|
Monday, 25 May 2009 |
  What better way to celebrate Memorial Day Eve than with a little cinematic debauchery? For some reason, Abel Ferrera's minimalist, twisted flick about a sleazy New York Detective came to mind. There is some odd attraction to a movie where the main character, and pretty much everyone else for that matter, doesn't have a name. People just exist, mostly do bad things and move on to existing more and doing more bad things.
There is little doubt, the movie world is a bit more interesting for having Harvey Keitel in it. The guy seems to have no qualms about putting anything on screen, if you get my meaning. He champions unusual filmmakers like Ferrera and Quentin Tarantino, though the jury is still out, in my book anyway, whether that is a good thing. At least with Ferrera, so unlike Tarantino, audience members may walk away wondering just what on earth his intention was.
In case the point hasn't gotten across, Abel Ferrera makes some fairly "out there" movies and Bad Lieutenant is probably one of the more infamous examples. The story is simple. Keitel is a police Lieutenant, and he's a bad guy. He's bad in a lot of different ways. One problem is, even though I've seen this movie a few times through the years, my tolerance for some of the subject matter exhibited has waned a bit. There actually were a couple moments I scanned ahead a few seconds. I know what's coming. I simply don't want to look at it...again.
Still, Bad Lieutenant delivers a certain primal satisfaction. Unlike so many other "Art" movies, it ends. In fact, it ends abruptly and possibly the only logical way it can. Did I really just refer to something from Abel Ferrara as an "Art" movie?
I was actually tempted to make it a double debauchery feature evening, Something from director Larry Clark was calling out to me. Which movie? What difference does it make? Something with teenagers acting stupid, whether fact based (Bully) or not (Ken Park, Kids), there isn't that much variation. Maybe the stunningly warped Crash (Cronenberg, not the tripe from the aptly named director Paul Haggis). In the end, I settled for Bill Maher spending 90 minutes ranting about Religion.
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Paul Calderon
Leonard L. Thomas, Paul Hipp.
Director: Abel Ferrera
Studio: Lions Gate Films
Rated: NC-17
Running Time: 96 minutes
Release: 1992 |
