Werner Herzog’s new film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans has raised all kinds of hackles, mainly over the “remake” issue. Some movie buffs are crying foul over the remaking of Abel Ferrara’s classic Bad Lieutenant (1992), including Ferrara himself, who launched some famously acid comments in the press. This fuss has caused most critics to address the issue of how closely the two films resemble one another. In most cases, critics have concluded that the two films are entirely different with totally different feels and approaches.
Frankly, I’m fascinated by the two films, given that both directors are crazy mavericks, both indulging in their looniest personal whims, no matter what the cost or the outcome. This is not a remake in which anyone is concerned with “staying true to the material” or anything boring like that. Ferrara went nuts on his original film, and Herzog has gone nuts on the new film. Herzog has claimed that he never even saw Ferrara’s film, and indeed, it more closely resembles his own earlier films with Klaus Kinski, with Nicolas Cage playing the part of the unhinged, psychopathic terror onscreen. (Most people I have spoken to have compared Cage’s performance with some of his earlier, more extreme work, such as Vampire’s Kiss).
Filed under: Remakes and Sequels
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