Bad Lieutenant (1992)
Harvey Keitel portrays a New York City police lieutenant who takes advantage of his position in order to steal, take, and sell drugs, and who in addition has a major gambling problem. He investigates the rape of a nun, but is even more preoccupied with betting on the National League Championship Series between the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Between these two events, his life seems to be plunged in directions beyond his control.
Cast and Information
Directed By: Abel Ferrara
Written By: Abel Ferrara, Zoë Lund
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Paul Calderon, Victor Argo, Vincent Laresca, Zoë Lund, Leonard L. Thomas, Peggy Gormley, Frankie Thorn, Stella Keitel, Brian McElroy, Frankie Acciarito, Dana Dee
Genres: Drama, Suspense/Thriller, Crime
Country: USA
Where to Stream
Loading...
Bad Lieutenant belongs to 57 collections
1. Existential films (public: moderated by frederic_g54 - 56 stars)
2. boobs (public: moderated by Pickpocket - 50 stars)
3. Psychotronic Film and Video Guides (public: moderated by Gregzilla - 38 stars)
4. Fuck my life (public: moderated by Dorkovsky - 38 stars)
5. Black Comedy (public: moderated by Dorkovsky - 29 stars)
6. The Guardian's 1000 films to see before you die (public: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 29 stars)
7. Full Female Frontal Nudity (Yes, Bush!) (public: moderated by iceblox - 26 stars)
8. They Shoot Pictures' Recommended Viewing (public: moderated by Cinephile - 19 stars)
9. Drugs (public: moderated by iconogassed - 16 stars)
10. Edgar Wright 1000 Favorite Movies (Aug 2016) (public: moderated by Aron Ericson - 16 stars)
11. Films available in HD (public: moderated by kubricksucks - 12 stars)
12. New York (public: moderated by djross - 9 stars)
13. Alternate versions / cuts (public: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 9 stars)
14. 1,000 Noir Films: They Shot Dark Pictures, Didn't They? (public: moderated by lisa- - 9 stars)
15. Rape (public: moderated by Moribunny - 7 stars)
16. Male Frontal Nudity (public: moderated by bobyang - 7 stars)
17. List: Taschen (public: moderated by KasperL - 6 stars)
18. Filmsite.org - Sex in the Movies, An Illustrated History (public: moderated by afx237vi - 5 stars)
19. BFI Screen Guides' 100 American Independent Films (public: moderated by Coheed - 4 stars)
20. Full Male Frontal Nudity (Yes, Dick!) (public: moderated by iceblox - 4 stars)
21. Police Corruption (public - 3 stars)
22. Gambling (public: moderated by djross - 3 stars)
23. They Shoot Pictures ex-Top 1,000 (public: moderated by MMAlpha - 3 stars)
24. Slant Magazine's 100 Best Movies of the 1990s (public: moderated by edsu - 3 stars)
25. Roger Ebert's 4-Star Movies (public: moderated by KirkJiggler - 3 stars)
26. Cop (public: moderated by djross - 2 stars)
27. Solo Genital Stimulation (Male) (public - 2 stars)
28. 501 Movie Directors (public: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 2 stars)
29. List: Empire's 50 Greatest American Independent Movies (public: moderated by KasperL - 2 stars)
30. Pre-Guiliani New York (public: moderated by mattburgess - 2 stars)
31. Roger Ebert's Top 10 Films of 1992 (public - 1 star)
32. NC-17 (public: moderated by Pickpocket - 1 star)
33. GreenCine's 'The 25 Most Disturbing Movies' (public: moderated by CCLZA - 1 star)
34. Spike Lee's List Of Essential Films Every Filmmaker Must See (public: moderated by comepelicula - 1 star)
35. Integrity (or lack of) (public)
36. Mubi Europe (public: moderated by Svengali)
37. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2020 revision) (private: djross - 13 stars)
38. The Village Voice: 150 Groundbreaking Films (private: kevinjoseph - 9 stars)
39. cultfilms (private: medium123 - 4 stars)
40. Djross great movies (private: djross - 4 stars)
41. Djross film as art (private: djross - 3 stars)
42. Djross movies that transcend their genre (private: djross - 2 stars)
43. Djross underrated movies (private: djross - 2 stars)
44. Djross 1990s top twenty (private: djross - 2 stars)
45. KAH's movies of the year.. (private: KAH - 1 star)
46. Contemporary masculine kenosis (private: djross - 1 star)
47. Available on Starz (private: Jason212 - 1 star)
48. Djross seen at the cinema (private: djross)
49. Djross 1992 top ten (private: djross)
50. 1992: Year in Review (private: polanski28)
51. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 26 (private: PeaceAnarchy)
52. Movies to See: Drama (private: Lord Moe)
53. 90lar (private: Ozancan)
54. karamazov's dvd/vhs collection. (private: karamazov.)
55. Rewatch & Random (private: ForrestQ)
56. Djross films for which I've written a full review (private: djross)
57. Djross the 100 films that define my taste (private: djross)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 6 |  |
backwardsuit | 82 84% |
|
Ferrara's lurid sweaty mess somehow comes off as a sincere expression of Catholic guilt & spiritual torment in its most violent & destructive extreme. It's a real character/mood piece in which everything revolves around a core idea often to brilliant effect, but the narrative can feel as redundant as some of the symbolism & dramatic effects. Uses baseball, church & police as cornerstones of some depraved American purgatory that incidentally reaches its miserable conclusion under a Trump sign.
|
|||
| 4 |  |
Mentaculus | 96 96% |
|
An NC-17 Christian film. That turns off nigh-about everyone. Add to that the required existentialism and a full frontal of a drugged-out, whimpering Keitel, and I'm surprised I can find it at Blockbuster. Its Christian quandary: God redeems anyone, no matter what, without penance or merit. And this is the perfect illustration of that spiritual conundrum, personified by Keitel.
|
|||
| 4 |  |
djross | 90 97% |
|
A superb movie in which all the elements from conception to execution seem to have come together very fortuitously (Zoë Lund probably deserves a large portion of the credit, as well of course as Keitel). Note that the soundtrack originally included the Schoolly D song "Signifying Rapper" but this has since been removed due to a pathetic copyright lawsuit brought by plagiarist Jimmy Page. This removal significantly affects the quality of the film. Scorsese's fifth best film of the 1990s. [Full Review]
|
|||
| 4 |  |
janus | 85 88% |
|
A tragic portrait of one man trapped in the unforgiving clutches of baseball fanaticism.
|
|||
| 4 |  |
loc42 | 75 68% |
|
Unexpectedly slow & atmospheric character study in a decadent time and place. Keitel's search for transcendence through profane and sacred things (church) leads him to the final act of sacrificing his life to the young Puerto Ricans. Ferrara's style is an odd combination of B-Movie, crime genre and transcendental style based on banality and sacrifice. One of those unique characters and films, which stays with you no matter how perfect or flawed it's executed. "Show me how you suck a guys cock."
|
|||
| 3 |  |
JooJoo | 6 95% |
|
Truly miserable in the best way possible. It doesn't seem right to list the few flaws I couldn't shake when you get a performance/atmosphere of this level - forget Tarantino - this is why people still talk about Harvey Keitel.
|
|||
| 3 |  |
Judo Koala | 88 96% |
|
Harvey Keitel gazes into the abyss in one of the grittiest and saddest character studies in cinema. Guided only by his Catholic guilt--and misguided by just about everything else--Keitel attempts to navigate his existential despair to no avail, embodying a deeply tragic figure if there ever was one. Real, heavy, dark shit.
|
|||
| 3 |  |
Yiannos | 85 97% |
|
A few misguided touches don't otherwise mar a brilliant religious themed character study about a man pushed to the edge of oblivion.
While it is not a particularly sophisticated quasi-Catholic statement on redemption and the virtue of self sacrifice, it works because of Harvey's incredibly raw and brave performance, and Ken Kelsch's guerilla filming style that locates both beauty and pain in the most unexpected places.
The scene where the cop encounters Jesus is truly astonishing.
|
|||
| 3 |  |
inhmn | 99 92% |
|
the greatest religious movie after Pasolini's "Gospel According to St Matthew" ! ! ! Not enough words to describe how much i love this movie
|
|||
| 3 |  |
Mohko | 40 27% |
|
I had heard good things about this movie and I liked Ferrara's King of New York. 80% of this movie is just Keitel getting high and ignoring the case. Then in the last 15 minutes he flips out and finds out who the suspects are. A really big disappointment.
|
|||
| 3 |  |
jswinder | 88 91% |
|
A man suffers in anguish, as he realizes that he has sold his soul and cannot be saved. The nameless man realizes he has reached the point of no return. He is beyond redemption. Very few films touch on the loss of the soul and the unbearable agony that it brings. Truly heartbreaking. His dying wish, his last possible good deed, to pardon two young rapists who are questionably not beyond forgiveness. The theme song, "pledging my love", by Johnny Ace, a suicide, was sadly appropriate to the film.
|
|||
| 3 |  |
Danilolopes | 94 88% |
|
How not to make a point about Keitel's performance?
|
|||
| 2 |  |
KAH | 4 93% |
|
Existential despair and guilt brought forth on the screen by Keitel's incredible performance. Painful.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
SlantMag | 40 97% |
|
"Ferrara was in the right place at the right time to make Bad Lieutenant." - Jeremiah Kipp
|
|||
| 2 |  |
hehejaja | 90 91% |
|
A sincere film with a lot of pain inside its gritty body.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
TheDeek | 80 71% |
|
"I snuck into an R rated movie once...except the only person naked was Harvey Keitel" - Joseph from King of the Hill
|
|||
| 2 | doughbaron | 68 43% |
|
|
While Keitel gives a very absorbing and consistent performance with quite a few very engaging scenes, the picture as a whole drags. I occasionally found myself drawn in by the imagery but never really discovered anything meaningful beyond shallow references. I may need to revisit this again to see if I'm missing things.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
amerigo | 88 93% |
|
Somehow this film managed to hit such a depth of depravity that an ending you could normally see a mile away is completely unexpected. A highly effective profile of a guilty conscience.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
yesistasty | 94 86% |
|
Harvey Keitel is so damn good in this. The movie pulls no punches, developing an absolutely despairing tone of urban decay and corruption with every choice of setting, of lighting, every aspect of mise en scene.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
Kojiless | 78 82% |
|
In this story of a penis, we find that even the most immoral and corrupt of penises can turn their penises around when faced with a choice between penis and penis. Oh God, please make the penis go away...
|
|||
| 2 |  |
lisa- | 6 83% |
|
the way in which religious guilt might not impede and may even accelerate masculine insanity. the film is a mess in a way that suggests the director is better at producing scenes and ideas than an actual film, though that might not be a fair assessment until seeing the "signifying rapper" version, MUBI's copy without it for obvious reasons. and the scenes and ideas are often very powerful. the overwhelming sense that pervades the film is that ferrara fucking hates cops. which is a good thing.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
TheDiceman | 75 89% |
|
Harvey Keitel is totally convincing as he plays the role of cop gone bad in this excellent film.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
Alex Watkins | 4 70% |
|
Feels straight out of the 1970s, with its seedy portrayal of NYC and Keitel's amoral, twisted cop - not to mention its themes of redemption and religious faith that recall Scorsese (particularly Mean Streets). As gritty as they come, and one of the most compelling character studies I've seen. Keitel is fantastic.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
rnest | 7 73% |
|
keitel is amazing
|
|||
| 1 |  |
hellboy76 | 70 79% |
|
Well done by Keitel, his epic nude scene will burn into your mind for all of time.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
karamazov. | 64 85% |
|
This is a beautiful film. Zoë Lund's contributions are haunting, Keitel's wildly exaggerated hysterics can be simultaneously funny and excruciating, and his Catholic-guilt is visceral.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
mattorama12 | 70 61% |
|
Gritty as fuck. Keitel's performance is one for the ages, and he makes the titular character believable, even though some of the scenes would have seemed ridiculous in less capable hands. It's very clear that people involved in making the movie were intimately aware with the New York drug scene at the time.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
SirSass | 75 83% |
|
New fear of getting pulled over by Harvey Keitel.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
redacted | 81 74% |
|
Half a step up from the deep-sleaze of exploitation cinema, in that it's plot isn't as shallow as the usual suspect rape-revenge storyline. In fact this is more aware than that, offering the chance at revenge but riding its theme, things turn out a sight different. Constant vice abuse & Keitel's whine stapled to a deteriorating Dodgers series lead. Pretty raw stuff & NYC on film is the location to beat. No idea about how the prod. ran, but some of the street scenes felt like shoot and run setups
|
|||
| 1 |  |
mandy | 4 7% |
|
Disappointingly dull
|
|||
| 1 |  |
CMonster | 75 57% |
|
Show me how you suck a guy's cock.
|
|||
| 1 | myfavchords | 65 16% |
|
|
Harvey Keitel gives a good performance in this film. However the script is way to over the top and is a mess. There are a few crazy scenes and some weird ones. Overall this movie is disappointing.
|
|||
| 1 | Zipster | 85 68% |
|
|
There's a genuine paean to the groundbreaking NYC social realist filmmakers in the way Ferrara frames and holds certain shots, and Keitel definitely pours his blood, sweat and tears onto the center stage of this reviling plunge into the ash heap of compulsion, self-hatred and debasement.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
Okkervil | 80 83% |
|
The whole film hinges on Keitel's frankly stunning performance, and it is a fascinating study of a corrupted human being. That said apart from Keitel, there really is little else to talk about. Brilliant, but limited.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
ripvicious | 80 67% |
|
Kietel was great. A movie worth watching just to say you saw it. Shows the underbelly of socity.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
teecee | 20 15% |
|
Den er overspillet og tager sin problemstilling for seriøst Han er så bitter og ond - der mangler andre sider af ham, panseren.
|
|||
| 1 | Guttiwuts | 88 61% |
|
|
The scene in the church is one of my favorites in any drama. Heartbreaking film. Keitel revitalizes his career and gives a very, very gutsy performance. If you like ponies and rainbows, stay faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
frederic_g54 | 7 57% |
|
Flawed but also provocative and absorbing. Keitel's performance is formidable and hilarious at times. Herzog is remaking this ? I'm there!
|
|||
| 1 | UKSubs | 9 6% |
|
|
Perhaps the most overrated, underrated film ever.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
JohnnyZombie | 86 63% |
|
A good, morally ambiguous crime film. Do we believe in his redemption after we've seen all that he's done?
|
|||
| 1 |  |
Moribunny | 70 75% |
|
Very good movie about a very bad cop. This raised the bar for movies with anti-hero lawmen. Thought-provoking despite its Catholicism, and much of the film's power is owed to Harvey Keitel who is in top form here.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
Pickpocket | 5 44% |
|
I need to rewatch this fuckin movie
|
|||
| 1 |  |
PeaceAnarchy | 77 51% |
|
It's the Harvey Keitel show (in more ways than one) and his strange energy as cop going off the rails makes it all work despite how thin everything that isn't Keitel is.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
joseywales | 77 79% |
|
Starts and finishes very strong, with a bit of Baseball-related clunkiness in the middle. Keitel is, of course, fantastic as is Ferrara's direction.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
AFlickering | 4 59% |
|
only ferrara would hang a redemption arc on something so hilariously blunt as a nun forgiving her rapists, but it sort of works? mainly because the filmmaking feels so instinctive, with abel and keitel just feeling their way through the drugged out haze.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
saucyjack | 78 63% |
|
Really interesting look at good and evil and the gray area in between. Stark Christian imagery may offend some, but it isn't exploitative. Ironic, considering one of Ferrara's other films is a little ditty called "The Driller Killer".
|
|||
| 1 | pompousass | 20 44% |
|
|
The character's almost total isolation on screen, his driftlessness, his stuporousness, his endless devotion to misdeeds -- never impinged upon by the call of duty -- are perhaps meant to convey a spiritual or psychological state. But a little obligatory contact with his family (he has one), a partner (he hasn't one), or simply the stationhouse (assuming there is one) would have helped us to gauge his depravity; would have given us a touchstone of normalcy.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
BillyShears | 95 96% |
|
RW. Harvey Keitel dick shot vanity project.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
Barthalen | 64 43% |
|
After more than 30 minutes of Keitel being a Bad Person it becomes obvious how little else there is to this film. His performance is great, but in the end this felt quite forgettable.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
miss jesus | 71 70% |
|
Some dramas I enjoy watching because they make me feel ways about stuff. This is the other type--the way it makes me feel is actually terrible--but this is like an acting showcase for Keitel, who goes fearlessly to all sorts of places I'm not sure I could go, even badly, with a camera around. Shoulda got ten Oscars.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
Luna6ix | 53 9% |
|
Having seen the apparent sequel first, I can easily say that this movie is pretty much exactly the same, only Keitel seems to not give a rat's ass about solving the case, which was the only reason I didn't despise port of call this much. Too bad, because both of them had promise...in concept.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
schnofel | 57 47% |
|
Very self-indulgent portrait of an addict, with a hysterical Catholic guilt angle that in the end functions as the movie's saving grace through Keitel's redemption.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
luc | 85 94% |
|
Gorgious police-movie about a sick bad cop. It was for me a black comedy.
Many scenes are hilarious but the one with the 2 girls in the car is unforgettable and very funny, awesome!!
|
|||
| 1 |  |
chemical404 | 70 83% |
|
Film that is darker than satan's anus and heavier than heroin. Keitel swings his dick around, but boy can he act! Hypnotic urban tale that goes downward spiral looking for a light in the end of the tunnel. I can see people calling this film a rubbish, it has weaknesses, but more often it is simply misunderstood.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
JonnyHalftab | 94 98% |
|
You have to watch the uncut version on DVD. The traffic stop scene is especially butchered. "You ever suck a guy's cock? Huh? You ever su- Look at me! Look at me! You ever suck a guy's cock? Lemme see how you do it. Lemme see you do it. Show me your mouth when you suck a guy's cock." The girl in the passenger's seat showing her ass was Keitel's daughter's babysitter!
|
|||
| Average Percentile 59.98% from 1528 Ratings |  |