4K UHD Review: Kino Lorber’s Bad Lieutenant (KL Studio Classics) 

Abel Ferrara and Harvey Keitel team up for the stone-cold classic Bad Lieutenant.  Kino Lorber’s 4K UHD comes with extras and a revelatory 4K Restoration. 

The Film 

Note: the film depicts and discusses in fairly graphic detail the sexual assault of a Nun.  

The older I get the more I come to love the work of Abel Ferrara.  There’s a sort of dark comedic sleazy realism at play in all his films that undercuts even the most exploitative of his work that belies the themes of his work.  There’s something truly disturbing and punk rock about anything he does – even in the most commercial austere work (see his brilliant King of New York and the way he subverts the Drugs Kingpin Film).  That brilliant and dangerous touch is nowhere more apparent than in what many consider his magnum opus Bad Lieutenant.

Starring Harvey Keitel as the nameless Lieutenant who abuses, assaults, cons, or cajoles everyone he meets – including fellow police officers.  The Lieutenant isn’t above giving his officers bad advice on gambling as he himself is losing an ungodly amount of himself not taking his own “bad advice”.  From scene to scene, the Lieutenant is a walking poster child of aberrant behavior that has come disgust everyone in these civil servants.  

As the Lieutenant goes about his daily life of criminality and side hustles the city is rocked by the raping of a Nun.  Though the Lieutenant says he’s concerned and gives “What is the world coming to” he only cares about the $50,000 to the person that finds the rapists.  To further complicate matters the Nun refuses to testify or identify her attackers.  As she explains to the Lieutenant that she’s “forgiven them”.  Leading to the Lieutenant down his own conflict of faith – unable to understand beyond his own greed. 

Bad Lieutenant is as confrontational as an angry New Yorker spitting obscenities in your face.  The film gives no fucks about how you feel about it no matter how contemptuous you are at it.  Ferrara and screenwriter Nicolas St. John have created a character study in pure ID and narcissism.  Keitel relishes every moment the duo gives him.  Ferrara shoots everything in an unwavering camera with a Doo-wop soundtrack from the late 1950s allowing Keitel to go to places of darkness that few films go with a sense of levity. 

The resulting film is a perfect look into the abyss and darkest recesses of humanity until its smack-in-the-face ending.  Almost thirty-five years later Bad Lieutenant remains as brilliant as it was the day it was unleashed onto the world. 

The Transfer

The all-new HDR Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the Original Camera Negative is a masterful upgrade from all other iterations of the film.  The image flawlessly represents the grime and grit of the image shot by director of photography Ken Kelsch.  The image does not have a hair, scratch, blemish, or any sort of issue.  Kino Lorber has done a marvelous job of bringing the film to 4K. 

The Extras

They include the following;

DISC 1 (4KUHD):

• Audio Commentary by Director Abel Ferrera and Cinematographer Ken Kelsch

DISC 2 (BLU-RAY):

• Audio Commentary by Director Abel Ferrera and Cinematographer Ken Kelsch
• Ken & Abel: Interview with Cinematographer Ken Kelsch 
• Bad Neighborhoods: The Locations of Bad Lieutenant 
• It All Happens Here: Abel Ferrara & the Making of Bad Lieutenant
• Theatrical Trailers

Note: the commentary track is the only special feature to appear on the 4K UHD disc.  All other special features as noted are on the second Blu-ray disc with the BD version of the film.  

The Audio Commentary by Director Abel Ferrara and Cinematographer Ken Kelsch begins with a discussion of the inversed title cards (black fonts over white background) and the appearance of NYC Sports DJ Mad Dog. Some of the other details include the dangers of shooting an actor driving with the camera hanging over; the crazy sequel idea they approached Ferrara for the sequel; some details about NYC cops about to retire to bump their pensions – back in the day; a larger discussion of the various actors that appear in the film – with frank honesty; a larger discussion of the non-gentrified NYC they filmed in and various oftentimes hilarious anecdotes from the production; and much more.  Ferrara is a one-of-one and this commentary track is no different which makes it almost impossible to discuss.  One needs to experience the track rather than fully discuss it.  

It All Happens Here: Abel Ferrara & the Making of Bad Lieutenant (34:02) – is an archival making of the cast and crew going into the various stages of production and what it took to make this legendary film.  Some of the details include how the script for the film was brought together based on a news report in 1981 about the raping of a Nun; how the script was very very different than the case; the contributions of Dietel; actress and writer Zoe Lund (who co-starred) – how she was involved in the writing of the script; Christopher Walken being initially cast and how Keitel was hired; Keitel’s initial rejection of the material and how he came back; the work of Keitel’s acting coach; the difficulty of shooting a tight budget and schedule – including examples of those difficulties; the various infamous scenes in the film and how they were made; the post-production process and the collaboration in that process creating the film; Ferrara having Final Cut on this film forward; the critical response; the release of the film; and more.  Featuring comments by Ferrara, producer Randy Sabusawa, NYPD detective Bo Dietel, Editor Anthony Redmon, Production designer Charles Lagola, Script Supervisor Karen Kelsall, Cinematographer Ken Kelsch, Composer Joe Delia, Critic Emanuel Levy, and others. 

Bad Neighborhoods: The Locations of Bad Lieutenant (15:26) – is an all-new featurette on the locations used by the production hosted by content producer Michael Gingol.  Gingol discusses the various locations that the production used to make the film.  The featurette does a great job giving us not just showing us the differences in how the location looks but also why Ferrara chose them.  The most shocking part of the featurette is just how cleaned up NYC is now compared to the late 80s when the film was produced. 

Ken & Abel: Interview with Cinematographer Ken Kelsch (14:53) – is an all-new interview with the cinematographer that begins with the infamous nude scene.  Some of the details include how he began to work with Ferrara on Driller Killer; the experience of filming that first Ferrara film; their falling over shooting Ms. 45; how he began to work with Ferrara; working with Keitel – and how difficult and rewarding it was; how the NC-17 effected the budget; working with Ferrara post-Bad Lieutenant on the various other film projects with honesty and transparency; and much more.  

Rounding out the special features include trailers for The Bad Lieutenant (3:20); Blue Collar (2:37); The Border (1:48); Clockers (2:28); City of Industry (2:05); Red Dragon (2:06) 

The Final Thought 

Bad Lieutenant may not be for everyone, but Kino has furnished it with a beautiful restoration and insightful extras.  HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATIONS!!!

Kino Lorber’s 4K UHD Edition of The Bad Lieutenant is out now.