Film File - Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans

In Werner Herzog's new film, and a firm candidate for the year's longest title, Terence McDonagh (Nicholas Cage) is a rogue detective as devoted to his job as he is at scoring drugs - a lawman who walks both sides of the street wielding his badge as often as he wields his gun in order to get his way. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he becomes both a functioning addict and driven detective reigning over the ruins of New Orleans. Complicating his complicated life is Frankie Donnenfeld (Eva Mendes), a prostitute with whom he has a relationship. As the city burns while the US government watches without helping, McDonagh and his woman become part of the madness that was this famous city as lawlessness and anarchy descended. "In New Orleans, it was not only the levees that breeched, it was civility itself," said Herzog. "Looting was rampant, and quite a number of policemen did not report for duty; some of them took brand new Cadillacs from abandoned dealerships and vanished onto dry ground in neighbouring states. This collapse of morality was matched by the neglect of the government in Washington, and it is hard to figure out whether this was just a form of stupidity or outright cynicism." Not to be confused with director Abel Ferrera's controversial classic starring Harvey Keitel, this take on the aftermath of Katrina does its best to enlarge on the madness seen on television as the city fell apart. Cage, as the central focus, is the glue holding it all together - an over-the-top portrayal of a depraved cop torn between grand larceny and sympathy for his neighbours in one of America's worst domestic disasters. Lines like: "Shoot him again, his soul is still dancing" were made for the zoned-out actor who inhabits the role so well. With a golden circle of acquaintances that includes bookies, crooked cops and the drug dealers whom he robs and sometimes smokes crack with, McDonagh is the archetypal bad cop seen in a hundred previous incarnations from shows like 'Kojak' to the 'Die Hard' films. While Herzog protested strongly that the film has no connection to the 1992 film, he doesn't hold back on slapping on similar themes of sexual deviation or violence. At one point, McDonagh threatens two old ladies in a nursing home - and that's in the early part of the story. This is a visually spectacular movie bringing in much of Herzog's unique brand of technique - one scene is filmed from the point of view of an alligator - and isn't the kind of experience you'll doze through. Against that, however, there is a swampload of mindless violence on display, some of which is unnecessary. Cage is the main reason to see this, an actor playing to his bizarre strengths as a zoned-out cop trying to find personal redemption and a quick buck in the process. It's another version of the American Dream.