It's been 20 years since I saw this, and was amazed at how powerful it still is. The acting, the script and the cinematography are all superb. Yes, Ferarra pulls out all stops in portraying how corrupt corruption can be. It almost defies belief that one man could still remain standing after all the abuse he subjects his body to. His corruption lies deeper than his addictions, however. He is morally depraved. He disses religion, yet a spark of his Catholicism remains, shown in an unpredictable action, but one which fits Ferarra's portrayal of what immorality and cynicism lead to.
Throughout the film, the bad lieutenant's nearly complete isolation from everybody is portrayed by the brilliant camera work. The only people who make eye contact with him are those supplying him with drugs. In most scenes, he is shown alone. The rooms he is in are often portrayed in luminescent miasma, but Keitel is filmed in sharp focus, alone in the frame. Even when he is in church for his daughter's First Holy Communion, the camera shows him starkly alone.
At home, nobody talks to him. He sleeps on the living room couch alone, of course, and his wife and mother-in-law either ignore him, or look at him in disgust, but not one word is exchanged. Even his fellow policemen obviously dislike him, although it is not clear if they realize the extent of his crimes. The price of corruption is total alienation from society.
Two rhyming scenes that encapsulate the movie both involve his letting two juveniles go, rather than subjecting them to the courts. The first shows him pocketing the money two kids had stolen, and then telling them to get lost. The second has him find two boys who perpetrated an act that finally penetrates his indifference to morality, the rape of a young nun. He takes them to the Port Authority and forces them to board a bus to an unknown destination.
This makes sense because he had previously told the nun that, being juveniles, the court would just let them walk. Her forgiveness of the boys shames him completely. Her complete decency, her dedication to Christ, causes him to break down and beg Jesus' forgiveness. The reason this believable is that he wears a cross, and also that he seems to care for his children. In fact, they are the only humans with whom he really talks. And, the fact that he bothers going home at all shows he has some glimmer of feeling for family or at least his kids.
Why, then, does he send the rapists away? Because wherever the bus takes them, they will be exiled from the streets they know. They would be exiles because of their sins, just as he has been and is an exile because of his.
Oh, and does Jesus forgive the bad lieutenant? This we don't know. Did he redeem himself? No. He wasn't given that chance.
Throughout the film, the bad lieutenant's nearly complete isolation from everybody is portrayed by the brilliant camera work. The only people who make eye contact with him are those supplying him with drugs. In most scenes, he is shown alone. The rooms he is in are often portrayed in luminescent miasma, but Keitel is filmed in sharp focus, alone in the frame. Even when he is in church for his daughter's First Holy Communion, the camera shows him starkly alone.
At home, nobody talks to him. He sleeps on the living room couch alone, of course, and his wife and mother-in-law either ignore him, or look at him in disgust, but not one word is exchanged. Even his fellow policemen obviously dislike him, although it is not clear if they realize the extent of his crimes. The price of corruption is total alienation from society.
Two rhyming scenes that encapsulate the movie both involve his letting two juveniles go, rather than subjecting them to the courts. The first shows him pocketing the money two kids had stolen, and then telling them to get lost. The second has him find two boys who perpetrated an act that finally penetrates his indifference to morality, the rape of a young nun. He takes them to the Port Authority and forces them to board a bus to an unknown destination.
This makes sense because he had previously told the nun that, being juveniles, the court would just let them walk. Her forgiveness of the boys shames him completely. Her complete decency, her dedication to Christ, causes him to break down and beg Jesus' forgiveness. The reason this believable is that he wears a cross, and also that he seems to care for his children. In fact, they are the only humans with whom he really talks. And, the fact that he bothers going home at all shows he has some glimmer of feeling for family or at least his kids.
Why, then, does he send the rapists away? Because wherever the bus takes them, they will be exiled from the streets they know. They would be exiles because of their sins, just as he has been and is an exile because of his.
Oh, and does Jesus forgive the bad lieutenant? This we don't know. Did he redeem himself? No. He wasn't given that chance.