Bad Lieutenant

Bad Lieutenant

“Bad Lieutenant” centers on a man who feels uncomfortable in his own skin, his body or soul. He walks around constantly needing something and afraid of everything.

His life is such a loveless hell that he buys sex just to feel another person’s touch, and even then, he can’t focus because there are too many demons chasing after him.

Keitel delivers this character with staggering honesty; it’s hard to think of another performance that comes close to this level of bravery. Not many actors would willingly expose themselves like that.

The lieutenant has no illusions about himself: he is bad and knows it. He exploits every possible way to abuse the power attached to his position as a policeman. For example, when grocery store stickup men rob him blind by distracting their beat cop, they don’t know they’ve been robbed twice over until later on down the line when they find out who really took their money during lunch hour at lunchtime.

He sells drug dealers their immunity from prosecution by taking drugs off them instead of arresting them for possession charges which could lead upstate penitentiary sentences under New York State law statutes governing controlled substances trafficking offenses related specifically towards cocaine distribution networks operating within city limits without warrants signed by judges authorizing wiretaps first but never mind all that now because we’re having fun right?

In one particularly harrowing scene near the end where two teen girls steal daddy’s car while momma sleeps late Saturday morning post-party time after prom night festivities ended earlier than expected due lack thereof supervision over teenage daughter’s social life choices made during high school years spent together since kindergarten graduation ceremonies held back in 1995 AD when dinosaurs roamed free across North America before extinction event wiped out all life forms except for cockroaches found crawling around inside abandoned buildings scattered throughout urban areas worldwide today but I digress again. Anyway yeah those girls probably shouldn’t have done what they did either way so let’s move along now shall we?

“Bad Lieutenant” is directed by Abel Ferrara, a rough-and-tumble New Yorker who has worked his way up through the exploitation ranks (“Ms. 45,” “Fear City”) to low-budget yet ambitious pictures like “China Girl” and “Cat Chaser.” It’s got a rawness that a fancier director might have polished off which would have been fatal for both the film and the character. The screenplay was written by Ferrara with Zoe Lund, who appears on screen as a hooker. They’re not interested in plot in ordinary ways; there’s no case to solve here, no crime to prevent or bad guys other than the hero.

Keitel starred in Scorsese’s first film and spent more time taking risks with scripts and directors than any other major actor over the past quarter century. He is gutsy enough to take on roles like this that even street-wise actors wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. He bares everything here his body yes but also his weaknesses, his hungers. It is an unreserved performance.

Rated NC-17 for adults only but not dirty movie it actually takes spirituality and morality more seriously than most movies do; in Bad Lieutenant Keitel has given us one of recent years’ great screen performances.

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