History Main / BadLieutenant

* KarmaHoudini: [=McDonagh=] spends the entire movie taking adavntages of every single person and changing allegiances as soon as he can see a benefit, but in the span 15 minutes he [[spoiler: Arrest the bad guy, get the despots after him killed, pay off all his gambling debts, gets promoted to Captain, gets his girlfriend, father and step-mother clean from their personal addiction, has a baby on the way and ''hasn't changed one bit''.]] If that's not evading Karma, I don,t know what is.

* HeReallyCanAct: Both Xzibit and Jennifer Coolidge in their first dramatic roles.* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: [=McDonagh=]'s friend Frankie.

* KarmaHoudini: [=McDonagh=] spends the entire movie taking adavntages of every single person and changing allegiances as soon as he can see a benefit, but in the span 15 minutes he [[spoiler: Arrest the bad guy, get the despots after him killed, pay off all his gambling debts, gets promoted to Captain, gets his girlfriend, father and step-mother clean from their personnal addiction, has a baby on the way and ''hasn't changed one bit''.]] If that's not evading Karma, I don,t know what is.
** Your mileage may vary. The whole reason why he spends the entire film taking advantage of every single person, is because he's suffering from a back injury sustained from saving a man from drowning and get hooked on pain killers because of it. [[spoiler: Notice how he has plenty of pet the dog moments in the beginning of the film and how its towards the end when he's getting desperate he goes off the deep end, gaining more addicitons along the way then a stamp collector'...well stamp collection, using people to feed those addicitons, and generally irrational behavior. If anything the film tells us to sympathize with this man who has totally lost control of his life, for possibly the remainder of it, just because he did a good deed. "I'm still pissed at you for ruining my underwear." indeed.]]
*** On the contrary, the film takes pains to show that he has ''not'' changed. Remember at the beginning when he [[spoiler: waits outside the nightclub to steal drugs and ends up raping that woman? He's still pulling the exact same scheme at the very end.]] And "suffering from back pain" is certainly not a justification for [[spoiler: stealing from police storerooms, depriving an elderly woman of her oxygen to get information and working to help a man who you have witnessed ''dumping bodies'' avoid justice.]] He is not NOT an AntiHero- he's a VillainProtagonist.

* HeReallyCanAct: Both Xzibit and Jennifer Coolidge in their first dramatic roles.
* HeyItsThatGuy: Val Kilmer and Xzibit show up as [=McDonagh=]'s partner and Big Fate respectively.
** Fairuza Balk, Jennifer Coolidge, and Brad Dourif are a highway cop, [=McDonagh=]'s step-mom, and his bookie (respectively).
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: [=McDonagh=]'s friend Frankie.

* RetroactiveRecognition: A young Marisa Tomei as one of the teenage girls the Lieutenant borderline rapes.

* KarmaHoudini: McDonagh spends the entire movie taking adavntages of every single person and changing allegiances as soon as he can see a benefit, but in the span 15 minutes he [[spoiler: Arrest the bad guy, get the despots after him killed, pay off all his gambling debts, gets promoted to Captain, gets his girlfriend, father and step-mother clean from their personnal addiction, has a baby on the way and ''hasn't changed one bit''.]] If that's not evading Karma, I don,t know what is.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Either you see McDonagh as a CompleteMonster who [[LaserGuidedKarma deserved everything bad thing he got during the movie]] and [[KarmaHoudini manages to avoid all that]], or as a DesignatedHero whose [[ItGotWorse life gets piled by problem after problem]] and [[EarnYourHappyEnding had to set things straight]].

* MoralEventHorizon: The Lieutenant appears to have crossed his long before the movie starts. In the movie itself, he pulls over a couple of teenage girls and forces them to expose themselves and act out various sexual activities while he masturbates, ''and'' ogles a nun who is being medically examined following being gang-raped amongst others, however.
** That said,He is not a Complete Monster.He commits His acts not out of pleasure but because He doesn't know how else to act.He is full of deep self-loathing and remorse for what He has done and believes He is beyond any levels of Redemption

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
-->'''[=McDonagh=]''': Shoot him again!
-->'''Gangster''': What for?
-->'''[=McDonagh=]''': His soul's still dancing! (sees the "soul" break-dancing)
** [[FunnyMoments The iguana scene]].

* CompleteMonster: In the film's beginning (set during the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina), [=McDonagh=] briefly refuses to save a trapped man because he's wearing $55 underwear.

* FeedMe: NicolasCage plus massive amounts of drugs equals this.

* TitleConfusion: It's unclear whether there should be a "The" before the title.

* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: The entirety of ''BadLieutenant:Port Of Call: New Orleans'' is this, especially at the beginning, where the protagonist jumps in water to save a prisoner without checking how deep it is, thus screwing up his back, getting him promoted and addicted to cocaine.

* ATragedyOfImpusiveness: The entirety of ''BadLieutenant:Port Of Call: New Orleans'' is this, especially at the beginning, where the protagonist jumps in water to save a prisoner without checking how deep it is, thus screwing up his back, getting him promoted and addicted to cocaine.

* HeReallyCanAct: After seeing him here,You will be genuinely baffled as to why Keitel has never won an Academy Award.

* He Really Can Act: After seeing Him here,You will be genuinely baffled as to why Keitel has never won an Academy Award

* AuthorAppeal: the Lieutenant sometimes visits the apartment of a thin girl who shoots heroin. She was played by Zoe Lund (née Tamerlis), who was the cowriter of the screenplay, and was a heroin advocate. She is also given writing credit on "Port of Call New Orleans", although by that time she was already deceased. [[CaptainObvious From heroin.]]

* CreatorCameo: Zoe Lund.

* LemonWackyHello: "What are these fucking iguanas doing on my coffee table?"

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: The nun's rapists. Even considering the fact that the nun forgives them, they still broke the law; the Lieutenant smoking drugs with them and then putting them on a bus for parts unknown doesn't seem like ''that'' much of a punishment.]]

* LemonWackyHello: "What the hell are those iguanas doing on my coffee table?"

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Either you see McDonagh as a CompleteMonster who [[LaserGuidedKarma deserved everything bad thing he got during the movie]] and [[KarmaHoudini manages to avoid all that]], or as a VillainProtagonist/AntiHero/DesignatedHero whose [[ItGotWorse life gets piled by problem after problem]] and [[EarnYourHappyEnding had to set things straight]].

*TitleConfusion: It's unclear whether there should be a "The" before the title.