Bad Lieutenant ***** (1992, Harvey Keitel, Frankie Thorn, Zoe Lund, Brian McElroy, Frank Acciarito) – Classic Movie Review 6127

Co-writer/ director Abel Ferrara’s eye-opening 1992 screen-scalder stars a career best Harvey Keitel, who is astonishing in a full-frontal performance as the kind of corrupt New York City police detective who steals drugs from a dead man’s body and steals money from criminals in order to fuel his own drug taking and gambling addiction.

Police Lieutenant LT acts as wickedly as any of New York’s bad guys. Like the adverts say, he is a ‘gambler, thief, junkie, killer and a cop.’ However, everyone draws a line somewhere and even he is outraged when two youths rape a young nun, whose case he is investigating. LT decides to take direct action.

Ferrara stakes all on a character study of one man and a city out of control and comes up with a movie that rivets the attention while paying little heed to the normal rules of thriller story-telling and pacing.

It works brilliantly, and Keitel proves his mettle yet again with an intensely difficult role in his career defining performance.

Although extremely harsh, violent and sometimes disgusting, this is a deeply moral and religious film.

Brian McElroy and Frank Acciarito play the cop’s sons, Peggy Gormley plays his wife and Stella Keitel plays his daughter. Also in the cast are Frankie Thorn, Zoe Lund, Anthony Ruggiero, Victoria Bastel, Victor Argo, Paul Calderon, Leonard L Thomas, Vincent Laresca and Robin Burrows.

It is written by Ferrara and Zoe Lund, shot by Ken Kelsch, produced by Edward R Pressman and Mary Kane and scored by Joe DeliaSe and Charlie Lagola.

It is very strong material. It was rated NC-17 for sexual violence, strong sexual situations and dialogue, and graphic drug use, and this version runs 96 minutes, while the cut R-rated version runs 91 minutes.

The story is revisited in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) with Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6127

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