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 and redemption.

Director:

Abel Ferrara

Writers:

Zoë Lund (as Zoe Lund), Abel Ferrara

Stars:

Harvey Keitel, Brian McElroy, Frank Acciarito

2 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Harvey Keitel	...	LT
Brian McElroy	...	LT's Son (#1)
Frank Acciarito	...	LT's Son (#2) (as Frankie Acciarito)
Peggy Gormley	...	LT's Wife
Stella Keitel	...	LT's Daughter
Dana Dee	...	LT's Baby Girl
Victor Argo	...	Beat Cop
Paul Calderon	...	Cop #1 (as Paul Calderone)
Leonard L. Thomas	...	Cop #2 (as Leonard Thomas)
Anthony Ruggiero	...	Lite
Vincent Laresca	...	JC
Robin Burrows	...	Ariane
Victoria Bastel	...	Bowtay
G. Elvis Phillips	...	Young Cop
Stephen Chen	...	Korean Store Owner

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.

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Plot Keywords:

rape | drugs | gambling | police | police protagonist | 

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Taglines:

Gambler. Thief. Junkie. Killer. Cop.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

The cast features two actors with the first names Victor and Victoria. They are Victor Argo and Victoria Bastel.

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Goofs

When the Lt. stops the car with the two rapists inside, a passerby seen through the driver side window points at the car and can be heard saying "They got a camera."

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Quotes

[to a hallucination of Jesus Christ]
The Lieutenant: You fuck. Where were you?

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Alternate Versions

The UK cinema release was uncut, but the 1995 Guild video version was shorn of 1 min 47 seconds of "instructional" heroin use, and the rape scene was slightly trimmed. The video version also omits the rap song.

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Connections

Referenced in At the Movies: True Romance/The Ballad of Little Jo/Kalifornia/The Joy Luck Club/The Real McCoy (1993)

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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.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

17 December 1992 (Argentina)

Also Known As:

Bad Lieutenant

Filming Locations:

1911 Hone Ave Bronx NY 10461

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$47,454, 22 November 1992

Gross USA:

$2,000,022

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,038,916

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