Attack of the B's!

Bad Lieutenant (1992), Abel Ferrara

"Bad" is an understatement. The nameless lieutenant, played to near perfection by Harvey Keitel, drops his kids off at school, then spends the rest of his day smoking crack, snorting coke, shooting heroin, obsessively gambling, having three ways with anonymous lesbians, and jerking off to underage girls. His whole life changes when a nun is raped in his district, forcing him to question everything he knows about Catholicism and the power of forgiveness in this modern-day allegory of Jesus Christ.

It's not an easy movie to watch. It's rated NC-17, if that tells you anything. The copious instances of drug abuse were very clinical and matter-of-fact in nature, which I found profoundly disturbing. The viewer is given no indication as to how long he had been using drugs, which is somewhat disorienting when his family is shown to basically just ignore it (and him). Clearly, this man is a walking cry for help. The only people who seem to see anything wrong with his behavior are his dealers. It's very hard to believe he can hold down a job, let alone one as a police lieutenant in NYC.

When he assists in the nun's rape investigation, he sees a chance at redemption. He wants to take it upon himself to find the rapists and bring them to his own brand of justice. The nun has been astonishingly unhelpful in the investigation thus far. She knows who raped her, but refuses to tell. He confronts her about this in what I thought was the most heart-wrenching scene in the whole film. The nun explains to Bad Lt. that she doesn't want any more attempts at justice, because she has already forgiven her attackers. He explains to her that she is not the only woman in the world, she's not even the only nun, and she is sending these rapists the message that they can rape whomever they please and get away with it. He experiences a moral metamorphosis of sorts, and finds the redemption he has been seeking all along.

I highly recommend this film, and I would say that for people who are unfamiliar with Ferrara's work, Bad Lieutenant is a good place to start. I also think it's funny that Harvey Keitel was in three films in '92: this, Reservoir Dogs, and Sister Act. (One of these things is not like the others...) Keitel's performance was very convincing, even the part where he cries. When you think of how a tough, musclebound junkie would cry, I'd say it sound pretty close to that. The ending is pretty rough, but not totally unexpected. Abel Ferrara's song over the end credits is... uhhhh... interesting, and certainly not to be missed.

Grade: A