Gems from Ray's Video Vault 1:
BAD LIEUTENANT

BAD COP, WORSE COP - BAD LIEUTENANT

1992
Rated NC-17 (though an R version exists, don't bother)
Starring Harvey Keitel

From the opening scene depicting a haggard cop snorting coke in a school zone just seconds after dropping off his two young sons, to his cries of "Keep back, police activity" while holding a crackpipe in a deathgrip, to the intense finale, director and co-writer Abel Ferrara lays bare a character study of a man tortured by his vices. And those vices don't stop at drug addiction. No, Harvey Keitel's nameless title character (billed as "LT" in the credits) is a hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, prostitute-fondling, degenerate gambler and thief whose addictions quickly spiral completely out of control.

Long before Puff Daddy sodomized Jimmy Page's classic guitar riff to accompany the tirade of a digital pretender to the Godzilla mantle, Ferrara used Schoolly D's sampling of that same riff in "Signifying Rapper" to underscore a much more intense rampage through "The Big Apple" as well as perhaps the most brutal rape scene ever filmed. Keitel's consummate loser is soon assigned to the horrific violation of an NYC nun. When the Catholic Church ponies up a $50,000 bounty for the capture of the rapists, he thinks the good Lord has finally smiled upon him. He may be right, but not in the way he expects.

This flick is DEFINITELY not for the squeamish or the easily offended, but if you're drawn to the true crime genre and the darker, seedier side of big city life, then it is worth hunting out. It's not a perfect film, by any stretch, as Abel Ferrara falls back on his signature "Shock-Brood-Shock-Brood" directing style that's paced a little slow, but leaves room for thought as the plot thickens. Frankie Thorn's portrayal as the victimized nun is frighteningly intense, and while Keitel uses his accomplished chops to full effect, there is a certain lack of empathy with so self-serving a protagonist. Baseball fans will appreciate the important role the vice-challenged slugger Daryl Strawberry plays in the course of events.

In summation, Bad Lieutenant rates 8 out of 10 carat quality.
Track it down at your local video store and let me know what you think at ray@skewedperspective.com. Be seeing you.

-Ray Rich