Bad Lieutenant
Director: Abel Ferrara
Year Released: 1992
Rating: 3.5
I've always liked to think of this as Abel Ferrara's attempt at making a Bergman movie. Mad, bad and dangerous-to-know Harvey Keitel investigates the brutal rape of a nun (in church!) and becomes haunted by his own history of criminal behavior, which includes drug abuse, sexual misconduct and a serious gambling addiction. The picture is so raw and direct - and Keitel so physically and metaphorically naked - that it deserves commendation: few filmmakers would write in a scene in which a vision of the suffering Christ is called a "rat fuck" and few actors could pull off such a confrontation, with Keitel eventually being reduced to anger and tears and the need to beg for forgiveness. Ferrara, like the Catholic Church, believes we are all redeemable - no matter how awful we are - and this is a picture made with rage and regret, a guttural scream to the heavens.
