movie commentary: The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

I haven’t written a movie commentary for a long time. I can't stop just because seven million other bloggers are writing about movies.  Werner Herzog’s The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is worth writing about.

Nicolas Cage is the New Orleans cop who, as Herzog says in the DVD supplement about making the film, solves an almost unsolvable case by acting badly. Bad is an understatement. Cage’s character gets by with almost murder while setting things right after a family of illegal Senegalese immigrants are murdered execution style for getting mixed up in drug-trafficking.  That Cage's lieutenant has a single purpose is the only simple thing about this beautifully wrought complex film. The film portrays the tragic consequences of crack, to persons, families, and society.

Evil surfaces, like the water snake in the opening clip.  To feed his addiction, Cage's lieutenant abuses his authority continually, confiscates drugs for his own use, and ultimately allies himself to a drug kingpin in order to pay off his gambling debt and thugs who are threatening his prostitute girlfriend. Cage and his girlfriend, played by Eva Mendez, are deep in some serious shit, and the end result is a surprising series of magically real events. There’s a touch of magical realism in the cameo appearances by several iguanas and an alligator or two, in addition to a break dancing soul.  It’s all plausible in the magical realist tradition, especially since the hallucinations supposedly come from Cage’s perspective after smoking dope.

This is another masterfully made movie from Herzog, with an amazing performance from Cage. It’s sinister film noir-ish comedy that reminded me somewhat of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. But while Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant, a post-Katrina New Orleans crime story, is simultaneously sadly real and fantastic, the story tells us what you do comes back to you, and basically, too, that we need each other.

New Feature! Ratings!  Not recommended for protected children, sheltered grannies, or the like.