Fun with Herzog

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call — New Orleans
18, Nationwide

My dears, whatever else you are doing this week you must set aside time to see this film, which is lunatic but also extraordinary and riveting. It’s directed by Werner Herzog and stars Nicolas Cage and if it is of a known genre, it is not a genre known to me. Is it a police procedural? A mystery thriller? A dark comedy? It doesn’t look or sound or behave like any other movie. It’s out on its own, and it’s wild and, if it is messy, it is always exhilaratingly messy. I am no Herzog expert — except on bank holidays, weather permitting — but I’ve always felt that many of his previous, fictional films haven’t been that interested in communicating with an audience. It’s: this is about me and my leading man of the moment, and to hell with you! But Bad Lieutenant invites us along for the ride, and even says ‘welcome aboard’ and asks: how might we entertain you today? This is Herzog and it’s fun, and you don’t get many of those for the pound. Get it while you can.

It’s loosely based on Abel Ferrara’s 1992 film Bad Lieutenant, which starred Harvey Keitel as the corrupt, drug-crazed cop, but Herzog insists this isn’t a remake. This is Herzog’s vision, and so entirely different, and no comparisons should be made although film theoreticians will doubtless give it a go. Heck, if it were a bank holiday, and the weather were permitting, I’d probably have a go. But let’s get to the meat.

Cage plays Terence McDonagh, a New Orleans cop who, at the outset, injures his back and so spends the rest of the film going round in a broken, lopsided way.