Movie Details
| Title: | The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans | |
| Director: | Werner Herzog | |
| Year: | 2009 | |
| Genre: | Psycho | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.06.09 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (5)
- Encounters at the End of the World
- God's Angry Man
- Grizzly Man
- My Best Fiend: Klaus Kinski
- Rescue Dawn
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.06.09 | AMC 30 - Garland | I loved this movie. But I've held off on writing this note for a week and a half because I wanted to wait until I could articulate (or even figure out) specifically *why* I loved it. I can tell that Herzog's fingerprints are all over the film, but I lack the in-depth knowledge (of film in general and Herzog in particular) to say how, exactly. I know that I loved Nic Cage's unhinged performance, but couldn't tell you why it is better than any number of unhinged performances I've seen this year (I'm thinking specifically of Michael C. Hall in Gamer right now). But some part of me insists that it is. So I've decided that I'm not going to be able to comment any more specifically on this film until I've seen it for a second (and perhaps third) time. Instead, I'll just tell you my general theory on the end of the film. It's one that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else, though I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it. Major Spoilers Below . . . I think Cage overdosed on his cut of Big Fate's drugs while he was alone with Jennifer Coolidge. There was a big deal made of how pure, uncut, and powerful those drugs were. If I recall, Fate noted in passing that it'd be easy to OD on them. Cage had several hits while with Fate, and experienced his most demented vision of the entire film (the soul's-still-dancing guy). Then he went home and was snorting even more in the bedroom by himself before Jennifer Coolidge walked in and told him that he didn't have to hide what he was doing from her. "We all pick our poison." Then we see the two of them watching TV silently together, and there's every reason to believe that Cage - who had shown an ever increasing lack of self control throughout the film - kept snorting until he died. Almost immediately after that scene (I think) we get the absurd loose-threads-tied-up-at-Cage's-desk sequence. I know that there are other explanations for that scene, but this is mine. It's the last few misfiring synapses of his drug-addled brain as he dies. Just like we can have dreams that last weeks in the course of minutes, Cage's final few thoughts jump a year ahead to the life he might have had if things had been differently. An idealized life that doesn't fit with anything else we'd seen in the film up to that point. But ultimately, that happy vision is replaced with an altered version of Cage's real life. Instead of dying on his father's couch next to his step-mother, his brain places him in a random hotel room (but still coked out of his mind). The prisoner from the beginning of the film finds him and takes him to a giant aquarium. Cage's last words (and the last words of the film?) are "You think fish have dreams?" I'm not completely sure of the the exact meaning of that scene/phrase yet, but we were introduced early on to the concept of animals in particular, and fish specifically, being tied to death. Anyway, that's my working hypothesis. Can't wait to see if it holds up on a second viewing. |