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 The Official Word: When it was announced one of cinemas great iconoclasts, Werner Herzog, would be 're-imagining' the work of another by spinning Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant into something new, its fair to say that eyebrows, not to mention a few hackles, were raised.
Yet Herzog is right to insist this is not a remake, and moving the action from New York to New Orleans is indicative of how far apart the films are from each other; from sleaze and Catholicism in The Big Apple to the devastation and lizards of The Big Easy. Nicolas Cage is Terence McDonagh, one of the few cops left in town after a post-Katrina exodus, which is enough to get him promoted. Crippled by a back injury he sustained during the hurricane, the prescription drugs do little to ease his pain, so he turns to the hard stuff, often having a snort with Frankie (Eva Mendes), a high class hooker he thinks he's protecting, though, more often than not, she ends up looking out for him. When McDonagh is put in charge of the investigation into the brutal murder of a family, his moral compass gets lost and his behaviour becomes ever more erratic. Is he out of his depth or out of his mind? Cage is on electrifying form here, putting in his most animated performance since he played Sailor Ripley in Wild at Heart, while the film's audacious humour is its trump card. Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant was truly daring and brilliant, but it would be hard to argue that it was ever this much fun.
Our Verdict: The film only briefly hints at the insanity it climaxes with in the first two acts with Herzog restricting himself to great effect. It’s unclear exactly who else is ‘in’ on the joke but rest assured the director knows what he is doing from the off.
Cage is excellent with his normally annoying wide-eyed overacting being perfectly suited to this character. The physicality of his performance is extraordinary with you feeling his pain throughout as he holds an awkward frame thanks to the self-inflicted injury we see in the opening. As McDonagh races around the city we fall into his world with alarming speed and his actions become all the more understandable.
It’s not however as if Herzog has softened the action when compared to Harvey Keitel’s take on the Bad Lieutenant, it’s just that there are less of the show-stopping moments to be repulsed by. When you think back at what Cage does and how he manipulates the people he interacts with it is mortifying to think he gets away with what he does for the majority of the film. It’s the masterstroke of the filmmaker to make us forget or even ignore the horror in favour of the humour he layers on consistently.
Terence is not a likeable anti-hero, he doesn’t go about blowing away bad guys with a smirk on his face and he does not confront authority with a devil may care attitude. He is cowardly and the people around him know it. Val Kilmer takes on the more traditional role, a character who would star in most films is pushed to the sidelines so that we can concentrate on the weasel in the corner. We don’t need to see the ass-kicking, shoot first ask questions later attitude again, instead we follow a more distasteful individual. The relationship with Frankie (Mendes) again offers up chances of redemption, one which Herzog wonderfully subverts with a staggering finale.
It is one of those endings which will divide the audience and certainly puzzle the viewers not familiar with the director. For those who know his work it’s comforting to realise that even though this is the most commercial film Herzog has directed it also boasts the most un-Hollywood denouement of any film in recent memory.
A breathtakingly original take on a tired genre which reinvigorates your love for modern American cinema.
Rating: *****
Director: Werner Herzog
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner
Country: USA
Writer: William Finkelstein
Distributor: Lionsgate
Running time: 122min
Year: 2009
Review: Cassam Looch For more virtuoso film making be sure to check out other London film Festival highlights The Road and The White Ribbon.
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