User reviews

Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant is one of the darkest films I have ever seen. I don't mean dark in the way that it was shot, but in the subject matter of the film. The movie is about a cop who is probably the lowest scumball in the history of modern cinema and how he tries to find redemption in solving the case of a nun who is raped inside a Catholic church. The film is very graphic and terribly depressing but that doesn't make it a bad film. It is well written, well edited by Anthony Redman, well shot by Ken Kelsch and very well directed by Abel Ferrara. The cast is pretty insignificant when you consider the whole film is about Harvey Keitel's character. Keitel is the complete center of this movie and he holds it together. His performance is one of the best in recent movie history and this film is worth watching just to see how far Keitel will go for his art.

All right let's get this out of the way. This is not a great picture. In fact I will bet 98 percent of the public would find it absolutely repulsive. Make that 99 percent. Hell, even I didn't understand it the first time I saw it. But what I realized the second time was brilliant method acting. And that ladies and gents is what makes this film shine. There is no solid plot, no supporting characters, and no reason to feel anything but disgust for Harvey Keitel. However, you find me another actor who could have dug as low as Keitel did or take as many chances and I will bet you that it will take more than the time to cook a frozen cardboard pizza. It is hard to view a soiled life like Keitel was leading without being on the road yourself which wouldn't be pretty. The backdrop of a baseball series and Keitel losing chunks of money made it even crazier. Again I have to say absolutely great acting. Keitel has so many good scenes that this may be a career role for him. I give him a multitude of credit for taking the chance to play a totally unlovable character. Watch this movie at your own risk and know going in that this is an outlier in the sense of normal movie making. Don't bother grabbing a flashlight or even a spotlight and trying to find a plot. There isn't one. Just sit back and watch Keitel spiral down like a squirrel who missed the branch.

What more can I say? Keitel gives an astounding performance. Then again, when has he let us down? I was able to find some interesting parallels to "Mean Streets." Aside from the use of "Pledging my Love" by Johnny Ace, it explores the theme of Catholic guilt and how one's temptation and hunger for evil can weaken spiritual judgments. The climactic scene is great, in which Keitel (literally) comes face to face with Jesus. I wasn't a big fan of "Mean Streets" and think this film better explores its Catholic themes. One may perceive this film to be sinful, and it received tons of controversy. It's very rare that a movie is able to show rape of a nun, and get away Scott-free with the MPAA. I think the NC-17 rating was mostly on account of the explicit nudity and sex. I don't know why the hell people are trying to scare viewers by regarding this movie as "graphically violent." About all we really see are aftermaths of violence. However, the language is extremely blunt, and that's about the only warning I can give. Of course, religious activists might protest its use of footage of Jesus on a cross and the aforementioned rape scene, but they simply have to look closer at what message Ferrara is trying to bring out. Cinema is an art form often misjudged by the prudish. The scene where Keitel pulls the two young girls over is classic, and I loved its darkly humorous element.

"Bad Lieutenant" is an impressive character study, and though it occasionally gets meandering and repetitive and seems to be missing something (which I might be able to identify on a second viewing), it's a moving story with terrific acting. I wasn't too thrilled with the other Ferrara pieces I've seen, "King of New York" and "The Funeral," but I was younger and I think I just had trouble understanding the subtle messages he delivers in his films. Of course, he specializes in gritty urban dramas like this, being a Bronx native what do you expect, so something like "Bad Lieutenant" naturally wouldn't appeal to general audiences. It's unpleasant, though somewhat humorous, but life can be the same way. You can't spend your whole life watching "The Wizard of Oz." Every once in a while, you have to take a break and watch graphic character studies like this and learn a little something. After seeing this movie, I'm curious about checking out some more of Ferrara's work, because I know he has talent.

I can tell this a movie I will have to watch again, because it's not easily understood the first time around, but I'm sure there's hidden messages that just flew over my head. I still think the film could've had more substance, but it's still an impressive work.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

People are probably right enough when they comment that this entire film essentially hinges on Harvey Kietel's impassioned performance as the corrupt and deeply troubled lieutenant of the title. Which shouldn't necessarily be taken as a shortcoming - an engrossing lead is the one key thing that any one-man character study like this needs in order to flourish, after all. Whether sobbing, howling or clenching his jaws in anguish, or else hanging his head and sipping liquor in silence, his acting here is always raw, convincing and utterly compelling; the kind of portrayal you'd be hard-pressed to take your eyes off. The exact identity of his character is never revealed, but the title informs us he's a 'bad lieutenant', a label seemingly confirmed by his tendency to indulge in substance abuse, work up heavy gambling debts and even, on occasion, pull over a couple of young female drivers and use them as motivation for his own self-pleasure. Very lurid, and yet the way that Kietel plays him also makes feel completely human. He conveys such pain and desperation behind his each and every immoral action that they never come across as nearly as shocking or vulgar to watch as they are harrowing. It's this alone that enables 'Bad Lieutenant' as a whole to reach the true extent of its potential - what could easily be read off as a plethora of fury, drug-taking, masturbation and full-frontal nudity in practice translates very aptly into a sad and striking depiction of a despondent man who's lost his ability to see goodness in anything in life, and who's sinking ever deeper beneath the weight of all those answers being continuously sought in the wrong places. As you've probably worked out by now, this isn't exactly the balmiest movie you could spending your time with (might be wrong, but I don't think there's a single light-hearted moment to be found in the entire screenplay), but if you can bring yourself to look past the sourness on the surface and instead feel sympathy for this bad lieutenant, as Kietel's involving performance invites us to do, then you'll find some considerable power lurking in its bleakness.

So, while it's Harvey Kietel who really (and rightly) brings things together in 'Bad Lieutenant' and makes it the affecting near-masterpiece that it is, it would be unfair of me to completely overlook Ferrara's role in this equation. He's provided the context against which our centrepiece man must function - a world so run-down, sombre and nihilistic that trying to find redemption round here seems not only impossible, but practically pointless. The mood is well-set by the ever-overcast skies; killing, rape and robbery are rampant, and the Lt isn't exactly given a great deal to aspire to in his day-to-day life. Kietel and his character are admittedly the only things here that come off as particularly outstanding - the vast majority of supporting characters are really all just part of this one big daunting backdrop, with dialogue, screen time and development kept to a strict minimum in each case - though personally I look at this as being more of an additional strength than as a weakness. That everyone else around him always seems so distant only increases the overall feelings of detachment and isolation that draw us deeper into the Lt's outlook.

Christian faith and symbolism are pretty integral to the overall themes of this movie, but even being non-religious myself I find I can still get a good deal of emotional investment in it. It delivers its underlying issues - of non-judgement and the potential for goodness in even the most repellent of sinners - with acute precision, as reflected in the investigation concerning the raping of a young nun which the plot loosely revolves around. While this heinous crime only serves to strengthen the Lt's belief in the general depravity of the world around him, the nun herself has found solace in her refusal to condemn those who wronged her, viewing them instead as victims as their own confusion and despair. There are of course some fairly sharp parallels between this scenario and the Lt's own personal predicament, which any viewer who's really come to feel for him will recognise - as displeasing as some of the things he himself gets up to may be (and the way he incorporates further crime into his efforts to uphold the law), there's that challenge lying at the centre of every scene as to whether or not we're really in any position to pass judgement upon him. All things considered, is it truly a bad lieutenant that he is at heart or just, well, a sad one?

I don't imagine that everyone will quite take to the conclusion this eventually leads to (and which I'm not going to give away here), but considering just how weighty a lot of the issues it addresses really are, you never get the impression that Ferrara ever intended to come up with a cut-and-dried solution of any sorts. Instead, he and Kietel have put together a polished and powerful piece of film-making that, though it deals with some pretty disagreeable and, at the time at least, controversial subject matter, is so rich in great acting (well, one great performance, but it's easily worth the input of an entire cast) and slick atmospherics that it becomes entirely captivating. In the end, it's the surprising amount of depth and emotional muscle that it carries, and not the notorious reputation that it garnered, that 'Bad Lieutenant' really deserves to be remembered for - and remembered I hope it always will be. Another great in early 90s cinema.

Grade: A

Nasty Film, shows the downward spiral of a dirty cop as his drug and gambling addictions take him deeper and deeper into despair. There is no compassion for this man, and indeed, he asks for none. The conclusion to the film is really the only ending that could have been believable, but still no compassion. While this film is not one to watch for entertainment value, it is a good one to watch for plot and character acting value. Don't expect a nice story, and you won't be disappointed.

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.

BAD LIEUTENANT / (1992) ***1/2 (out of four)

By Blake French:

Abel Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" could be a solid tale of spiritual redemption if not for the pervasive material through which the film demonstrates its immorality. It contrasts the most disturbing, obscene human behavior with compassion and forgiveness, but the extreme nature of the content and the film's insistence on it's portrayal swindles the spiritual impact. For once a movie deserves the notorious NC-17 rating-the Motion Picture Association of America's most restrictive emblem placed on movies submitted for a rating-but the story contains a message that's more humble and spiritual than most inoffensive productions about spirituality.

These filmmakers may or may not realize the potential religious impact their product is capable of achieving. It's a very religious film; churches could use this to demonstrate the power of forgiveness and the strength of God's love. Unfortunately many audiences will misinterpret the graphic adult content and strong language as excessively dirty-but this is not a dirty movie. The content is necessary for the exceptional contrast to work. It displays the goodness in people through their wrong doings. Though I still wouldn't recommend gathering the kids around to watch this movie.

Harvey Keitel plays a character whom the movie calls only "Bad Lieutenant." He's at a stage in his life when human characteristics no longer matter. Filled with fury, need, and depression, his temporary remedies-sex, drugs, and gambling-no longer fulfill his hunger for pleasure. But his family doesn't care anymore. He drops his kids off for school, does bad things during the day, and comes home to collapse on the couch at night. This character does not imagine himself as anything but bad. He interrupts a grocery store robbery only to let the thieves go on a bribe. He buys drugs from drug dealers in exchange for their immunity. He stops a pair of young women in a car only to blackmail them into an unpleasant form of verbal rape.

The story takes a twist. Several low lives brutally rape a young nun. The nun, who knows her rapists, refuses to reveal their identities because she forgives them for their crime. The bad lieutenant cannot believe a victim can forgive such an atrocity. If this woman can forgive her debtors, could anyone forgive his sins as well?

Whether the bad lieutenant turns his life around I will leave you to discover. But this idea might be a side issue in the plot. "Bad Lieutenant" displays more of an interest in the dirty lifestyle of the title character than in his decision to seek forgiveness for his sins. Only during the final minutes does Keitel's character realize his choices. Surprisingly, however, the film's ending takes the easy way out in a complete refusal to look redemption in the eye. This ending blends in with the events because of stark, honest realism, but we never comprehend the character's intentions for the future.

Dark and cringe-inducing, "Bad Lieutenant" is not a fun movie to watch and don't expect to hold your popcorn down if you walk in unprepared. Abel Ferrara and Zoe Lund wrote the script looking into deep, private crevices of the human soul. They travel to places many people will find extremely uncomfortable. It's a harrowing character study portrayed through an unreserved, courageous performance. Harvey Keitel takes a huge risk here-most actors would not want such a character to follow their public image. But Keitel does not hesitate to characterize the bad lieutenant without compromise, mercy, or restraint.

Hats off to you, Harvey.

Harvery Keitel does an excellent job portraying a dirty cop. This dirty cop is not only the main character of this movie but is in fact the only real character of the film. The camera leaves Keitel only once or twice through out the entire movie. As the camera follows Keitel it tells shows his character excellently as a very realistic and trouble cop. It shows his character by following him through one of his ghastly cases. It is a very realistic portrayal of a New York City's cop struggle to stop his wicked ways with a underlining religious theme.

The movie is only 98 minutes long but most likely will bore anyone who requires action and story. The content of the film earned it a NC-17 rating (My first NC-17 rental). The rating is due primarily due to nudity however it is from for a porno. I would recommend to any Harvey Keitel fans. Also recommended to anyone who enjoys character based films and as a strong constitution.

If there is at least one thing to admire in BAD LIEUTENANT, it's Harvey Keitel's method performance as the corrupt cop without a moral compass who goes through the film indifferent to everyone but himself, getting high whenever he's in the need of a fix, intimidating anyone under his charge--including teen-age girls in the film's most exploitational scene--and upset through the entire film over the rape of a nun who has forgiven her attackers.

Keitel throws himself completely into the role, gnashing his teeth and clenching his jaw effectively whenever stirred to emote, crying like a wounded animal when he feels no justice in a world where injustices are free to roam. He's quite an intense actor and always seems to be cast in these kind of roles that show the underbelly of human beings, usually in stories of the kind that Martin Scorsese likes to tell about corrupt cops. Unfortunately, any director needs a good script.

Well, Abel Ferrara is no Scorsese. He's made a cheap looking exploitation film about a sleazy subject and seems to think that the more gross it is, the more gritty he makes it look, and the shakier the hand held camera is at catching grimy glimpses of New York streets, the better it will be appreciated by fans of this kind of schlock.

Summing up: He's a bad lieutenant in a bad film. Too bad Keitel can't find a film worthier of his talents. All he needs is a good script.

Gritty, raw, disturbing, and powerful. Just a few words that describe Abel Ferrara's provocative Bad Lieutenant. It chronicles the downward spiral of a drug addict cop investigating the rape of a nun. It contains one of the best performances ever captured on film by Harvey Keitel. Ferrara's masterpiece is a story of the evils of man and one mans quest for redemption. You'll never forget this movie.

(There are Spoilers) Unbelievably dark an depressing film about a York City cop, Harvey Keitel, who's going under from the sheer weight of problems that he made for himself over he years.

Lieutenant, for a better name since he doesn't have one in the films credits, Keitel's life has been spiraling out of control since he's become addicted to both crack and cocaine. Sniffing coke in his car and smoking crack at his girlfriend's, a crack dealer, Zoe (Zoe Lund) apartment had just about burned Keitel out.

As he's slowly losing control of his life Keitel decides to pull off a major coup on he mobs bookie racket by betting that the L.A Dodgers, who are down three games to none, are going to come back from the dead and beat the NY Mets in the post-season playoffs. Getting some of his fellow cops to bet with him Keitel ends up parlaying his bets where by the time the seventh game comes around he's $120,000.00 in the hole with the mob wanting it's money or else it will not only do in Kietel but his family as well.

Kietel for his part seems oblivious to what he put himself and his family into with his mindless betting as well as drug use feeling that because he's a cop he's immune to mob retaliation. That impression on Kietel's part is about as realistic as him being a cop makes him immune to becoming addicted on crack! It's later when reality enters his thick skull that Kietel looks for answers to solve the mess that he made for himself and that comes with the brutal attack and rape of a nun, Frankie Thorn, in a church in Spanish Harlem.

With the church putting up a $50,000.00 reward for information to who the nun's rapists are and having them face justice Kietel feels that by solving the case he's have all he cash he needs to pay off the bookies that he's so much in debt to. The only problem that Kietel has is that the nun, who can identify her assailants, refuses to press charges or reveal their identities!

A truly remarkable performance by actor Harvey Kietel that has you riveted to the screen every time he's appears. Kietel's unbelievable scene at the church where he's confronted by Jesus, Paul Hipp, while what seem like in a drug induced stupor is as good if not better then Marlon Brando's performance at the funeral home, where his wife is lying in state, in "Last Tango in Paris". Showing at first a deep resentment toward Jesus for his own lot in life Kietel suddenly realizes what a crumb he's been all his life and then falls on his knees begging for both salvation and forgiveness from the very person whom he just lambasted. That stunning ten or so minute sequence is worth the price of admission alone!

In the end Kietel realizes that the only way he can redeem himself is to do what the raped nun want's and that is to forgive, like Jesus would have done, those who viciously assaulted her. Tracking down, with the help of a church member, the nuns assailants who were found less then two blocks from the scene of their crime Kietel has them check out of town with his stash of drug money, $30,000.00, never to come back to NYC again. This with the entire NYPD out on the streets looking for them many more then willing to exact street justice on the rapists.

I's just too bad that the mob wasn't as kind forgiving and understanding to Kietel as he was to the two rapists. In the end Kietel not paying off on his bet, with the Dodgers losing the seventh game in the playoffs, himself gets a taste of street justice in front of the New York City Port Authority Bus Terminal. The very place that he just put the two rapists on an out of town bus and out of harms way! The motto of the movie is that Jesus forgives but the Mob doesn't.

Harvey Keitel is great in this film. He plays a crooked cop who abuses hardcore drugs and is in debt to gangsters via his gambling addiction. He has to investigate - of all the horrors in the world - the gang rape of a nun - and along the way experience an opportunity at redemption. The scene at the end where Keitel lashes out yet at the same time begs forgiveness from The Church is unbelievable. Great performance. Great movie.

Harvey Kietel snorts and boozes his way through the titular role in this corrupt cop drama and thanks to the power of the star, watching him makes for compelling viewing. As a film, BAD LIEUTENANT is Abel Ferrera's exploration of Catholic angst, beginning with a typical DIRTY HARRY-type vibe but eventually turning into something completely different by the end.

Along the way there's plenty of explicit drug abuse and the kind of grittiness that Scorcese did so well back in the 1970s. Kietel is on superb form, and watch out for his outstanding breakdown that recalls the ending of RESERVOIR DOGS.

In New York, a corrupt and abusive NYPD Lieutenant (Harvey Keitel) is addicted in drugs and gambling and has a great debt with a shark. He takes advantage of his authority to make deals with drug dealers and criminals to get drugs and dirty money and his bookmaker advises him that he owes money to dangerous people. When a nun is brutally raped by two youngsters, the Lieutenant chases the criminals but the nun tells him that she had forgiven the punks. The Lieutenant is affected by her religious principles and asks Jesus to help him.

"Bad Lieutenant" is one of my favorite films by Abel Ferrara with a great story of addiction, corruption, forgiveness and redemption. Last time I had seen this film was on 27 September 2000 and after seeing once again, I realize that "Bad Lieutenant" is a timeless movie that has not aged. Harvey Keitel has one of the best performances of his successful career in the role of a dirty cop that finds redemption in the end. Unfortunately this film is only available on VHS in Brazil. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Vício Frenético" "Frantic Addiction")

Note: On 21 February 2017, I saw this film again.

This provocative film has an almost documentary-like feel in its depiction of New York lowlife, and another credible performance by Harvey Keitel, but at times it's as stagnant as the "hero's" life - Ferrara holds the shots too long, as if we're supposed to look for something more into them than what is actually there. Still, the film is certainly not the exploitive trash that some have labeled it as, and deserves a solid "7".

In one of the bravest performances you'll ever see, Harvey Keitel plays the unnamed Lieutenant, a drug addict, bully, and gambler who begins to find redemption through his investigation of a nun's rape. I find this film compelling because it goes all the way and never compromises its integrity in the process. This isn't a gratuitous exploitation film but a serious examination of a man who's lost - he can't control his own vices and he obviously hates himself more than he hates other people (which is saying a lot). This is not a film for the squeamish - although it's not particularly violent and if you can't deal with Keitel's nudity you shouldn't be watching movies above a PG-13 level - but it has so many uncomfortably stark scenes and the Lieutenant is so despicable it might result in people hating this film. But I think it's a masterpiece, and Ferrara's best film by far.

Harvey Keitel gives the performance of a lifetime in a brilliant, unflinchingly gritty street ballad that holds up next to Scorcese's greatest moments. A depressingly underrated character study, Bad Lieutenant is truly Abel Ferrara's masterpiece, and a high point in independent cinema of the 90's.

Harvey Keitel plays a New York cop who, to put it bluntly, is a pretty awful person. Throughout the film, we watch as he goes from situation to situation exploring the depths of depravity and corruption. Ferrara keeps it voyeuristic -- Keitel is often shot from a distance, and he is presented without judgment. This matter-of-fact approach to his character is what makes this film so believable, so real. Keitel is portrayed not as a monster, but as what he is -- a human. As easy as it is to hate him (and boy, is it easy), it is just as easy to forgive him -- a point which is highlighted by the religious themes and Catholic imagery throughout. And ultimately, it really is a film more concerned with forgiveness and redemption than power and corruption. All of the evils perpetrated by our protagonist build over the course of 90 minutes and lead to a final act of humanity. He is not necessarily vindicated, but he is most certainly human.

It's not a feel-good film, and it's unpleasantness is not always easy to endure, but Bad Lieutenant is a powerful, rewarding film experience. One of the absolute best of its kind. 9 out of 10.

Harvey Keitel is one bad cop. That is not meant to be a compliment. He is probably the worst cop you will ever see on film. He has a drug problem, an alcohol problem, a gambling problem, he uses his badge to get sexual favors, he steals, commits adultery, well, about the only thing he doesn't do is molest children.

Of course, he doesn't pay much attention to his children, as we only see them in the beginning.

His demons come out when he is investigating the rape of a young nun (Frankie Thorn). Now, I watched the "R" rated version, so there really isn't much in the way of nunsploitation here, an I do not know if there is any more in the NC-17 version.

It is not about exploitation, but about facing your demons and resolving to change and facing up to your failures. He does the "Christian" thing in the end and accepts his penance.

Keitel was magnificent, and that is good as he is 95% of the movie.

It is rare for me to see a movie and essentially have no idea what the point of it was. This movie for me was one of them. I honestly don't see why this movie was ever made.

Harvey Keitel did perform a stellar performance at being a "Bad Lieutenant" but this movie was basically about drug use, non-stop drug use, sexuality and perversion. Very little cop work took place and it was essentially a movie where you watched a few actors snort, smoke or inject themselves full of drugs.

At over 20 years old as of the date of this review I never saw this movie until now. And I honestly I could have gone my entire life. Essentially is a junkie smoking up, snorting and shooting dope. That is it. There is no reason for anyone to ever watch this movie or remember this movie.