"Cocaine is a hell of a drug." - Rick James
There are so many delightfully awful shots of Nicolas Cage in Bad Lieutenant, it's almost impossible to choose just one. Do I pick the one where he silently stares away at nothing? It's a good thoughtful look, but far too serious for this film. What about the manic look on his face as he blackmails someone with a drug charge? His head is tilted sideways, his eyes arch upwards while his smirk pulls downwards, contorting his face to resemble an angry Quasimodo. It's probably the best facial expression Cage makes in the film, but no, that's not quite enough either for Bad Lieutenant.
This film is all about an outrageous character doing outrageous things, so I decided to pick what I felt like was the most outrageous scene in a film full of them. Here, in an attempt to locate the whereabouts of a witness, Cage's character, Terrence McDonagh, intimidates a pair of eighty year old women, pulling the breathing tube from one while pointing a .44 magnum at the other. It is a scene so absurd that I recoil in horror and laugh in shock at the same time. It takes one bad bad dude to try this shit and nobody does really bad as good as Nicolas Cage.
I had no idea that there was a Bad Lieutenant starring Harvey Keitel back in 1992. Martin Scorsese mentioned it as one of his ten best films of the 90's. Had I known all of that, I might have given this Nicolas Cage movie a chance when it came out, but, you know, it starred Nicolas Cage, who lately has been awful in a bunch of awful movies. Just looking at the strange title Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, I just assumed it would be along the same tacky and tasteless lines of Bangkok Dangerous. Luckily I was dead wrong. Nicolas Cage stars in his best bad-ass role since Castor Troy in Face/Off in the deliciously sinful Bad Lieutenant.
In the beginning of the film Terrence hurts his back saving someone's life. He is given a prescription for Vicodin. Six months later we see he has graduated to snorting cocaine, which as we all know, is a hell of a drug. The movie isn't so much about its plot, the police investigate the drug related murders of five people, but rather in watching Terrence spiral wildly out of control. Nobody plays over the top better than Nicolas Cage and it's really a pleasure to watch him go through all the peaks and valleys of the role. He spends much of the film tiptoeing the line between being a cop and a full blown junkie. As he gets worse and worse, you can see a physical transformation occur. His bad back causes one shoulder to dip lower than the other. He looks at imaginary iguanas with suspicion. Dead bodies start to dance. He becomes deformed both physically and mentally. Can he pull his shit together? Will he even make it out alive?
This movie is dark and gritty and moves with a raw energy that is exciting and palpable. But it's really all about Cage. Few movies ever capture an actor's strong points as well as Bad Lieutenant which encourages Cage's over the top manic style. When given the right stuff to work with, he can be a really great actor. He just needs to stay away from Season of the Witch Part 2.
Grade: A-
No comments:
Post a Comment