Director: Werner Herzog
Written by: William M. Finkelstein
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer
Year / Country: 2009, USA
Running Time: 122 mins.
Loose remake of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 cult classic. Ferrara was pretty pissed when he heard about it and said he wanted the makers to ‘die in hell’. Nicolas Cage is the deranged central character who uses his badge to do bad things.
In the aftermath of the hurricane Katrina, Terence McDonagh (Cage) saves a convict from drowning which earns him a medal and a major back injury. He starts to take huge amounts of drugs for the pain. It starts with Vicodin, but soon he turns to heroin, cocaine and crack.
After he is promoted to lieutenant, McDonagh starts investigating the murder of a Senegalese family which eventually leads him to local dope boss Big Fate. His increased drug intake in the meantime, causes him to lose grip on reality. He also has a gambling debt that is getting way out of control.
Herzog’s version is a little lighter than Ferrara’s although there are some intense scenes as well, like the one in which McDonagh withholds oxygen from an old lady in a wheelchair to get information out of her. Another difference is that Keitel’s character is terrible from the beginning, while McDonagh degenerates more gradually during the film.
Cage is in one of his more weird modes, and it is a lot of fun to watch. So are his hallucinations of lizards and the sweet interactions with his girlfriend, the prostitute Frankie (Eva Mendes). Around her, he’s a different character. Cage and Mendes have a great chemistry.
This remake was perhaps a strange choice for a renowned filmmaker such as Herzog. It is not amongst his finest works, but it does have a lot of quality. Ferrara and Herzog met years after its release at the Locarno Film Festival and made peace. Despite its sound reviews, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was a box office flop.
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Biography: The German filmmaker Werner Herzog (1942, Munich) is considered as one of the most important directors alive. In 1961, when Herzog was 19, he started work on his first short film Herakles. He has since produced, written, and directed over 60 films and documentaries. Among his most important films are Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Fitzcarraldo (1982), and the documentary Grizzly Man (2005).
Filmography (a selection): Herakles (1962, short) / Lebenszeichen (1968) / Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen (1970) / Fata Morgana (1971) / Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972) / Kaspar Hauser (1974) / Herz aus Glas (1976) / Stroszek (1977) / Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979) / Woyzeck (1979) / Fitzcarraldo (1982) / Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen (1984) / Cobra Verde (1987) / Echos aus einem düsteren Reich (1990) / Glocken aus der Tiefe – Glaube und Aberglaube in Rußland (1993) / Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) / Invincible (2001) / Wheel of Time (2003) / Grizzly Man (2005) / Rescue Dawn (2006) / Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) / Into the Abyss (2011) / Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016, doc)
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