THE BAD LIEUTENANT
[Spoilers]
A film review by jwimp@mcs.drexel.edu
Copyright 1993 jwimp@mcs.drexel.edu
IS THE BAD LIEUTENANT AN IMMORAL FILM??? WARNING!!! MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD
In one of Charles Jackson's stories from the collection, "Earthly Creatures," a suburbanite driving through the countryside with his wife and two children hits a beautiful collie dog. He cannot summon up the courage to stop the car and inspect the dog, and so drives on. This act of cowardice becomes the pivotal incident which starts the collapse of his marriage and personal life--the fulcrum for the transformation of his world.
Literature and film are replete with this motif: the single incident which signals the transformation of a person's existence. In Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens",one of the most cynical of the author's works, it is when Timon realizes that his highly valued personal friendships have been based entirely on his largesse, and when his fortunes fail, his friends shun him. "NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU'RE DOWN AND OUT...."
In BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI it occurs when Alec Guiness suddenly realizes that the bridge which, under his supervision, his troops built with the cardinal British virtues of competence, and self-denial, will be used to transport Japanese troops. "My God, what have I done?"
Sometimes the transformation is triggered by a spiritual experience. The protagonist in I. B. Singer's novel THE MAGICIAN OF LUBLIN, who has led a dissolute and cruel life, is touched by God. He seals himself into a small brick hut with a single window, through which his meals are delivered, and ends his days there.
Sometimes the light of God blinds, rather than illuminates. In Pasolini's film THEOREMA the angel, played by Terrence Stamp, places the seal of his sexual seduction on all members of a bourgeois family, and they are destroyed by it--or at least their lives are transformed unrecognizably.
The psychologist William James called this sort of life experience "turning a corner within." It is entirely personal. Was the magician touched by God? Did the Bad Lieutenant actually see Christ? James insisted that what was important was not the viridical nature of the experience itself, but its subsequent effect on the person's life. He argued that the "truth" of such experiences could never be decided.
Viewers sensitive to this motif will find the film, THE BAD LIEUTENANT, a rich one. The incident in the church, where the lieutenant kisses the feet of Christ and looks up to see an elderly black woman staring down in amazement at him, is one of the most trenchant, moving, yet comical scenes in American film. You thought you beheld Christ, and see what he turned out to be!! But the point is, the vision serves to transform the lieutenant's world, enabling to make a gesture of forgiveness--towards the two teenagers who had raped a nun--of which he would have been incapable an hour before.
Those who have chosen to focus on the lieutenant's graphically depicted vices and the squalor of his surroundings have, I think, totally missed the point. The Philadelphia Inquirer called the film "confused." Nonsense. It is perfectly clear, as clear a treatise on medieval scholasticism ( "Theorema" in Italian, see above.) The resolution of the film involves what many would call a uniquely Christian concept: we qualify for forgiveness by extending forgiveness to others. In fact, the film is almost a Christian religious treatise.
The film also utilizes humor brilliantly, a fact its detractors seem not to have noticed. The lieutenant's imprecations when Darrell Strawberry strikes out in a penant game (YOU PIECE OF ****!!! YOU MISERABLE, SLIMY PIECE OF ****!!!) and his firing his gun into the car radio conveying the bad news, are funnier than nearly any incident in memory in any Hollywood comedy. No matter how wrecked any life is, humor can be found in it. Because humor is so great a part of what it means to be a human being, even one in great distress.
Harvey Keitel gives one of the great film performances: creative, resourceful, convincing, free from actorish mannerism. His acting in the harrowing scene in which he sexually brutalizes two women has drawn effusive praise from members of this group and the Compuserve film discussion group. In my many years of film viewing, I can think of nothing that can compare with it.
Harvey Keitel, by the way, was ignored by the Oscars nominators.
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