Bad Lieutenant (1992)

While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.

Director:

Abel Ferrara

Writers:

Victor Argo, Paul Calderon,

Stars:

Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Paul Calderon

3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Harvey Keitel	...	The Lieutenant
Victor Argo	...	Beat Cop
Paul Calderon	...	Cop #1 (as Paul Calderone)
Leonard L. Thomas	...	Cop #2 (as Leonard Thomas)
Robin Burrows	...	Ariane
Frankie Thorn	...	The Nun
Victoria Bastel	...	Bowtay
Paul Hipp	...	Jesus
Brian McElroy	...	Lieutenant's Son (#1)
Frankie Acciarito	...	Lieutenant's Son (#2)
Peggy Gormley	...	Lieutenant's Wife
Stella Keitel	...	Lieutenant's Daughter
Dana Dee	...	Lieutenant's Baby Girl
Anthony Ruggiero	...	Lite
Vincent Laresca	...	J.C.

Storyline

A police Lieutenant goes about his daily tasks of investigating homicides, but is more interested in pursuing his vices. He has accumulated a massive debt betting on baseball, and he keeps doubling to try to recover. His bookies are beginning to get agitated. The Lieutenant does copious amounts of drugs, cavorts with prostitutes, and uses his status to take advantage of teenage girls. While investigating a nun's rape, he begins to reflect on his lifestyle.

---

Plot Keywords:

drugs | lieutenant | nun | police | gambling | 

---

Taglines:

Gambler. Thief. Junkie. Killer. Cop.

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated NC-17 for sexual violence, strong sexual situations & dialogue, graphic drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

20 November 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

A mocskos zsaru

Filming Locations:

Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$2,000,022 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Lt. Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min 91 min (R-rated)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Abel Ferrara originally wanted Baybi Day, one of his leading ladies from The Driller Killer, to appear in this movie but she declined.

---

Goofs

When the Mets win the pennant, we see the Met catcher roll the ball toward the mound and run toward the dugout. This is obviously the end of an inning, but not the end of a game.

---

Quotes

Zoe: Vampires are lucky, they can feed on others. We gotta eat away at ourselves. We gotta eat our legs to get the energy to walk. We gotta come, so we can go. We gotta suck ourselves off. We gotta eat away at ourselves til there's nothing left but appetite. We give, and give and give crazy. Cause a gift that makes sense ain't worth it. Jesus said seventy times seven. No one will ever understand why, why you did it. They'll just forget about you tomorrow, but you gotta do it.

---

Connections

Referenced in A Short Film About the Long Career of Abel Ferrara (2004)

---

Soundtracks

"PLEDGING MY LOVE"
Written by Don D. Robey (as Robey) / Fats Washington (as Washington)
(P) 1954 Music Corporation of America, Inc.
Performed by Johnny Ace
Used by permission of MCA Records, Inc.

User Reviews

Intense, subtle, and in some ways unique- Bad Lieutenant is the sleeper of 1992

Abel Ferrara has on his hands a small masterwork of one man's existence in the doldrums, and he has such a way of dealing with "the streets" as a perpetually gritty, hellish world in a movie that I didn't disbelieve it for a second. In a sense he can be compared to the likes of Scorsese, however he certainly works in a different frame of honesty in mind in depicting his lead character and those he encounters. 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. The Lieutenant spends little time with his kids, and when he does is hardly happy, and when he leaves them he goes into the underworld to do coke, crack and heroin, gulps down alcohol like Evian, and tries to cling onto whatever dignity he has left in betting on the Mets in the championship series.

When a startling case occurs - a nun is raped by two street kids - the lieutenant is on the scene, however fogged in his muck, and can't understand how somebody, even a nun, can forgive such a crime. This leads into the third act of the film, and this is where the work propels itself into a higher ground, mature, spiritual, and ultimately fascinating in every aspect. Overall, Bad Lieutenant is a lean, un-abashed first-person singular in a rather sophisticated delivery. We are delivered a character, like Alex in Clockwork Orange for example, who is not even a half-way decent person. 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.