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HARVEY KEITEL: BAD LIEUTENANT, RESERVOIR DOGS, SISTER ACT© Sean Gallagher
Aug 12, 2003
Harvey Keitel first came to prominence in 1973 with his starring turn in Martin Scorsese's MEAN STREETS. Although the movie ultimately did more for the career of Keitel's co-star, Robert De Niro, Keitel won praise for his turn as the conflicted hero. At first, it seemed like, as with De Niro, he would be one of Scorsese's stock cast. But after his memorbable turn as a pimp in TAXI DRIVER (1976), Keitel cut his own path, moving from starring to supporting roles and back again, and working for directors as varied as James Toback (FINGERS, EXPOSED), Robert Altman (BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS), Alan Rudolph (WELCOME TO L.A.), Nicholas Roeg (BAD TIMING), and Ridley Scott (THE DUELLISTS). He would turn up in the occasional wannabe blockbuster (SATURN 3), but more often than not, he seemed merely guided by what interested him. In that sense, 1992 was a typical year, though it proved to be a breakout one as well. He gave perhaps his most controversial performance in Abel Ferrara's BAD LIEUTENANT, and took a chance on young director Quentin Tarantino by co-producing and starring in his debut feature RESERVOIR DOGS. Perhaps to finance those films, he also appeared in Emile Ardolino's SISTER ACT. Ferrara, it seems, has made a career trying to inject some kind of philosophical debate in genre movies. In KING OF NEW YORK, his title character, played by Christopher Walken, is obviously a gangster, yet his pet project is to build a ward for a hospital. In this movie, the title character is undone by a single act of kindness. How that happens isn't easy to watch (this film truly deserves its NC-17 rating), but it's certainly compelling. Keitel is the title character, who has no name in the film. "Bad" is a mild term to describe him. He has a wife and kids, but that seems only for show. He's a gambling addict, a drug addict, and an alcoholic, and he sleeps around a lot as well. He also abuses his position as a homicide detective, selling drugs that he confiscated back to dealers, robbing thieves, and in the film's most disturbing scene, forcing two underage girls whom he catches driving to masturbate in front of him. Clearly, "depraved" is also too mild to describe him. And yet, he's able to do all of this without anyone caring; well, his family might have cared once, but now they just want him to stay away from them.
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