Iguana Law in Full Effect
Watching Bad Lieutenant, I found myself unable to guess where the story was going. Being an avid movie watcher, not knowing what would happen next has become rarer over the years. Most movies follow a certain genre outline and then vary on the theme. I found no such outline here. The dialogue, the camera shots, the characters, the locations all felt like they had been built up organically. Of course I never saw the movie that this movie is based on. Maybe it isn't as original as I think it is. I am at least sure though that there weren't any long shots of iguanas in the first one. Surely that is a signature touch from the director Werner Herzog, a man who dearly loves his animals. (Grizzly Man, Aguirre Wrath of God)
Nicolas Cage stars as a newly promoted lieutenant. We first see him being honored for saving the life of an about to drown prisoner in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. During the ordeal he hurts his back. The doctor informs that he will be experiencing back pain. How long? he asks. He is told, for the rest of his life. The pain is so bad that after awhile the painkillers just won’t do. The lieutenant becomes addicted to cocaine, a substance he spends a good amount of movie time trying to figure out how to get more of. One way is to stake out a nightclub and shake down especially doped up people leaving from it in the name of the law. What a bad guy.
But this movie isn’t just about addiction. Fifteen minutes into the film the lieutenant is put on a penta-homicide. A drug dealer named Big Fate (played by Xzibit) murdered five people in a house in New Orleans ninth ward execution style. Then there’s other subplots involving Cage’s girlfriend prostitute (Eva Mendes) troubles with a local crime lord, Cage’s several overdue gambling debts Cage, and difficulties in getting a witness to the murder to testify. It’s a lot on the plate for a constantly doped up cop to deal with.
This is the first real great role that Cage has had in a long while. It’s the sort of performance that usually would get attention (he’s stooped over, high on crack, sporting an accent, and is way over the top!) if Nicolas Cage hadn’t already been honored for that sort of performance before (Leaving Las Vegas, that time with alcohol).
The plot twists and turns and slowly but surely the cop gets deeper and deeper into a massive hole he’s digging for himself. Along the way we meet several familiar faces in supporting roles. Val Kilmer as his partner, Michael Shannon as the property room attendant, Fairuza Balk as a lady traffic cop, and Jennifer Coolidge as his beer guzzling mother in law. These are the type of character actors you like in every role you see them in and wish they had better and bigger roles in other movies. It’s always a pleasure to watch them interact with each other.
And then what do you know, there is a somewhat happy ending, which possibly could happen in real life but almost never does in the movies. Why not? Because there is usually such a thing as movie justice. If a character has been bad the entire time, even a main character, he either repents, gets his comeuppance, or tragically receives both. Here that doesn’t really happen.
This is the first Herzog movie I have reviewed but it certainly isn’t the first I’ve seen. I have also seen Grizzly Man, Rescue Dawn, Fitzcarraldo, and Aguirre The Wrath of God. As different as all of those movies are, they all take place in an unforgiving world where men suffer at the uncaring whims of mother nature. This nihilism is sort of on anti-display here. The bad lieutenant gets away with everything and even gets to save the day while doing it. In short, he gets very lucky. Nature in the form of soulless crocs, iguanas, and other coldblooded reptiles simply look on. It sort of makes you feel like going to an aquarium, stare at the fish, and wonder in awe as to what the hell the world is all about.
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