#120: Bad Lieutenant

Release Date: November 20th, 1992

Format: Streaming (Tubi)

Written by: Abel Ferrera and Zoe Lund

Directed by: Abel Ferrera

4 Stars

Bad Lieutenant is a fly-on-the-wall observation of a corrupt, drug-addicted cop (unnamed in the script) in the last week of his life. He owes a mobbed up bookie tens of thousands of dollars that he can’t pay, he steals drugs from crime scenes for his own personal use and to put on the street to be sold, and throughout the film he prowls the streets of New York like an animal, looking for action in the form of sex, heroine, coke, and booze.

It’s not until he investigates the gang rape of a nun, and hears her testimony of forgiveness of her attackers, that sets in motion a final act of penance, and his own death.     

The raw honesty of Ferrera’s camera is one of the film’s greatest strengths, but as uncompromising as the subject matter of the film is, it’s notable what Abel Ferrera chooses to leave out: the rape of the nun is only visually alluded to in a brief montage of just a few seconds, crime scenes are shown after the fact (the film has a notable lack of violence), sex is left off-screen, nudity is only shown once (during a medical examination), and even our titular lieutenant’s violent downfall is shown in a restrained long shot from across a street.  Additionally, Ferrera eschews any sort of musical score, stripping sentimentality from his main character’s descent. 

Ferrera is markedly restrained when it comes to manipulating his audience’s emotions. Bad Lieutenant might shock you, but it is neither grindhouse nor exploitation. We are here to view the actions of this character, not be made to feel a certain way about him.      

But it must be noted that the movie is saturated with Catholic guilt. For every debaucherous action our corrupt cop engages in, there are just as many shots of children watching cartoons and doing their homework, or shots of religious iconography and church services, or scenes with concerned, law-abiding citizens trying to help others (even the mobbed up bookie tries to genuinely talk the lieutenant out of his gambling addiction). Jesus Christ even shows up in the movie, offering his forgiveness.

I think there exists a reputation surrounding Bad Lieutenant that it is a movie of excess, about an irredeemable character. I’m not so sure that’s true, and in fact, I think that it might be the exact opposite.