The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans



"McDonagh: Shoot him again!

Gangster: What for?

McDonagh: His soul's still dancing!"

[The] Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, made in 2009 by Werner Herzog, follows Terrence McDonagh (played by Nicolas Cage), a police officer in post-Katrina New Orleans, as he investigates the deaths of five Senegalese immigrants connected to a drug ring. While tracking down drug kingpin "Big Fate", McDonagh engages in his vices of gambling, drugs and sex (sometimes at the same time), getting high off of everything from marijuana to prescription painkillers and betting heavily on football games.

The film is openly inspired by the 1992 crime drama Bad Lieutenant by Abel Ferrara (which was set in New York). Both films showcase the same basic character, but the two movies are different enough that Herzog rejected the label of "remake" being applied to his film. Ferrara's Lieutenant and McDonagh are also somewhat dissimilar, with the Lieutenant having actual feelings of regret and remorse about his actions, while McDonagh just indulges in his habits more and more, using his position to get him whatever he wants.

[The] Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans provides examples of:
"Chavez: Are you still working with the police department?
 * Actor Allusion: The second time Cage has played a character with the last name McDonagh.
 * Babies Ever After: At the film's end,.
 * Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop: The NOPD. Most of the other detectives aren't anywhere near as bad as McDonagh (except, perhaps, Stevie), but they do cover for him and some of them are even complicit in his crimes.
 * Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work:
 * Be as Unhelpful as Possible: The chief roadblock to cracking the case.
 * Black Comedy: In case you didn't realize: it's a comedy. Probably.
 * Chewing the Scenery: Nicolas Cage plus massive amounts of drugs equals this.
 * Coitus Uninterruptus: See the trope page for a the squicky details.
 * Creator Cameo: The screenwriter, William Finkelstein, appears as one of the gangsters sent to kill McDonagh by Frankie's disgruntled client.
 * Crime After Crime: Terrence McDonagh, this is your life.
 * Da Chief: Captain Brasser.
 * Devil in Plain Sight: McDonagh.
 * Dirty Cop: Oh, so dirty.
 * Establishing Character Moment: The opening five minutes of the movie, in which McDonagh taunts a helpless prisoner stuck in rising water before rescuing him (thus throwing out his back), establish two things about him - he's an asshole, and more importantly he will do literally anything that comes to mind.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: McDonagh finally draws the line at.
 * Fixing the Game: McDonagh catches a star college quarterback buying pot and blackmails him into shaving points on his next game.
 * Floating Head Syndrome: See exhibit A on the right side.
 * Framing the Guilty Party:
 * Functional Addict: McDonagh, although he's always in danger of stepping over the fine line between "functional" and "non-functional."
 * Gainax Ending: The film ends with
 * The Gambling Addict: McDonagh.
 * Good Cop, Bad Cop: McDonagh and Stevie play this while interviewing potential witnesses. (Except they're not playing: Stevie really was going to start beating that guy up.)
 * Hand Cannon/Revolvers Are Just Better: McDonagh carries the legendary .44 Magnum.
 * Hardboiled Detective: McDonagh.
 * The Hedonist: McDonagh.
 * Hooker with a Heart of Gold: McDonagh's friend Frankie.
 * Hookers and Blow: And pot...and crack...and smack...
 * In Name Only: Herzog outright stated that Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was neither a sequel nor a remake of 1992's Bad Lieutenant. Didn't stop Ferrara from screaming that everyone involved in this film should die.
 * Karma Houdini: McDonagh spends the entire movie taking advantages of every single person and changing allegiances as soon as he can see a benefit, but in the span of 15 minutes he  If that's not evading karma, I don't know what is.
 * Kavorka Man: Cage plays McDonagh like Richard Nixon mixed with Laurence Olivier's version of Richard III, yet he still has Eva Mendes and Fairuza Balk falling all over themselves to get him into bed.
 * Killer Cop:
 * Mushroom Samba: "What are these fucking iguanas doing on my coffee table?"
 * My Girl Is a Slut: See Hooker with a Heart of Gold.
 * The Oner: When arresting a suspect who's holed up in his house, McDonaugh orders his unit to keep their guns trained on the front door. Then the camera follows him as he circles around through the neighbor's adjacent house, enters through the back door, puts his gun right against the back of the suspect's head, and marches him out right through the front door.
 * Police Brutality: McDonagh loves to stick his Hand Cannon in people's faces and there's a scene where he in order to get her nurse to talk.
 * Quick Nip: McDonagh does this all the time. At one point, he lights up a joint while interviewing a suspect...with half his squad standing just behind the door.
 * Rabid Cop: Stevie. McDonagh starts turning into one over the course of the film.
 * Screw the Rules, I Make Them: McDonagh's operating principle. Things get hairy when he starts abusing people whose relatives can say Screw the Rules, I Have Connections
 * The "The" Title Confusion
 * Title Drop: A partial example, or an entire one if you go by the film's original title.

McDonaugh: Port of call still New Orleans."


 * A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: All of McDonagh's problems stem from his impulsive nature: his back problem, his drug addiction, his gambling debts, losing his key witness, being placed on modified assignment, having gangsters out trying to kill him, etc. None of these things would have happened to him if he had any sort of control over his own behavior.
 * Unishment: McDonagh's punishment for using excessive force against ? He's temporarily reassigned to the evidence room, which just allows him to steal whatever drugs he likes without having to go looking for addicts to rob.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: McDonagh starts playing this toward the end of the movie. Especially impressive, since he was high on at least three different controlled substances at the time.