bully, and gambler who begins to find redemption through his investigation of a nun's rape.
This is not a film for the squeamish - although it's not particularly violent and if you can't deal with Keitel's nudity you shouldn't be watching movies above a PG-13 level - but it has so many uncomfortably stark scenes and the Lieutenant is so despicable it might result in people hating this film.
No other movie in contemporary cinema so perfectly conveys what New York City actually feels like; and even Scorsese himself was moved to comment that Ferrara had taken his unlikely-road-to-redemption theme to the ultimate outer limits.Flat as a home movie, or a porno, BAD LIEUTENANT exerts a stranglehold fascination.
Every clunky detail is amazing: a nun raped on the altar is interrupted by images of the Lieutenant's preschool kids watching a WW2 cartoon that chirps, "We did it before and we can do it again!" Keitel's performance convinces you that in every scene he knows exactly which internal organ is failing and why, even when the audience is left in the dark.
Sadly, the only question Bad Lieutenant is just what the hell a good actor like Harvey Keitel was doing in it.Fittingly for such a drearily exploitative movie, Keitel's performance is hilariously bad, pulling out of the hat a lot of sub-de Niro cliches and, in his character's most angsty moments, letting out a loud feral howl which made me crease up every time he started.The main problem is that the film goes nowhere.
Just in case you think he's painfully misunderstood Lt Scumbag is seen indulging in drug taking again later on So in order to let the audience know that this law enforcer is worse than many of the people he arrests Ferrara continually shows disturbing character scenes .
The plot centers around the titular Bad Lieutenant played by Harvey Keitel as we witness the sorry state of his life and the self destructing nature of his psyche.
The character like Jake Lamotta in 'Raging Bull' is certainly despicable, but the script, Ferrara's direction and certainly Keitel's performance gave the character depth, layers and a degree of humanism.'Bad Lieutenant' is a tough film to watch.
Abel Ferrara's ultra gritty classic Bad Lieutenant holds up and in my opinion is Harvey Keitel's best performance ever.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsIntently focusing on the seedier side of life,Abel Ferrera's deeply controversial 1992 bad cop thriller is estentially a movie stabbing at an awkward character study which seems to have come at the expense of an engaging story.The CS in question being the central protagonist,Harvey Keitel's sleazy piece of sh*t corrupt cop who gradually finds redemption whilst searching for the brutal rapists of a young nun.There is some very unflattering,disturbing imagery on offer and you are never left without the impression that Keitel's character really is the sort of twisted bent cop who probably would steal drugs off a dead man's body or force two underage girls without a driving licence to simulate oral sex in front of him to let them off being taken down the station,but on the flip side of the coin,the story lacks structure and Keitel's soul finding seem sto come from the overuse of some rather nauseating whining scenes which grate on the viewers nerves somewhat.The movie seems to rely overly on shock value and that alone won't steer a movie to greatness for everyone.**.
Bad Lieutenant would be one of Abel Ferrara's most powerful movies and best too.
The 1992 film Bad Lieutenant was and still is a very controversial film that easily divides film fans and critics.Harvey Keitel stars as the Lieutenant in question, a police detective who is addicted to hard drugs, has sex with prostitutes and has heavy gambling debts.
He attempts to get out of debt by betting more money on the World Series Games between the New York Mets and L.A. Dodgers, falling into a deeper void of drugs as he investigates the brutal rape of a nun (Frankie Thorn), a nun who is willing to forgive her attackers.Bad Lieutenant is a very dark, bleak film, centred around an excellent performance by Keitel.
This is amplified by the style of direction, using plenty of wide shots and long takes, letting scenes play to their shocking conclusions and giving the actors mostly uninterrupted performances.Bad Lieutenant is very much an art house film about the decline of a man in a world of sin, embarking on sin and someone willing to forgive the people who did the most horrific act possible.
It is a brutal, unpleasant work and Ferrara takes very surreal turns with his use of Catholic iconography.Bad Lieutenant is deserving of its controversial status with its violence, sex and it notorious rape scene.
Lasting only ninety-six minutes but feeling much longer, "Bad Lieutenant" sucks you in to what you believe at first to be the tale of a crooked cop before the realisation slowly dawns upon the viewer that this is going to be much more unpleasant than any "gritty" 'corrupt police officer' film that you'll have seen before.
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.
Abel Ferrara directs this dark tale about a corrupt, drug addicted cop(Harvey Keitel) who tries to find redemption by investigating the rape of a nun, while dealing with his own personal issues.Now I have to first say that this movie is a true adult movie, filled with violence, drugs, sex and the very mature themes of Keitel's character.
The movie is very hard to watch at times, as Keitel goes through a lot of pain as his problems take control of him.The whole film is held together by Keitel's performance which is absolutely brilliant from start to finish and was criminally under-rated on release.
His character is very complex both being an evil and hard to relate to cop, while at the same time a person who's made mistakes and doesn't deserve to go through all this.One thing to note about Bad Lieutenant is that it's not the sort of film that you will watch and think of as and instant classic, its a very deep movie that you need to think about and will most lightly need a second viewing at some point.The movie's camera work is also praise worthy, having a gritty and realistic feel that very much represent the character in the film.
Although it's hard to write a complete review here without spoiling the ending, I can say that just like the rest of the film, the ending feels a bit strange and out of place but it ultimately fits perfectly into the film and properly concludes the story.A great film that is a dark study of an interesting character played superbly by Harvey Keitel..
Harvey Keitel does strong work playing a hard-drinking and drugging police detective in New York City whose attempt to bring in the two teenage thugs who violently raped a nun is stymied (both physically and psychologically) by the victim herself, who sees it as her duty to forgive and protect them.
The only reason I gave this 3 stars was because Keitel was very convincing and did some good acting...however, as a movie, this is awful.Aside from there being no character development, there is very little story line aside from learning how to smoke crack and shoot heroin.I could very well be missing some deep meaning underneath the movie, but all in all it's not worth the money I paid for it..
In this film called " Bad Lieutenant " written and directed by Abel Ferrara, Harvey Keitel is The Lieutenant and gives such a powerful performance in this role, it will be difficult to top himself.
"Bad Lieutenant" features what may be the best performance of Harvey Keitel's distinguished career as a NYPD Lieutenant who struggles with just about every vice imaginable: drug addiction, alcoholism, gambling, prostitutes...
It is offensive, depressing, yet still has got a positive religiously inspired message in the end, because catholic faith is the red line in this story about forgiving someone elses sins."Bad Lieutenant" starts out as a bleak story about a junkie new york city cop (Harvey Keitel), who is a gambling addict and a drug addict, who is getting deeper and deeper into debt with the mob, but this movie surprisingly ends as a religious moral tale.
Bad Lieutenant (Director Abel Ferrara) "90 mins, starring Harvey Keitel, NY cop, hopelessly addicted to drugs, gambling, and sex, in this intense, hallucinatory portrait of sin and redemption"So says the blurb.
Abel Ferrara's heavyweight portrait of sin and redemption,featuring a truly astonishing performance by Harvey Keitel as aseriously out-of-control New York police officer, consumed by ablack hole of addiction and vice, gambling tens of thousands ofdollars on The World Series to pay off mountainous debts andfeed a spectrum of drug habits until the brutal rape of a nununexpectedly instills the morally corrupt lieutenant with a glimmerof humanity..
Harvey Keitel is the titular "Bad Lieutenant," a nameless character whose moral self-degradation becomes the focus of Abel Ferrara's controversial 1992 motion picture.
What follows is heavily responsible for the MPAA's NC-17 rating."Bad Lieutenant" follows this man through his own personal hell  drug addiction, alcoholism, self-loathing and sexual perversity  in an effort to examine the inner workings of a corrupt cop on the brink of death.Keitel gives a good performance, his eyes lost somewhere in between hope and despair, but is too much of an exhibitionist  his seemingly mandatory full-frontal nudity is unnecessary and showy.
This film takes too long to do nothing of any real importance.It sets up Keitel as the Bad Lieutenant.
I give the film a 2 out of 4 star rating for Mr. Keitel's strong acting, but I must say that writer/director Abel Ferrara's vision of a bad Liutenant in the city of New York's police force has been done many times before with better results than in this film..
While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective (Harvey Keitel), with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.Desson Howe called the Lieutenant "a notch nicer than Satan" in the Washington Post, and he cites Keitel's work as the film's saving grace, writing, "It is only the strength of Keitel's performance that gives his personality human dimension." This is completely the truth.
One of the most chocking films I ever seen that takes place in New York, a story about the baddest police lieutenant in the NYPD, a man who drinks, smokes, takes drugs, takes ridiculous bets on baseball games, sells drugs and destroying himself, Harvey Keitel is incredible, I should think that he deserves some oscar or something because of his incredible role as a alcoholic.
Ferrara is not asking for sympathy for the character, nor is he trying to 'convert' the audience in any way:  He's just telling a story of man's need for forgiveness and redemption."Bad Lieutenant" is by far Ferrara's best work, and Kietel has never been better.
Harvey Keitel plays a Lieutenant who is heavily into drugs, sex, and gambling.