Bad Lieutenant (1992) – Film Review

Director: Abel Ferrara
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Brian McElroy, Frank Acciarito
Certificate: 18

By Sarah Morgan

Some films are so easygoing, they wash over you, leaving you with a warm glow. It’s safe to say that Bad Lieutenant is not one of them.

Made largely on the streets of New York, it’s sometimes a tough watch, but never less than compelling, thanks in no small part to an electrifying central performance from Harvey Keitel. We never know the character’s given name, but Bad Lieutenant fits him rather well.

At the time, Keitel’s career was enjoying something of a purple patch. He’d recently appeared in Thelma & Louise, Bugsy and Reservoir Dogs, and was about to move on to Sister Act – never let it be said he was a one-trick pony who shied away from diversity.

“Dark appetites”

Despite this, he was not the first choice of director Abel Ferrara; Christopher Walken, with whom he’d previously worked on King of New York, was set to portray the corrupt police detective, but he dropped out, according to Ferrara in an interview among the special features, because he felt he couldn’t do the role justice.

It certainly wouldn’t have been an easy part to play. The Bad Lieutenant thinks nothing of using his position to sate his dark appetites involving sex and copious drug-taking. He’s also a gambling addict who seems disconnected from his wife, children and extended family.

Nevertheless, he becomes intent on tracking down the two young men who raped a nun at a local church. But if he brings them to justice, will his sins be purged?

“Visceral”

Catholic symbolism and guilt abound in Ferrara’s tale, in which few, if any, characters are sympathetic. You’re left thinking even the nun, despite undoubtedly being a victim, isn’t doing the right thing when she refuses to name her attackers, leaving them potentially able to carry out another attack.

That does not stop the audience being completely caught up in the Bad Lieutenant’s life and story; then again, Keitel has always been an enthralling, eye-catching performer, albeit one who doesn’t mind taking his clothes off – yes, as he would do a couple of years later in The Piano, he appears starkers here. Whether Walken would have been prepared to totter around in the nude while pretending to be a penguin is anybody’s guess.

Certainly not suitable for family viewing, this raw and powerful film won’t be to everyone’s taste, but the visceral approach taken by its makers and star is to be admired.

Sarah Morgan( Writer )

Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.

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