this is one of the worst films i have ever seen!
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Errington_92 — 11 years ago(June 07, 2014 08:59 AM)
Bad Lieutenant
suffered from its story only skimming the surface regarding the Lieutenant's conflict with his Catholic upbringing. If there had been more depth within this conflict then
Bad Lieutenant
would have been a better film. Harvey Keitel's performance was brilliant especially in his character's most disturbing moments.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not". -
Moscoso1967 — 11 years ago(September 12, 2014 02:53 PM)
I think Keitel's performance was great and the premise of the film was promising too, but in the end I wasn't as impressed as I hoped I would be (after hearing and reading lots of praise for the movie).
Like Errington_92 and some others I wish it would have had more depth. The way the Lieutenants character and inner conflict was dealt with just feels a bit superficial.
Another thing I didn't quite like (but that's most likely just a personal thing as I think all religions are humbug) was the ending (not the very ending - I'm fine with that - but before that).
I can understand that a nun is so deluded to forgive her rapists, I might understand that he's got a nervous breakdown in the church - as a result of his catholic upbringing and what's going on inside him right now, and maybe even that he thinks he has some sort of "vision", but letting the rapists go - even helping them get away and giving them quite a lot of money - somehow was a very unsatisfying ending to that story (even if he had come around to understand the nun's point). -
jakeshields09 — 11 years ago(September 07, 2014 06:26 AM)
At first I thought you were being sarcastic and trying to make fun of the kind of people that talk like that. It would have been funny. You sound like someone making fun of an arrogant douche but you just are a huge real one
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bonnybedlam — 11 years ago(March 23, 2015 04:59 PM)
Wow, Tante, even if all of this were true, you totally blew your credibility right here: "thank gawd I played it in the background while writing my new book". (And no, it's not because you thank a deity for meaningless trivialities, and misspell said.)
See, I write books, too (high school and community college dropoutwoot!), and usually have something streaming from Netflix in the background. And here's the thing, it's not possible to actually pay attention to it. Like, you can't see what's going on, and you're going to miss most of the dialogue, and all of the subtlety.
Rather, what you want to be playing is a movie or tv series that you either know by heart or don't care enough about to bother critiquing on IMDB. Personally, I like things like The Day After Tomorrow, Event Horizon, Air Force One, ID4just about any explosion heavy adventure that's easy to follow and doesn't require close examination. Cheesy rom-coms and Hoarders episodes also work, though of course YMMV.
Bad Lieutenant, on the other hand, needs to be WATCHED. Like, all the way through, actually paying attention, before you spout off about it. If you can't be bothered to do that at least once, then your opinion, much like your resume, is invalid. -
jimbrown257 — 11 years ago(March 29, 2015 08:49 AM)
I've been getting a kick out of reading about your fantasy life in your posts. The conflicting bio details are pretty funny but what I really love is how you claim to be among the smartest few people in the world (a constantly reoccurring point throughout your posts) AND YOU'RE A BIRTHER!! Really the only thing that has left me disappointed is that you aren't also an internet tough-guy. You reached a impressively high level of patheticness buy you can never really reach the top without also being an internet tough-guy.
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Robbmonster — 9 years ago(May 04, 2016 10:11 AM)
Best. Post. EVER.
The conceit is strong with this one.
Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds -
omnitopium — 13 years ago(October 11, 2012 06:39 PM)
His opinion was that the other guy had poor taste in film as he didn't find this movie good. You on the other hand lack tolerance, must be hard being ignorant and pointing out others "flaws".
"where we're going we don't need roads" -
Hazzer_99 — 12 years ago(May 20, 2013 03:44 PM)
The acting was fantastic for sure. The story however was painful with a lack of true depth to the leading character which would have been partially tolerable if not for the empty ending. The editing was slow and arduous, relying on carefully picked, artistic angles for the camera shots, but then hanging on them for two or three times longer than necessary in order to allow Keitel to prove his acting skills in a single take.
All in all, this film is not one of the strongest films of the 90s, that is absolute trash and you know it. Goodfellas, Silence of the Lambs, Shawshank Redemption, Shundler's List, Leon, Pulp Fiction, Se7en, Trainspotting, Usual Suspencts?? I mean the list goes on and on and on with films that trump Bad Lieutenant in almost every respect.
A moving and engaging and memorable experience it may be, but to claim that failure to recognise it's merits as you've put them as being evidence of mental and emotional inferiority is really quite an excessive statement.
A lover not a fighter: someone who finds alternative ways to make their jaw ache -
aalcit — 11 years ago(February 16, 2015 09:18 PM)
Interesting though apparently Scorsese liked this film enough to list it one of his top 5 movies of the entire decade
http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/ebert-and-scorsese-best-films-of-the-1990s -
SloppyJ30 — 15 years ago(November 26, 2010 08:57 AM)
Not every film has to be about storytelling. Evaluated as a story, I can't argue with you, because BL's plot can be summed up in about ten seconds. It's also an ugly film, both visually and in content. Admittedly, this one is for the fringe element . . highly tolerant film fans only. It's not "entertainment."
For what it was intended to be, it was flawless. Abel Ferrara obviously wasn't out to orchestrate some grand crime epic; he chose to make a film about the last days of a man who had put himself into a death spiral with poor choices, arrogance, and self-loathing.
Thank God for actors like Harvey Keitel. It takes an exceptionally rare combination of chops, preparation, commitment, and a total lack of ego to pull off a role like this. How many "name" actors would even attempt a role like this, let alone pull it off? This is clearly a man who is interested in a challenge more than he is a paycheck.
Frankly, a film this will put a lot of people off by its very nature. It would almost have to be considered a failure unless it did so. The more visceral the negative reaction, the more proof that Ferrara accomplished what he set out to accomplish. Thank you Zulu, and thank you OP!I have meddled with the primal forces of nature and I must atone.
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DanLives1980 — 13 years ago(July 01, 2012 07:47 AM)
I agree and you've made a great argument here. The plot as far as I understood was Keitel's character trying to divorce himself from his inner despair - regarding the fact that he knew he was falling from a great height - and so tried to do it as amoralistically as he possibly could, to maybe disgust himself so violently that he would break the binds that kept him in his beep life.
He breaks all boundaries illicitly, sexually and moralistically. He's the devil collecting his lost souls with one great big religious guilt trip and the law is the faith that he has fallen from. Before he is reminded by the rape of the nun where he has truly come from. Anyone who can't understand it's plot, I feel, is very sheltered and whereas Ferrara probably aimed for people to watch in disbelief, instead they look away in disbelief.
And I believe Keitel is now 73 years old or approaching, making him almost mid-fifties and accomplished when this film was made, so he was also a humble artist of the highest degree in my opinion. Me and my friends would watch this for entertainment value with beer over the remake or anything that proposes it can please everyone at the same time. Always choose acquired tastes over sugar and water, we don't spend 10 on a bottle of coke, why then on diluted adult entertainment? Thank you for supporting this awesome film! -
njs1999 — 15 years ago(June 30, 2010 12:04 PM)
Couldn't agree more, absolute borefest.
All this crap about it being arty and you have to look deeper into it, blah blah blah!
Should've cut out all the dramatic silences and stupid noises, then condensed it in to a half hour programme to be shown on BBC4.