Sunday, May 3, 2009

Bad Lieutenant (1992)

4 / 5
Tagline:
Gambler. Thief. Junkie. Killer. Cop.
Directed By: Abel Ferrara
Written By: Victor Argo, Paul Calderon, Zoe Lund
Actors Include: Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Paul Calderon
Genre: Action, Thriller, Cult, Drama
Banned: None
Country: USA

Review:
Something that does make this particularly interesting right off the shot is that one of the co-writers Zoe Lund was actually the lead actress from Ms. 45. Pretty cool right? Well of course this film is notorious for the Nun rape, but if you think about it, the same sort of taboos have been broken before this film (Waters' Mondo Trasho (1969) anyone?). I was really impressed with Ms. 45, but for some reason when Abel has more of a budget I seem to be less impressed somehow. Well the title of this movie is pretty much a dead giveaway what to expect. We watch Keitel (who actually does an excellent job with this character) smoke heroin, snort coke, take bribes, take money, getting into serious debt with some undesirables etc. He starts investigating the rape of the Nun (which we do see and yes it is disturbing), and when he finds out that the Nun is able to forgive her rapists he begins to change his ways. I don't really want to give away the rest of what happens because it's sort of surprising, but it's actually rather well put together. My biggest quarrel with this film is that it can get a little boring even with the sex drugs and so on (by the way, I never thought I'd see Keitel's penis....what was up with that?). At least though the payoff is sweet and this film has more than just a few really good moments. I'd say this is something to watch, but don't expect to be horrifically disturbed or anything.

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