For those of you who marveled at our 2008 Sitges Film Festival Blog (we know who you are) you will have noticed that we like a bit of Abel Ferrara (see Day 2 entry). We’re not sure which bit specifically but we now know that all of his bits become infinitely more entertaining when they’re loosely held together by liquor.
What unbridled joy we experienced then at the DVD rerelease yesterday of one of Abel’s finest – BAD LIEUTENANT.
For those of you of a similar generation to myself, your strongest (perhaps only) memory of the film released 17 years ago may either be a) an unfortunate incident involving a nun or b), an unfortunate incident involving Harvey letting us see how God intended him to be.
However, 17 years is a long time and I’ll hold my hand up and admit that the film’s major draw for me at the time was it’s taboo status thanks, in no small part (no pun intended Harvey), to the above controversial scenes. So, after our recent Sitges brush with the great man, now would seem like a good time to give the film a view with new eyes. This review over at our friends at The Onion’s A.V club would suggest I need to look beyond the controversy , and search for the film’s true soul.
I feel I should also make reference to the A.V club’s footnote regarding the DVD’s release coinciding with the forthcoming Werner Herzog-Nicolas Cage remake Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans. From earlier comments we’ve made it will be clear that Team CorridorStyle is not Cage’s biggest fan, and we’ve already offered him outside for a fight (still waiting Nic) over his involvement with the sacrilege that would be an OLDBOY remake. Couple that together with Herzog’s involvement here (ok Werner, we quite liked RESCUE DAWN but what the hell was THE WILD BLUE YONDER all about?) and I smell a shit-storm brewing.
CS
corridorstylefilms.com 
I have to be honest, since I saw Bad Luitenant around 15 years ago I have always rated it as the worst film I ever saw. Around 3 years ago I happened to catch it again and gave it another go, since I knew I had been wrong in the past. This second viewing allowed me to have more faith in my first impressions. The 2 scenes you mentioned were pretty bad, but what topped it for me was the scene where he wanked through the car window while getting the girl to make a blowjob shape with her mouth, classy!!!!!!!
No disagreement with you there James. At times, Keitel can be genius (coincidentally I watched Taxi Driver again last night) so I’ll always give him the benefit, but school’s still out on Ferrara. As an individual he was highly entertaining (drunk) at Sitges last year, which is more than can be said for the film he attended with (Chelsea on the rocks).
I hadn’t been back to visit Bad Lieutenant since the first time around so recent internet chatter in the wake of the DVD rerelease piqued my curiosity as to whether the film, or my take on it, had changed in the intervening years.
Yet to give it a re-run but it’s on my list