Bad Lieutenant

Really great, still. So humbling to watch in a theatre with a fairly large audience. The first time I saw this, and I think it’s a product of the film’s techniques as much as the conditions I watched it under, I felt so coldly isolated; I felt like I was watching something I shouldn’t be watching, and that I shouldn’t tell anybody about. I think it’s still fair advice not to tell anybody about this movie, for fear they’ll google it and not want to talk to you, but that’s considering someone you don’t know too well. I’ve come to realize this film is more or less passé, or known by everybody, yesterday’s news. But when I say everybody I really only mean sick fucks. I don’t really mean sick fucks, but I certainly don’t mean regular people; and regular people, here, is a compliment. The point is, people like this movie, and there’s a lot to like. Great, astounding performance by Harvey Keitel. To this day, I’ve seen nothing like it. Nowhere anywhere close. He is so, so talented, and so daring. The directing is great too, whoever we have to thank for that (Ferrara, Lund, or Lund’s at-the-time boyfriend). The long takes ground you so hard. Make you sit in the filth, but you love it. I had to pee pretty much from as soon as the movie started so some long takes were torturous but I think that added to the experience. That was my requisite catholic flagellation. I guess it would fit Raging Bull more but that movie is a billion years long. Speaking of, this movie is punchy and to the point. Not a scene is wasted. Everything serves an important purpose, and you know it. Great use of shaky cam. You can really tell how hard this influenced the Safdies. I really saw it in that scene where he’s in that King of Comedy-type bar watching the game, getting drunk; and even though it was literally just cutting between Keitel’s face and the televised baseball game over Keitel’s shoulder, I was so, so invested in the outcome, even though I had seen it before, and it ought to have been obvious even to a first-time viewer. I was more invested in that than any of Howard Ratner’s wagers or James Bond’s poker games. Audience was good. Before it started, overheard a guy explaining to his girlfriend that Pasolini was murdered. The audience was responsive during the movie too, laughs where there should be laughs. My dad was the first one to laugh, during the opening credits, at the baseball radio audio, I’d like to think he loosened them up. By the end, someone behind me was laughing at everything. No judgement, but I bet she took a gummy. In the theater, it’s so loud when it wants to be.