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If you saw the trailer for Nicolas Cage Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans back in 2009 and thought it looked like a straight-to-DVD bargain bin disaster, nobody could blame you. Honestly, even the title is a mouthful. It sounds like a legal compromise made in a boardroom—which, funnily enough, is exactly what it was. But if you actually sit down and watch this thing, you realize you aren't looking at a generic cop thriller. You’re looking at one of the most unhinged, beautiful, and deeply weird collaborations in cinema history.
Werner Herzog, a German director known for filming on the side of active volcanoes and dragging steamships over mountains, teamed up with Nicolas Cage, a man whose acting style can only be described as "Nouveau Shamanic."
The result? A fever dream set in a post-Katrina New Orleans that feels less like a movie and more like a hallucinogenic episode.
The "Remake" That Wasn't
Let’s clear something up right away. People kept calling this a remake of the 1992 Abel Ferrara film starring Harvey Keitel. Ferrara was famously livid about it. He reportedly said he wished everyone involved would "die in hell."
Herzog, in classic Herzog fashion, claimed he had never even seen the original. He didn't even want the "Bad Lieutenant" title. He wanted to call it Port of Call New Orleans, but the producers insisted on keeping the brand name. They compromised by smashing the two titles together into the clunky mess we have today.
While Keitel’s version is a grim, soul-crushing dive into Catholic guilt and genuine depravity, Cage’s version is... well, it’s a comedy. Or at least, it’s a tragedy that’s so absurd it becomes hilarious. Cage plays Terence McDonagh, a detective who starts the movie by saving a prisoner from drowning during the flood. He ruins his back in the process, gets a medal, and spends the rest of the movie snorting every white powder in Louisiana to manage the pain.
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Why Nicolas Cage Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans Still Works
The plot is basically a standard police procedural about a murdered family of Senegalese immigrants. But the plot doesn't matter. What matters is that Terence McDonagh is slowly losing his mind.
Cage plays this role with a hunched shoulder—a physical manifestation of his back injury—that makes him look like a predatory bird. He’s sweaty. He’s bug-eyed. He’s carrying a massive .44 Magnum in his waistband like it’s a secondary limb.
The Iguanas and the Breakdancing Soul
Most directors would try to ground a story about a corrupt cop. Herzog does the opposite. There’s a famous scene where McDonagh is high on coke and starts hallucinating iguanas on a coffee table.
Instead of a quick "drug vision" shot, Herzog lingers on the iguanas for what feels like an eternity while a blues song plays. He even used a special "lizard-cam" to get their perspective. It’s a total detour that adds nothing to the mystery but everything to the vibe.
And then there’s the soul scene. After a gangster is shot, McDonagh looks at the corpse and yells, "Shoot him again... his soul is still dancing!"
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We then see a breakdancer (representing the soul) spinning on the floor while the camera pans to Cage's manic, grinning face. It is absolute cinema. It’s the kind of moment that makes you realize why this movie has a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes despite being so "bad" on paper.
The Realistic Decay of New Orleans
While the performances are over-the-top, the setting isn't. Shot just a few years after Katrina, the movie captures a New Orleans that feels damp, moldy, and exhausted.
There are no postcard shots of the French Quarter here. Instead, we get:
- Flooded basements and peeling wallpaper.
- Gray, overcast skies that feel heavy with humidity.
- A sense of lawlessness where the cops are just as desperate as the criminals.
- The "Silver Cloud" pharmacy, where McDonagh has his most iconic meltdown.
The city isn't just a backdrop; it’s a character that justifies McDonagh’s nihilism. If the world is already broken, why not take another hit of crack and see where the night goes?
Behind the Numbers: A Box Office Flop?
Financially, the movie was a bit of a disaster. It had a budget of about $25 million and only made around $1.7 million at the domestic box office. Worldwide, it barely scraped past $12 million.
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But looking at box office numbers for a Herzog/Cage movie is like checking the nutritional value of a bottle of absinthe. You don't do it for the profit; you do it for the experience.
Critics like Roger Ebert loved it, giving it four stars and calling it "acting with every nerve, sinew and cell." It’s a performance that reminded people that when Nicolas Cage is "on," there is nobody better. He isn't just "chewing the scenery"; he’s digesting it and spitting it back out as art.
How to Watch It Today
If you’re going to dive into Nicolas Cage Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans, you have to leave your expectations of a "normal" movie at the door.
- Don't look for a moral. There isn't one. The movie ends in a way that is so bizarrely "happy" it feels like a middle finger to traditional storytelling.
- Watch it as a black comedy. If you try to take it as a serious drama, you’ll be confused. If you laugh when Cage threatens two old ladies with a gun while looking for "the g-code," you’re watching it correctly.
- Pay attention to the animals. The iguanas, the alligators, the fish in the tank. Herzog uses them to show that nature is just as weird and indifferent as the humans in the film.
This movie is the ultimate "cult classic." It’s for the people who want their crime thrillers served with a side of surrealism and a heavy dose of Cage-fueled adrenaline. It shouldn't exist, it shouldn't work, and yet, somehow, it’s one of the best things either man has ever made.
If you want to understand the modern "Cage-aissance," you have to start here. It’s the bridge between his Oscar-winning Leaving Las Vegas days and the "uncaged" energy of his recent work like Mandy or The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Go find a copy, turn off your "logic" brain, and enjoy the ride through the swamp.