Bad Lieutenant

Bad Lieutenant
directed by Abel Ferrara (1992)

A New York police lieutenant is on the hunt for two punks who raped a nun inside a church.

Quote.

“Vampires are lucky, they feed on others. We, on the other hand, devour ourselves.

We must eat our own legs to find the strength to walk. We must arrive in order to leave.

We must suck ourselves dry. We must devour ourselves until there is nothing left but hunger.

We give, give, and give like crazy, but I don’t think any of this makes sense, it doesn’t mean anything..”
(𝐙𝐨𝐞)

NO REDEMPTION.

The protagonist of Abel Ferrara’s film navigates through a cold, dirty, and dark New York.

He is a man in freefall who has thrown his life away: a corrupt and depraved cop, violent, alcoholic, and drug-addicted, indulging in every possible form of abuse of power.

A character destroyed by debts caused by his lifestyle. He sinks deeper, betting on baseball in the underground gambling circuit.

There seems to be no sense of morality in him, only decay and self-destruction.

Not even in his relationship with religion does he find shelter or even restraint: the hole in his soul is too large to be filled.

Thus, the final and “hallucinated” encounter with Jesus becomes a moment where furious anger transforms first into self-pity, then into repentance, and finally into a plea for forgiveness, but not salvation.

Considerations.

Harvey Keitel takes on the lead role that was originally meant for Christopher Walken.

His portrayal of this antihero, who hides every despicable action behind the badge used as a shield, is simply monumental.

He roams around like a dirty and disheveled “zombie,” dragging his feet, without purpose, pushing himself further into the abyss.

And Abel Ferrara, behind the camera, knows exactly how to render the streets of New York black, dark, and desperate.

An urban substratum where millions of souls walk every day, carrying on their anguished existences.

Vices, torments, and very few virtues add up to a deeply unsustainable cynicism.

Concepts like Good (religion) and Evil (the protagonist’s behavior) constantly come into contact, without ever truly merging, without finding a meeting point, something bright and redemptive.

A hard, raw, deliberately unpleasant film, presenting us with a violent and ruthless portrait of a reality where there is no room for hope or relief.

Ken Kelsch’s cinematography is excellent, with all its range of dark and shadowy colors.

Censored upon release in Italy to obtain a 14+ age rating, it can still be found in its uncut version on DVD.

Martin Scorsese rightly judged it one of the ten most important films of the 1990s.

Bad Lieutenant is absolutely unforgettable.

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