Bad Lieutenant (1992) or, World of Hurt

12/14/2013

Bad Lieutenant (1992) or, World of Hurt

♥♥♥♥♥♥

A resigned and inebriated, fully naked star Harvey Keitel poses on this poster for Abel Ferrrara's Bad Lieutenant

Harvey Keitel (Lansky (2021)) plays a corrupt New York lieutenant, who uses whores, steals, gambles and takes lots of drugs to stand himself. But the rape of a nun and an escalating gambling debt becomes the end for him.

Bad Lieutenant is written by Zoë Lund (Ms. 45 (1981), actress) and New-Yorker master filmmaker, co-writer/director Abel Ferrara (The Driller Killer (1979)), whose 7th feature it is.

This is a film I cannot recommend warmly enough.
Bad Lieutenant is made with a stripped nerve, stripped feelings and soul. It is a hard-core New York movie, so if you don't know the city or the abrasive way that New Yorkers can be, you'll definitely be put off by the characters you meet in Bad Lieutenant, not least of them the protagonist himself.
Nevertheless , the film gives a realistic and stinging picture of our world and is at the same time a tribute to the power of Jesus Christ

Keitel is totally amazing as the demon-plagued, drug-addict lieutenant: SPOILER His confrontation with his maker and his feelings of being left by God, the nun's forgiveness and his own salvation in the end by his awe-inspiring and shocking action raises the film up to its level as a unique marvel, a true masterpiece. It is also Ferrara's strongest film by a landslide.

Abel Ferrara: Body Snatcherrs (1993) - Third Snatchers adaptation is a piece of mediocre Ferrara

1992 in films - according to Film Excess
Top 10: Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Top 10: Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

The Driller Killer (1979) - Ferrara's unsettling, original psycho-thriller debut
Unrelated follow-up: The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans/Bad Lieutenant (2009) or, Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 1 mil. $
Box office: In excess of 2 mil. $ (North America alone)
= Uncertain

[Bad Lieutenant premiered 14 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 96 minutes. Lund claims that she was more responsible for the script than Ferrara; both were addicted to drugs during the making of the film. Shooting took place from October - November 1991 in New York and New Jersey. The film made 2 mil. $ in North America, and its foreign gross numbers are regrettably unreported online. It sold 14,872 tickets in the small market of Denmark, coming to approximately 123k $, indicating that the film did relatively good business abroad: It was released in 16 foreign markets. The actual final gross could very well be closer to 4 mil. $, which would make the film a big hit. It won 1/3 Independent Spirit award nominations. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. The film's producer Edward R. Pressman followed up the film with an unrelated sequel, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), by Werner Herzog, starring Nicolas Cage. Ferrara returned with Body Snatchers (1993). Keitel returned in Sister Act (1992). Bad Lieutenant is certified fresh at 76 % with a 7.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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12/14/2013

Bad Lieutenant (1992) or, World of Hurt

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