Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
★ ★★ ★ ☆ "My friend is a fish/He live in my room/His fin is a cloud/He see me when I sleep"
.jpg)
There is just so much to write about this highly unusual film. One question stays in my mind: Do fish have dreams?
Bad Lieutenant was originally a 1992 career-turning film directed by Abel Ferrara about an extremely corrupted cop (played by Harvey Keitel) who redeems himself when he investigates a rape case of a young nun.
Even when German New Wave director Werner Herzog is not remaking the film, the title is so awkwardly long. Striping off the tacky religious theme, transporting the setting from Gotham city to New Orleans, and adding racial elements, the new version of Bad Lieutenant is fun-filled with a titular hero played by Nicolas Cage.
No more Christian subtext, a Black family massacre happens. But the case is not central. Cage's solo performance takes centre stage of the film, with his shoulders hunched, face contorted. Is this the 21st century idea of American hero? The titular hero's name is Terrence and he takes drugs and has a hooker girlfriend (Eva Mendes), a former alcoholic father, and a series of back pain from the injuries he inflicted as a Katrina casualty.
Set in New Orleans, it all began with the storm when Terrence gets injured from saving the prisoner from a flooded jail and consequently develops an out-of-control dependence on drugs. His raunchy attitude and violent manners do crack open when a frail innocence seeps in: a poem, or a silver spoon, reminding him of his long lost naivety, and his good nature. The object is almost like the "rosebud" in Citizen Kane, calling for him from the bottom of his heart and soul. In the end, his true salvage comes from the prisoner whom he has rescued. No wonder he laughs at his own fate.
After working in a documentary career for 10 years, Herzog returns to fiction film and he is still a master in telling stories. You will be amazed by the vision Herzog has. We all become witness to the character's personal salvage as well as the sorry state of post-Katrina New Orleans. The (super)nature comes into play with perspectives of animals looking at the world, crocodile crying, iguana singing, and even the soul of the devil is dancing, waiting to be shot down. Energetically and enthusiastically, Herzog turns a simple story with his serpentine narrative and re-imagining of a distorted world along with Cage's craziest performance into a masterpiece.
Who would have thought Herzog still have the "it" in him at 67 years old? The city, half-ruined, partially empty is metaphorical of our broken hero waiting to heal, physically and mentally. The end shot when he laughs at himself into the camera, does it come from Terrence mocking his fate or is it Cage reflecting on his career?
Do fish have dreams? It doesn't matter anymore as long as we still have one--one that Herzog just subjects us to.
(USA, 2009)
