the bad guy

I watched a movie the other day from 1992 called "Bad Lieutenant" about a corrupt NYC cop, starring Harvey Keitel. As the movie opens, the viewer takes a liking to Harvey because he is such a tough and hard-nosed SOB of a cop, someone who would give real shit to the bad guys.

But then as the movie continues, the viewer sees Harvey as indeed "bad" as the title foretells, as he sinks into a morass of all that is lousy in the world: He's a crook, a drunk, a cheater on his wife, a gambler, and a big-time drug user.

In one scene, Harvey has just shot up some heroine, and after groping around with some female heroine friends, he stands naked in a corner. I don't know why this scene is in the movie. I suspect it's because Harvey wanted it to be. The movie would have been just fine without it in depicting Harvey as a horrible human being, i.e., his drug use, his gambling, his drinking, etc. But this scene....why? I think it's because he thought it elevated his stature as an actor, as if his Hollywood peers would be left thinking, "Hey, Harvey Keitel is standing naked in a movie. Wow, he must really love his art to do that!" and Harvey thinking, "Fuck you, this is what us great actors do for our craft!"

I'm not trying to take anything away from Harvey. As I calculated things, Harvey was in his early 50s when this movie was made, and believe me, he is in shape like a tough mother fucka. I don't know much about Harvey's career, but from that naked scene, it looks like he was some kind of serious athlete his whole life. Plus, there's the case of Harvey's dick being on display for the whole world to see as he just stands there during that scene. That steers back to my earlier statement about him elevating his stature. Harvey is by no means short on stuff down there, if you know what I mean, but at the same time he appears to me to be rather average. So it's got to be the whole "Hey, I'm Harvey Keitel, I'm a bad ass and hung like a porn star, so fuck you!" attitude that I think he has.

The movie as a whole is a good one, and I am sure that it received good reviews when it was released back in '92. But there had to be others like me who were irritated as hell by Harvey's action late in the film. What I am talking about is when Harvey's character reaches the stage when he is a dead man walking. At this point, when he gets really distressed, he cringes his face and emits an irritating "E-e-e-e-e-e-e...." sound that just grates on the nerves. It lasts for minutes it seems, and I am just glad that I had the movie TiVoed so I could fast forward past these scenes.

In any event, if you haven't seen the movie, it's worth your hour and a half. Just be prepared for some naked Harvey and some irritating Harvey. And I hope that if he ever reads this, he doesn't come beat me up, naked.