Bad Lieutenant
Synopsis
The Lieutenant is a corrupt, exploitative and drug-addicted cop steeped in gambling debt. The mob gives him an ultimatum: pay off his debt or get killed. When he learns that a hefty reward is being offered to whoever catches a pair of thugs who raped a nun, he jumps at the opportunity.
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Awards & Festivals
Cannes Film Festival
1992
Independent Spirit Awards
1993 | Winner: Best Male Lead
1993 | 2 nominations including: Best Feature
Critics reviews
Ferrara’s tale of sin and redemption has a raw, unvarnished power that’s embodied by Keitel’s performance, and the years have preserved it as an equally potent street-level look at a city.
Scott Tobias
July 29, 2009
Abel Ferrara (book)
Far from those films that are content to illustrate an explicit situation with more or less original incidents, Bad Lieutenant works upon the slow translation of an affect of agony within the form of an image-story. This is why the film is significant: it considers the image not only as a plastic entity but above all as a spiritual exercise.
Nicole Brenez
December 20, 2006
The New York Times
[Ferrara] has come up with his own brand of supersleaze, in a film that would seem outrageously, unforgivably lurid if it were not also somehow perfectly sincere.
Janet Maslin
November 20, 1992
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