Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4383 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-06-30
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

DVD Description
While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt cop tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.

Special Features
1.33 Full Screen
DVD 5
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono English
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Original Theatrical Trailer
The Addiction Theatrical Trailer
The Funeral Theatrical Trailer
Scene Access
Interactive Menus
Abel Ferrara Biography

Synopsis
Harvey Keitel stars as a nameless New York cop, hopelessy addicted to drugs, gambling, and sex, in this intense, hallucinatory portrait of sin and redemption by Abel Ferrara. The film follows the lieutenant as he makes his way to various crime scenes, concerned only with taking bets from his fellow cops on the outcome of the ongoing National League playoffs. As his bad decisions drive him deeper into debt, his life becomes a surreal hell, with a constant intake of crack, coke, heroin, and booze eroding what remains of his sanity. An investigation into the rape of a nun (Frankie Thorn) leads to his spiritual breakdown at the church crime scene, where he sees Jesus and the road to his salvation. This gutsy, highly original tale is one of Ferrara's most perfectly realized films and a pinnacle in the career of Keitel, whose performance transcends the screen in its sheer bravery.

Customer Reviews

Masterpeice!
If you like American Psycho, you might like this. I love them both!

Because it is extreme in its portrayal of badness, an exaggeration maybe of things most of us do to some extent. And it is done with brilliant dark humor. But most of all because it has something at it's core to make you think and that is deep. You can watch this film on many levels and come away from it with different conclusions each time about it's meaning.

Bad, as in not good.
I've been wanting to see this film for a long time, as I have heard nothing but good things about it, but have found myself feeling sorely disappointed with it.

The story revolves around a drug addict/alcoholic/gambler/pervert cop who is investigating the violent rape of a nun and seeking some form of redemption in the process. It is certainly controversial, though a good deal less shocking the one expects it to be, given the pretext.

It feels like Ferrara and Keitel simply thought of all the vices they could and threw them into this character in order to make him as shocking and deplorable as possible without actually giving any thought to why he is this way. Of course, we are supposed to assume that 30 odd years as a NYC cop has turned him into this beast of a man, but that seems to me to be taking your audience for granted somewhat. In fact, it almost felt like the primary purpose of this film was to be controversial and shocking, rather than to say anything profound.

Keital's character, and his performance, were so over-the-top that the film almost felt like a parody. Our cop is smacked out and unable to control his bodily functions one minute, but totally lucid the next (especially when it comes to talking his colleagues into gambling), with no explanation. In the scenes where Keitel is supposed to be "exploring the depths of this evil soul" and "wrestling with this man's self-hatred" (to quote some of the more overzealous reviewers), he scrunches up his face and makes a sort of howling/whining noise, akin to the noise an injured dog might make. Is this supposed to be career defining performance? Looked more like someone who got kicked out of drama school to me.

All in all, this quite simply didn't feel like a coherent film. Of course, one could argue that it isn't meant to feel coherent, as the titular nutjob is meant to be off his face the whole time, but that would be giving this film too much credit. It is unsubtle, overplayed and unconvincing. It is watchable, like all Ferrara films, for it's depiction of a time and place and its exposition of a certain underbelly of existence, but it never really gets beyond this.

See this film for the controversy, but don't expect any more than that from it.

shocking in every way
Bad Lieutenant is a 1992 film directed by abel ferrara who directed the shockingly bad driller killer,he seems all the years later to have avoided learning lessons from his mistake for this is a bad film,plain and simple really,a film with little reason for being made other than to use the shock tactic that can gain cult status that gets some viewers curious to watch what all the fuss was about,with this film there is little point.
Keitel is a big name to obtain for the title role of a cop who uses his position to take what he wants and as he spirals into a hell he cant escape judgement is finally his,but for all of this the film has no soul,no individulaity,nothing that stands out from the long list of films that have used a similar storyline,its like flogging a dead horse,there are nasty scenes but the most horrific thing of all is that this film was made,weak,contrived,slightly pretentious and over the top mumbo jumbo that deserves nothing but being broken over your knee.